Hello, for the longest time ive wanted to be doing somthing with video games and wanted to go for college for it. it has come for the time in my life where i need to choose where i sould go and how i sold get ther. ive looked into the tv colleges for game design and they just dont seem right. so im woundering what would be a good 4 year college or good degree to shoot for if i wanted to prosue a degree in game design most importantly in charcter and level design. just to give a little back round info i live in ariazona and right now i design and build and script alot on a game called second life. well thanks for the info ahead of time and ask me any questions that would help you guys lead me in the right derection. joshcereal

well i kinda wanna do the visual and the ai of characters so is ther a good school that would provide the art and programming part charcter and lvl design

As Palidine said, at big companies, you'll either be hired for your artistic talent, or for your programming skills - rarely for both.

The only places where one person can design games, draw the art, and implement the code is either on hobby projects, or at very small studios where hiring a jack-of-all-trades can save precious cash.

If you're doing art and/or programming, the key to success is to practice outside of your studies.

If you want to learn programming, do a comp-sci degree.

I'm not sure what's the best approach for art - many of the artists I know don't have college degrees...
A character artist from Epic said to take up sketching/life-drawing and do it often - go to the park and do really quick sketches of random people - so that you get good at quickly being able to convey ideas/concepts. You'll also need strong foundations in classical art theory (whatever that is - I'm a coder...)

You have to be very careful how you approach your chosen industry field these days, Hodgman's advice is spot on. Decide ahead of time what kind of studio you'd like to work in - either a huge AAA studio or a small casual/indie studio. Note that this decision may be made for you based on your location and ability to travel. If you want huge AAA, do not do anything but one thing. There are so many people and the job positions are so specific that you're battling against people who have poured all their effort into one specific discipline. If you're looking for smaller companies, broadening your skill set is a more beneficial endeavor since fewer team members means more shared responsibility. Can you get into a AAA studio with broad talent? Yes, after about 3-5 years of industry experience to back up your skillset.