If you're searching for game design schools in San Francisco, the choice inside the city comes down to two private art schools, both within 3 miles of downtown. Their game-related programs land at 87 of 89 (California College of the Arts) and 82 of 89 (Academy of Art University). The best game design score in reach belongs to University of California-Santa Cruz, 57 miles out at 89.5. Bay Area pay runs high, and so do prices, with a housing level of 194.7 against a national 100.
Kevin ToFounder & EditorB.S. in Computer Science, Temple UniversityUpdated
13Game Programs Within 25 Milesgame design, programming, simulation and animation, all levelsIPEDS locations
17Game Programs Within 50 Milesat 8 collegesIPEDS locations
3Ranked Game Design Bachelor's Programs Nearbyranked, within 50 miles; plus 3 animationOur ranking
California College of the Arts leads the metro at 48.6.4 ranked programs sit inside the San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont metro. Completion is a strength at 72%, above the 59% median, but its $49,945 net price is $23,795 more than the median ranked program's.The Ranking ›
Software developers earn $186,640 here.The U.S. median for the same job is $135,980. About 69,030 people work as software developers in the metro, a heavier concentration than the country as a whole (location quotient 2.68). Web and digital interface designers, where BLS counts game designers, earn $163,810 in San Francisco, 58% more than the $104,000 national median.Pay ›
1,504 software and game publishers in the metro.Concentration 6.42, where 1.00 matches the U.S. Those publishers employ 112,237 people. The metro also has 2,959 custom programming studios and 354 film, video and animation production companies.Employers ›
In-state tuition starts at $1,104.5 public colleges nearby offer a game-related program. The highest in-state tuition nearby is $1,380, so where you enroll changes the bill a lot.Costs ›
A one-bedroom rents for $2,180 a month.The U.S. median one-bedroom is $1,301. Rent is the big cost in the San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont metro: the median is $2,435 a month, $948 over the U.S. median. The lowest on-campus room and board nearby is $19,142 a year at University of Silicon Valley.Living Costs ›
Ranked in San Francisco
The Best Game Design Schools in San Francisco, CA for 2027
Four ranked programs sit inside the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro, and they belong to just two schools. California College of the Arts is a private nonprofit 2 miles from the city center. Its game and interactive media design program ranks 87 of 89, scoring 34.4, and graduates 2 students a year, while its animation program ranks 66 of 82 at 48.6, with 49 graduates a year. Published tuition runs $59,376, and students pay a school-wide net price of $49,945.
Academy of Art University is a private for-profit campus 3 miles out. Its modeling, virtual environments and simulation program ranks 82 of 89 at 39.9 and graduates 50 a year, and its animation program ranks 79 of 82 at 40.0 with 76 graduates a year. Tuition runs $29,736 and the school-wide net price comes to $36,591, but the school-wide completion rate is 26%, compared with 72% at the nonprofit art school across town. Weigh that gap before you sign anything.
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 San Francisco.
San Francisco, CA · Private nonprofit · Animation program · 2 miles
48.6
#66 of 82 in animation
2 miles from San Francisco
Highest completion in San Francisco
Animation
Private
Studios at CCA, 2 miles from San Francisco, include 27-inch iMac workstations, Wacom Cintiq displays, light tables, Dragonframe, TVPaint, Toon Boom Harmony and Storyboard Pro, plus stop-motion suites, a Foley room, a soundbooth and the latest Autodesk Maya and Mudbox. Faculty include artists who have worked on animation teams at DreamWorks, Pixar and Tippett, and the animation chair also leads the BFA in Game Arts and Design.
Roughly 49 students a year graduate from the animation BFA. Completion across the college is 72% within eight years. Published tuition is $59,376, school-wide net price for aided first-years is $49,945, and cost of attendance before aid is $87,623. Enrollment is 1,308 students, and 91% of applicants are admitted. Earnings ten years after enrollment average $49,414 across all majors, a school-wide figure covering every field of study.
San Francisco, CA · Private for-profit · Animation program · 3 miles
40.0
#79 of 82 in animation
3 miles from San Francisco
Lowest net price in San Francisco
Largest program in San Francisco
Animation
Private
In San Francisco, 3 miles from the city center, Academy of Art University runs its animation degree as a private for-profit school with a big cohort, about 76 graduates a year. The curriculum starts with Analysis of Form drawing and Color Fundamentals, adds Introduction to Computer Graphics for Animation and a cinematics course in which students board, shoot and edit a film, and ends with a portfolio reel course covering resume, presentation and reel packaging.
Net price school-wide for aided first-years is $36,591, with published tuition of $29,736 and a $67,777 cost of attendance. The academy enrolls 5,498 students. Across the school, 26% complete within eight years, and earnings ten years after enrollment average $39,008 across all majors, so the aid-adjusted price needs to be weighed carefully against outcomes.
San Francisco, CA · Private for-profit · Simulation program · 3 miles
39.9
#82 of 89 nationally
3 miles from San Francisco
Technical track: simulation
Private
The campus is in San Francisco, about 3 miles from the center, so students can live in the city or commute, and the Game Design BFA can also be completed online. The program sits in the School of Game Development and teaches 3D modeling, animation and lighting alongside game engine technology and pre-production and production environments.
Tuition is $29,736. Cost of attendance before aid is $67,777 school-wide, and aided first-years pay a net price of $36,591. About 50 students graduate from this program a year. Across the university, 26% of entering students finish within eight years, and graduates of all majors earn $39,008 ten years after enrolling. Enrollment across the university is 5,498, and the school lists a cost of attendance of $67,777 before aid, so aid decides what a local family actually pays.
San Francisco, CA · Private nonprofit · Game design program · 2 miles
34.4
#87 of 89 nationally
2 miles from San Francisco
Private
The campus sits inside San Francisco, only 2 miles from the city, and California College of the Arts describes its location as centrally placed for the game industry. The BFA in Game Arts & Design is fine-arts focused, with students learning to develop an artistic practice that keeps changing through creativity and curiosity.
Living in the city is costly, and the school-wide cost of attendance is $87,623 before aid. Published tuition is $59,376, and the net price for aided first-years is $49,945. Across the college, 1,308 students attend, and 72% of entering students graduate within eight years. Graduates of the program number about two a year, and many projects are team-built, including senior thesis games. Faculty who work in the industry and the arts help students make connections with large game studios.
The rest of the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA metro and the nearby areas are covered on the California page.
StateCalifornia11 ranked game bachelor's · 78 programs in allView the California guide ›
More ways in
Other Game Programs in San Francisco
11 more programs inside the San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont metro offer 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).
Game jobs pay more in San Francisco than almost anywhere else you could study. Software developers, the category that counts game programmers and engine developers, sit at a metro median of $186,640. That beats the California median by $12,230 and the national median by $50,660. Web and digital interface designers, where game designers and UI designers are counted, earn $163,810, or $27,700 above the state and $59,810 above the nation.
Graphic designersWhere many art and UI graduates start
$92,050
$68,680–$115,940$69k–$116k$68,680 to $115,940
3,870
$75,130
$62,960
Computer programmersProgramming roles outside software development
$130,730
$77,710–$166,830$78k–$167k$77,710 to $166,830
2,440
$116,760
$100,390
Art directorsSenior art leads; rarely a first job
$165,210
$122,350–$208,960$122k–$209k$122,350 to $208,960
2,390
$137,780
$114,850
Annual wages, BLS OEWS May 2025, for the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA metropolitan area. The middle half earns between the 25th and 75th percentile.
The art side is strong too. Special effects artists and animators earn $136,770 in the metro, with 1,440 people employed, and the figure sits $6,230 above the state median. Art directors reach $165,210, though that is a senior role and rarely a first job. Graphic designers, where many art graduates start, earn $92,050, and computer programmers earn $130,730.
Your rent eats into all of it. The metro price level is 115.6 and housing is 194.7, both measured against a national average of 100. A salary that looks huge on paper buys a smaller apartment than the same job would almost anywhere else.
About 69,030 people work as software developers in the San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont metro, a heavier concentration than the country as a whole (location quotient 2.68). Web and digital interface designers, where BLS counts game designers, earn $163,810 in San Francisco, 58% more than the $104,000 national median. Prices in the San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont metro run 15.6% above the U.S. average on BEA's index, which takes a bite out of both pay and a student budget.
This is a very strong place to be near the software side of games. Software and game publishers employ 112,237 people across 1,504 businesses, which is 6.4 times the national concentration. Contract and co-development shops, counted as custom programming, come in at 3.4 times the national concentration.
Industry
What it covers
Businesses
Employees
Concentration
Software and game publishers
Software publishers (game publishers and studios are filed here)
1,504
112,237
6.42
Custom programming studios
Custom computer programming services (contract and co-development studios)
2,959
58,995
3.37
Film, video and animation production
Motion picture and video production (animation and VFX studios)
354
3,503
1.28
Graphic design firms
Graphic design services
416
1,589
1.87
Establishments and March payroll employees in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA 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.
Game studios hide inside Census's software publisher category, so that first row is the closest stand-in for game employers. Film, video and animation production is much smaller, at 1.3 times the national concentration and only 3,503 employees.
On the occupation side, special effects artists and animators are the most concentrated at a location quotient of 4.71, followed by web and digital interface designers at 3.83 and art directors at 2.95. Software developers sit at 2.68. For artists that's a good sign, but plenty of those jobs are in tech products rather than games, so don't assume a studio seat.
How Common Game-Adjacent Jobs Are in San Francisco
Occupation
Jobs per 1,000
Location quotient
Software developers
29.08
2.68
Web and digital interface designers
2.79
3.83
Special effects artists and animators
0.60
4.71
Graphic designers
1.63
1.28
Computer programmers
1.03
1.73
Art directors
1.01
2.95
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 San Francisco Produces
Colleges within 50 miles of San Francisco turn out 429 game-related graduates a year at all levels, and 238 of those earn bachelor's degrees. The metro's own colleges supply 368 of them. The metro has 77,100 core jobs, so the metro ratio comes to 0.5%. Academy of Art University produces most of the volume, with four of the five biggest programs, led by 76 bachelor's graduates a year in animation and related fields.
The 10 largest game-related programs within 50 miles of central San Francisco by graduates a year, IPEDS completions averaged 2022 to 2024:
Don't read that 0.5% as a promise of work. Most of the core jobs are software developer and interface designer roles outside of games, and graduates don't all stay put. What the number does tell you is that the metro's own schools are small next to the size of the Bay Area job market.
Cost near San Francisco
Paying for School in San Francisco
Every public college within 50 miles is a California school, so the in-state price applies if you live here. Berkeley City College charges $1,104 in-state and $9,744 for out-of-state students, a premium of $8,640. College of Marin charges $1,380 and $8,820, Canada College $1,288 and $11,340, Diablo Valley College $1,288 and $10,296, and Ohlone College $1,104 and $8,616. School-wide net prices run from $3,845 at Canada College to $29,061 at College of Marin, the highest of the group.
The public colleges within 50 miles that offer a game-related program, all in California. 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).
California residents can apply for the Cal Grant through the California Student Aid Commission. The Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) is also listed for this area, which matters if you live in another western state and are weighing a public school. Compare either one against the $59,376 sticker at California College of the Arts before you assume a private school is out of reach.
State Aid in California
California's main need program for undergraduates is the Cal Grant, run by the California Student Aid Commission. In its own words: "Students attending a Cal Grant eligible institution and who meet eligibility criteria can qualify for the Cal Grant award." The California page covers state aid and public college costs in more detail.
Tuition Exchanges
California belongs to the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE). In the program's own words, "WUE enables eligible students to enroll as nonresidents in 170 participating public colleges and universities and pay 150% (or less) of the enrolling institution’s resident tuition."
Living costs
Living in San Francisco as a Student
Rent is the catch. The metro median gross rent is $2,435, which is $948 above the U.S. median of $1,487. A one-bedroom costs $2,180 monthly, so $26,160 across a year, against $1,301 for the U.S. one-bedroom. Housing prices across the metro sit at 194.7 against a national level of 100, so budget accordingly.
Monthly rent
San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont metro
U.S.
All rentals, median
$2,435
$1,487
One bedroom, median
$2,180
$1,301
Two bedrooms, median
$2,676
$1,490
Median gross rent (rent plus utilities the tenant pays), American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates, tables B25064 and B25031.
Most students solve this with a roommate, since a two-bedroom at $2,676 splits to $1,338 each. Three nearby colleges report on-campus room and board: University of Silicon Valley at $19,142, California College of the Arts at $21,165 and Academy of Art University at $23,746. The other five colleges have no campus housing, so you'd rent on the open market and plan for it from day one.
Rent is the big cost in the San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont metro: the median is $2,435 a month, $948 over the U.S. median.
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 San Francisco
Your options lean toward art. Of the ranked game programs within 50 miles, two are game design programs and one as modeling, virtual environments and simulation, and none of the three is public. Animation shows up in three more ranked programs. If you want to write code for engines, the closest match is the simulation program at Academy of Art University, and you should ask the school what it teaches before you rely on that label.
Public and private split by level here. Every ranked bachelor's option is private, while the public colleges on this page offer associate animation programs at a fraction of the price. One reasonable path is an associate degree at a place like Berkeley City College, then a bachelor's elsewhere. Another is paying California College of the Arts prices for the smaller, nonprofit program with the higher school-wide completion rate of 72%.
Both city campuses are 2 and 3 miles from the center, so you can live in San Francisco and commute, though those are straight-line miles and not a route. The industry is part of the case for staying. Being close to local game companies is useful when you look for internships, but it doesn't promise you one.
Admission is rarely the hard part here: 6 of the 7 colleges on this page admit anyone with a high school diploma; California College of the Arts admitted 91% of applicants for fall 2024. None requires SAT or ACT scores.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
What Are the Best Game Design Schools in San Francisco?
California College of the Arts is the top-ranked game design school in San Francisco, scoring 48.6 and ranked 87 of 89 nationally. Completion is a strength at 72%, above the 59% median, but its $49,945 net price is $23,795 more than the median ranked program's. With about 49 graduates a year, it is one of the larger programs in the ranking, so expect big cohorts and several sections of core courses. Academy of Art University is next at 40.0, one of 4 ranked programs in the metro. The cheapest ranked option in the metro is Academy of Art University at $36,591, with 26% completion. See the ranked programs.
How Much Do Game Developers Make in San Francisco?
Software developers, the BLS occupation that counts game programmers, earn a median of $186,640 in the San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont metro, against $135,980 nationally (BLS May 2025). Web and digital interface designers, where game designers are counted, earn $163,810 in the San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont metro, 58% more than the $104,000 national median. Prices in the San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont metro run 15.6% above the U.S. average on BEA's index, which takes a bite out of both pay and a student budget. See what game jobs pay in San Francisco.
What Does In-State Tuition Cost Near San Francisco?
In-state tuition at public colleges near San Francisco starts at $1,104 a year, at Berkeley City College, and runs up to $1,380 at College of Marin. Nonresidents pay $9,744 at Berkeley City College. 5 public colleges within 50 miles offer a game-related program, and private colleges charge every student the same tuition. After grants, Canada College has the lowest average net price nearby, $3,845, under the $13,240 public average in the median state. See paying for school in San Francisco.
How Far Are the Game Design Programs From Downtown San Francisco?
4 ranked programs sit inside the San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont metro, and 11 associate, graduate or certificate programs add other ways in. California College of the Arts scores highest, at 48.6. The top program is 2 miles from central San Francisco, close enough to commute if housing nearby is out of reach. 13 game-related programs sit within 25 miles of central San Francisco and 17 within 50, counting every level. The rest of the metro and the nearby areas are on the California page. See the ranked programs.
How Does Academy of Art University Rank for Game Design?
Academy of Art University is 3 miles from central San Francisco. Published tuition is $29,736 for every student, in state or not. It offers an animation program at the associate level that our ranking doesn't score. The program graduates about 13 students a year. It admits any high school graduate, so the program is open to you without an application contest. See the ranked programs.
How Much Is Rent Near Game Design Schools in San Francisco?
Median rent in the San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont metro was $2,435 a month in 2024, $948 above the U.S. median of $1,487 (Census ACS). A one-bedroom runs $2,180. On-campus room and board at nearby colleges starts at $19,142 a year at University of Silicon Valley, which bundles meals and avoids a lease. Housing is the expensive part: BEA puts it at 194.7 against a U.S. average of 100. See living in San Francisco as a student.
Are Game Design Schools in San Francisco Hard to Get Into?
Admission is rarely the hard part here: 6 of the 7 colleges on this page admit anyone with a high school diploma; California College of the Arts admitted 91% of applicants for fall 2024. 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 Academy of Art University, 3 miles from central San Francisco. Each program card shows its college's admission rate where one is reported. See how to choose a program.
Keep exploring
Related Pages
CitySan Jose, CA47 mi from San Francisco · 21 programs within 50 miles · 4 ranked game bachelor'sView the San Jose guide ›
CitySanta Cruz, CA59 mi from San Francisco · 10 programs within 50 miles · 2 ranked game bachelor'sView the Santa Cruz guide ›
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.
