Philadelphia's own design campus ranks near the bottom of its list, and the best options sit across a state line. Among game design schools in Philadelphia, the strongest is University of Delaware at 11 of 89, 40 miles from the center and technically inside the metro, while the one program in the city itself, at Drexel University, ranks 72 of 82 for animation. Wilmington University, 33 miles out in New Castle, is also inside the metro, and three more game programs lie just outside it.
Kevin ToFounder & EditorB.S. in Computer Science, Temple UniversityUpdated
1Game Program Within 25 Milesgame design, programming, simulation and animation, all levelsIPEDS locations
10Game Programs Within 50 Milesat 8 collegesIPEDS locations
5Ranked Game Design Bachelor's Programs Nearbyranked, within 50 miles; plus 2 animationOur ranking
University of Delaware leads the metro at 76.0.4 ranked programs sit inside the Philadelphia, Camden and Wilmington metro. It beats the ranking's medians on both counts: 82% of its students finish, against 59%, and aided first-year students pay $17,716, against $26,150.The Ranking ›
Software developers earn $133,040 here.The U.S. median for the same job is $135,980. About 28,480 people work as software developers in the metro, close to the national share. Pay for web and digital interface designers, where bls counts game designers, in Philadelphia sits close to the national median: $104,840 against $104,000.Pay ›
472 software and game publishers in the metro.Concentration 0.87, where 1.00 matches the U.S. Those publishers employ 17,986 people. The metro also has 1,765 custom programming studios and 206 film, video and animation production companies.Employers ›
In-state tuition starts at $6,360.4 public colleges nearby offer a game-related program. The highest in-state tuition nearby is $14,600, so where you enroll changes the bill a lot.Costs ›
A one-bedroom rents for $1,353 a month.The U.S. median one-bedroom is $1,301. Median rent in the Philadelphia, Camden and Wilmington metro is $1,567 a month, close to the U.S. median of $1,487. The lowest on-campus room and board nearby is $13,116 a year at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.Living Costs ›
Ranked in Philadelphia
The Best Game Design Schools in Philadelphia, PA for 2027
Four ranked programs sit inside the metro, at three schools. University of Delaware leads with a score of 75.9, 82% school-wide completion and a net price of $17,716, but it graduates just 4 students a year in game and interactive media design, so it's a small program at a large school. Wilmington University (New Castle, 33 miles out) is a game programming program at 20 of 89 with a score of 72.2 and 12 graduates a year, plus animation at 30 of 82 with 5, and its net price is $14,267. Drexel University, 5 miles from the center, scores 45.2 with 16 graduates a year and a net price of $42,342.
Drexel is the only ranked program in the city itself and the lowest-ranked on this list, a reminder that proximity and rank rarely line up in this metro. A student who wants to stay in the city should weigh Drexel's larger cohort against its price.
Game design, game programming, simulation and animation programs are all scored the same way, on completion, net price and program size. On each card, completion is the school's 8-year award rate and net price its average for aided first-year students, both from IPEDS; grads a year is the program's own average, 2022 to 2024. Miles are straight-line from central Philadelphia.
Newark, DE · Public · Game design program · 40 miles
76.0
#11 of 89 nationally
40 miles from Philadelphia
Highest completion in Philadelphia
Public
Newark, Delaware is 40 miles from Philadelphia, a manageable distance for a metro student who wants a suburban campus. The University of Delaware offers a B.A. in Game Studies and Esports whose core spans game development, writing, art and design, and esport management.
The school has the highest completion among those near Philadelphia: 82% of entering students graduate within eight years, school-wide. Aided first-years pay a net price of $17,716, though out-of-state tuition is $39,190 compared with $14,600 for residents. Students finish with a capstone and an internship, and about four graduate from the program each year. Graduate programs the department lists include game development and studies and interactive entertainment. Earnings ten years after entry average $72,950 across all majors school-wide.
New Castle, DE · Private nonprofit · Game programming program · 33 miles
72.2
#20 of 89 nationally
33 miles from Philadelphia
Lowest net price in Philadelphia
Net price earns full cost points
Technical track: game programming
Private
The campus is in suburban New Castle, Delaware, about 33 miles from Philadelphia, which makes it a realistic commute or a short move for a student from that metro. Classes run days, evenings or weekends, and the degree can also be taken online, so a Philadelphia resident can mix travel with remote study.
Tuition is $12,570 and does not change by residency, which helps a Pennsylvania student crossing the state line. The program combines interactive design, 3D modeling, graphic design, video production and programming, with concentrations in Game Art Production and Interactive Programming. Net price is $14,267 for aided first-years. About 12 students complete the degree each year. Net price is $14,267 for aided first-years across the university, and the degree can be finished faster by transferring credits.
New Castle, DE · Private nonprofit · Animation program · 33 miles
67.9
#30 of 82 in animation
33 miles from Philadelphia
Net price earns full cost points
Animation
Private
Wilmington University's B.S. in Animation and 3D is offered fully online, so the 33 miles between New Castle and Philadelphia matter less than usual. The core covers hand-drawn animation, digital 2D animation, 3D sculpting and 3D animation, with graphic design, compositing and sound added. Students work in Toon Boom Harmony and SideFX Houdini and finish with a professional portfolio.
Cost is a strength. The program runs 40 courses and 120 credits at $1,317 per typical 3-credit course, and school-wide net price for aided first-years is $14,267. The university enrolls 13,746 students, 48% complete within eight years, and earnings ten years after enrollment average $53,844 across all majors. About 5 students a year graduate from the program, which sits on a suburban campus in New Castle.
Philadelphia, PA · Private nonprofit · Animation program · 5 miles
45.3
#72 of 82 in animation
5 miles from Philadelphia
Largest program in Philadelphia
Animation
Private
Drexel's B.S. in Animation & Visual Effects is based in a city campus in Philadelphia, 5 miles from the center of town, and graduates about 16 students a year. Drexel is a large private university, so the animation majors share the campus with 21,153 students across all fields.
Living in Philadelphia means taking on a high sticker price. Published tuition is $60,042 and the cost of attendance before aid is $83,708, though school-wide net price for aided first-years is $42,342. The payoff side is strong for the university as a whole: earnings ten years after enrollment average $84,648 across all majors, and 73% of students complete a degree within eight years. Drexel admits 79% of applicants, and the SAT midpoint is 1340.
The rest of the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro and the nearby areas are covered on the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland pages.
StatePennsylvania5 ranked game bachelor's · 10 programs in allView the Pennsylvania guide ›
Also in the metroNew Jersey1 ranked game bachelor's · 14 programs in allView the New Jersey guide ›
Also in the metroDelaware2 ranked game bachelor's · 3 programs in allView the Delaware guide ›
Also in the metroMaryland2 ranked game bachelor's · 7 programs in allView the Maryland guide ›
More ways in
Other Game Programs in Philadelphia
One more program inside the Philadelphia, Camden and Wilmington metro offers a way into game work without a ranked bachelor's. These associate, graduate and certificate programs aren't in the bachelor's ranking, so they carry no score. Grads a year is the program's IPEDS average, 2022 to 2024, and admission is the college's fall 2024 rate (College Scorecard).
Philadelphia game pay sits near the national figures. Software developers, the group that holds game programmers, have a median of $133,040 here, $2,940 below the national figure and $6,490 above Pennsylvania's. Computer programmers do better against their state: $101,420 puts them $12,240 ahead of the state median.
Graphic designersWhere many art and UI graduates start
$63,090
$50,920–$81,330$51k–$81k$50,920 to $81,330
3,360
$60,730
$62,960
Computer programmersProgramming roles outside software development
$101,420
$80,660–$134,710$81k–$135k$80,660 to $134,710
1,770
$89,180
$100,390
Art directorsSenior art leads; rarely a first job
$105,260
$80,850–$123,100$81k–$123k$80,850 to $123,100
780
$97,450
$114,850
Annual wages, BLS OEWS May 2025, for the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metropolitan area. The middle half earns between the 25th and 75th percentile.
The artist side is where the metro lags. Special effects artists and animators, the occupation counting game animators and 3D artists, earn $76,770, which is $25,260 below the national median though $5,010 above the state. Web and digital interface designers, where game designers and UI designers are counted, earn $104,840. Graphic designers earn $63,090 and art directors $105,260.
The price level sits at 102.6 where 100 is the national average, and housing reads 113.1, so an animator's $76,770 is stretched by rent.
About 28,480 people work as software developers in the Philadelphia, Camden and Wilmington metro, close to the national share. Pay for web and digital interface designers, where bls counts game designers, in Philadelphia sits close to the national median: $104,840 against $104,000. BEA's index puts prices in the Philadelphia, Camden and Wilmington metro near the U.S. average, at 102.6.
Philadelphia sits just under the national line for game-adjacent work rather than standing out. Census files game studios under software publishers, since it doesn't count them as their own industry, and that category comes in at 87% of the national concentration. Custom programming studios, the contract and co-development shops, sit at 98% of the national concentration with 1,765 businesses, far more than the 472 software publishers.
Industry
What it covers
Businesses
Employees
Concentration
Software and game publishers
Software publishers (game publishers and studios are filed here)
472
17,986
0.87
Custom programming studios
Custom computer programming services (contract and co-development studios)
1,765
20,385
0.98
Film, video and animation production
Motion picture and video production (animation and VFX studios)
206
1,320
0.40
Graphic design firms
Graphic design services
290
1,070
1.06
Establishments and March payroll employees in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro, County Business Patterns 2023. Concentration is the industry's share of metro employees divided by its share nationally: 1.00 matches the U.S., 2.00 is twice as concentrated.
The creative side is thinner. Film, video and animation production runs at 40% of the national concentration, and special effects artists and animators are less common in the metro than nationally. Software developers and graphic designers are also less common than the U.S. average, while computer programmers are more common, at 0.61 jobs per 1,000. Graphic design firms are the one industry above the national line, at 1.1 times the national concentration.
A few local developers exist. Expect your first job to be programming-heavy, with animation roles more likely to mean remote work or a move.
How Common Game-Adjacent Jobs Are in Philadelphia
Occupation
Jobs per 1,000
Location quotient
Software developers
9.83
0.91
Web and digital interface designers
0.49
0.67
Special effects artists and animators
0.03
0.27
Graphic designers
1.16
0.91
Computer programmers
0.61
1.03
Art directors
0.27
0.79
BLS OEWS May 2025. Jobs per 1,000 of all metro jobs; a location quotient above 1.00 means the occupation is more common in the metro than nationally.
Talent pipeline
How Many Game Graduates Philadelphia Produces
Inside the Philadelphia metro, game-related programs graduate 52 people a year, a ratio of 0.2% to the 30,000 core jobs. Drexel University leads with 16 in animation and related fields, the community college in Burlington County adds 16 at the associate level, and Wilmington University follows with 12 in game programming. Within 50 miles the total is 96 a year, 62 of them with bachelor's degrees, but Rider University's 16 sit 28 miles out, beyond the metro.
The 10 largest game-related programs within 50 miles of central Philadelphia by graduates a year, IPEDS completions averaged 2022 to 2024:
Read that 0.2% as a rough sense of scale, not a hiring forecast. Most of those 30,000 core jobs are in ordinary software and web work, not games, and graduates don't stay put: some leave for other cities, and some jobs get filled by people from other fields. The small number does suggest you won't be competing with a flood of local classmates, though.
Cost near Philadelphia
Paying for School in Philadelphia
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 49 miles out, charges $7,716 in-state and $12,590 out-of-state with a net price of $21,856, and it's the only Pennsylvania public on the list. The rest are across the river or the state line: University of Delaware charges $14,600 in-state and $39,190 out-of-state, so a Pennsylvanian pays the higher rate there, a premium of $24,590.
The public colleges within 50 miles that offer a game-related program. Tuition is the published undergraduate rate for 2023-24 (IPEDS IC), before aid; net price is the school-wide average for aided first-year students, 2022-23 (IPEDS SFA).
The New Jersey community colleges are inexpensive: Mercer County Community College is $6,360 and $7,728, and Raritan Valley Community College is $6,384 for everyone. Pennsylvania's grant is the Pennsylvania State Grant, run by the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, so check whether you can use it at a school outside the state. There's no undergraduate regional tuition exchange in this area.
State Aid in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania's main need program for undergraduates is the Pennsylvania State Grant, run by the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency. In its own words: "The Pennsylvania State Grant is the largest grant program in the state." The Pennsylvania page covers state aid and public college costs in more detail.
Tuition Exchanges
SREB’s FAQ says residents of its affiliates, Pennsylvania among them, "are not eligible to participate in" the Academic Common Market.
State line
Studying Across the State Line From Philadelphia
The Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro spans Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, so a public college a short drive away can charge you nonresident tuition. 3 of the public colleges listed above are across the line from Pennsylvania.
State
In-state tuition
Nonresident tuition
Gap
Pennsylvania
$13,068
$22,471
$9,403
New Jersey
$14,443
$24,904
$10,461
Delaware
$9,053
$22,533
$13,480
Maryland
$7,730
$22,763
$15,033
Average published undergraduate tuition at each state's public four-year colleges, 2023-24 (IPEDS IC).
No single regional tuition exchange covers all of these states, so expect the nonresident rate across the line unless a college offers its own discount.
Living costs
Living in Philadelphia as a Student
Rent here is close to the national figure. The metro median is $1,567 against $1,487 for the U.S., which is $80 above the U.S. median. A one-bedroom runs $1,353 a month, or $16,236 over twelve months. If you split a two-bedroom at $1,677 with a roommate, your share is $839. Overall prices land at 102.6 on a scale where 100 is the national average, with housing at 113.1.
Monthly rent
Philadelphia, Camden and Wilmington metro
U.S.
All rentals, median
$1,567
$1,487
One bedroom, median
$1,353
$1,301
Two bedrooms, median
$1,677
$1,490
Median gross rent (rent plus utilities the tenant pays), American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates, tables B25064 and B25031.
On-campus room and board ranges from $13,116 at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania to $17,550 at Drexel University, with the University of Delaware at $14,838 in between. Several of the closest options won't house you at all, among them the community colleges on the list and Wilmington University, so budget for renting.
Median rent in the Philadelphia, Camden and Wilmington metro is $1,567 a month, close to the U.S. median of $1,487.
Each college's own yearly estimates for a full-time undergraduate, 2023-24 (IPEDS IC). Off-campus is for a student not living with family.
How to Choose a Game Design Program in Philadelphia
Think about what you want to build. Five ranked game programs sit within 50 miles, and three of them are counted under programming or simulation. University of Delaware, plus Albright College, are game and interactive media design. Two ranked animation programs cover the art side, so if you want to draw characters, those are the options.
Public or private comes down to state lines. A Pennsylvania resident at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania pays less than at Drexel University ($42,342 net) or Rider University ($26,618 net). A Delaware resident has the opposite advantage at University of Delaware, whose in-state rate is $14,600 and whose net price is $17,716.
Commuting is possible only for Drexel University, 5 miles from the center, straight-line. Every other ranked option needs a move or a long drive. Local developers are places to ask about internships.
Admission is rarely the hard part here: 1 of the 3 colleges on this page admits anyone with a high school diploma, and among the rest fall 2024 admission ran from 71% at University of Delaware to 79% at Drexel University. None requires SAT or ACT scores.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Game Design School Near Philadelphia Is Ranked Highest?
University of Delaware is the top-ranked game design school in Philadelphia, scoring 76.0 and ranked 11 of 89 nationally. It beats the ranking's medians on both counts: 82% of its students finish, against 59%, and aided first-year students pay $17,716, against $26,150. It is small, about 4 graduates a year, which can mean closer faculty contact but fewer electives each term. Wilmington University is next at 72.2, one of 4 ranked programs in the metro. The cheapest ranked option in the metro is Wilmington University at $14,267, with 48% completion. See the ranked programs.
How Much Do Game Developers Earn in the Philadelphia Area?
Software developers, the BLS occupation that counts game programmers, earn a median of $133,040 in the Philadelphia, Camden and Wilmington metro, against $135,980 nationally (BLS May 2025). Pay for web and digital interface designers, where game designers are counted, in the Philadelphia, Camden and Wilmington metro sits close to the national median: $104,840 against $104,000. BEA's index puts prices in the Philadelphia, Camden and Wilmington metro near the U.S. average, at 102.6. See what game jobs pay in Philadelphia.
Is In-State Tuition Cheaper at Kutztown or Delaware for a Pennsylvania Student?
In-state tuition at public colleges near Philadelphia starts at $7,716 a year, at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. Nonresidents pay $12,590 at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. 4 public colleges within 50 miles offer a game-related program, and private colleges charge every student the same tuition. After grants, Mercer County Community College has the lowest average net price nearby, $5,333, under the $13,240 public average in the median state. See paying for school in Philadelphia.
How Far Is Drexel University From the Center of Philadelphia?
Drexel University has an average net price of $42,342 a year for aided first-year students (IPEDS), the price after grants rather than the published one. Published tuition is $60,042 for every student, in state or not. It is 5 miles from central Philadelphia, with a school-wide completion rate of 73%. About 16 students a year graduate from it, a mid-sized program by the ranking's standards. See the ranked programs.
How Much Is Rent in Philadelphia for a College Student?
Median rent in the Philadelphia, Camden and Wilmington metro was $1,567 a month in 2024, $80 above the U.S. median of $1,487 (Census ACS). A one-bedroom runs $1,353. On-campus room and board at nearby colleges starts at $13,116 a year at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, which bundles meals and avoids a lease. Housing is the expensive part: BEA puts it at 113.1 against a U.S. average of 100. See living in Philadelphia as a student.
Is It Hard to Get Into a Game Design School Near Philadelphia?
Admission is rarely the hard part here: 1 of the 3 colleges on this page admits anyone with a high school diploma, and among the rest fall 2024 admission ran from 71% at University of Delaware to 79% at Drexel University. None requires SAT or ACT scores. Starting at an open-admission college and transferring after two years is the most reliable way in. The nearest open-admission option is Wilmington University, 33 miles from central Philadelphia. Each program card shows its college's admission rate where one is reported. See how to choose a program.
Keep exploring
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2NCES, IPEDS Outcome Measures 2023 The completion factor: the share of all entering students, full-time, part-time and transfer, who earned an award within eight years. School-wide.
