Mathematics and Computer Game Design

So You Would Like To Design Video Games? There are actually programs and courses set up for designing video games. A Bachelor of Science in Computer Science degree is now offered at UC Santa Cruz. The program includes the mathematics:

MATH 19A: Calculus for Science, Engineering, and Mathematics
MATH 19B: Calculus for Science, Engineering, and Mathematics
MATH 21: Linear Algebra OR AMS 27/L Mathematical Methods for Engineers

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science - Games Track at Columbus State University requires two semesters of calculus plus one mathematics course beyond calculus.

Game Institute offers courses more for hobby-level game designers and even they recommend taking all possible high school algebra course work in math. In one of their courses they state: "This course combines key elements from the fields of geometry, trigonometry, and linear algebra, to give you insight into the mathematics used by all game developers when making realistic computer games."

A Professional Game Designer states: "I had to look up all these things and then model all of them with some sort of plausible formulae, because I couldn't implement the really good formulae in any reasonable amount of time. I had to do a bit of mathematics to justify the models - integrals for example, because I had a reasonable amount of probability. The rain is coming in at this angle - what's the distribution over the surface?"