Detroit, MI (population: 901,160) has two game design schools within its city limits. College for Creative Studies, the highest ranked school in the city with a game design program, has a total student population of 1,405. It is the 1959th highest ranked school in the USA and the 39th highest in the state of Michigan (#1 is Kalamazoo College). To learn more about game design programs in Detroit, ratemyprofessors.com has reviews of game design professors at College for Creative Studies such as Nelson Greer, Doug Kisor, Ken Krayer, Susan Laporte, Kathleen McShane-Bolton, and Sandra Sabbagh.
Game Design students from Detroit schools who go on to become video game engineers, game designers, video game designers, game developers, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 495,500 people working as computer software engineers, applications alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $90,170. Also, Computer software engineers, systems software make on average $96,620 per year and there are about 385,200 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn Metropolitan area alone, there are 1,380 employed computer software engineers, systems software earning an average salary of $82,800. Computer software engineers, applications in this area earn $86,070/yr and there are 2,110 employed.
Detroit lies in Wayne county, which is one of the 62 counties in Michigan. Overall, the Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn Metropolitan area has 705,820 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1.4% unemployment rate, $22.55/hr average worker wage, and a $46,900 average annual salary. Thus, about 2.987 out of every 1000 jobs in Detroit are held by computer software engineers, applications, and 1.956/1000 are held by computer software engineers, systems software.
Of the 2 game design schools in Detroit, none have a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, College for Creative Studies comes out as the most expensive ($28,628/yr) for game design students, with Marygrove College as the lowest, reported at only $9,595/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Detroit |
| Ferndale | MI | - | 1 | 11.6923 | 4 | 5.8 miles |
| Madison Heights | MI | - | 2 | 27.3656 | 17 | 7.3 miles |
| Dearborn | MI | 82,453 | 3 | 34.0016 | 184 | 7.4 miles |
| Warren | MI | 133,470 | 6 | 23.1927 | 131 | 8.4 miles |
| Royal Oak | MI | 56,742 | 1 | 28.1635 | 4 | 9.3 miles |
| Dearborn Heights | MI | 49,619 | 0 | - | 0 | 9.4 miles |
| Southfield | MI | 75,151 | 8 | 20.9451 | 96 | 10.7 miles |
| Saint Clair Shores | MI | 59,971 | 1 | 11.5792 | 3 | 13.1 miles |
| Taylor | MI | 58,134 | 1 | 26.0382 | 3 | 13.5 miles |
| Sterling Heights | MI | 127,075 | 1 | 28.9156 | 3 | 14.3 miles |
| Westland | MI | 75,634 | 1 | 16.8264 | 4 | 14.9 miles |
| Farmington Hills | MI | 78,114 | 1 | 0.013626 | 0 | 16.2 miles |
| Bloomfield Township | MI | 41,179 | 0 | - | 0 | 16.3 miles |
| Clinton Township | MI | - | 2 | 7.68254 | 63 | 17.0 miles |
| West Bloomfield Township | MI | 71,474 | 0 | - | 0 | 19.4 miles |
| Canton | MI | 94,521 | 12 | 27.6578 | 316 | 20.0 miles |
| Rochester Hills | MI | 68,883 | 1 | 23.9536 | 51 | 20.3 miles |
| Novi | MI | 54,922 | 1 | 10.8219 | 16 | 21.1 miles |
| Auburn Hills | MI | - | 2 | 5.8467 | 61 | 22.3 miles |
| Waterford | MI | 75,011 | 1 | 16.3502 | 6 | 24.4 miles |
| Ann Arbor | MI | 113,880 | 5 | 27.5859 | 183 | 33.0 miles |
| Port Huron | MI | - | 5 | 17.4204 | 129 | 53.4 miles |
| Flint | MI | 109,751 | 7 | 25.2834 | 318 | 53.5 miles |
| Sylvania | OH | - | 2 | 12.7922 | 52 | 55.5 miles |
| Toledo | OH | 288,207 | 7 | 20.3804 | 301 | 55.6 miles |
| Maumee | OH | - | 2 | 16.7962 | 34 | 63.3 miles |
| East Lansing | MI | 45,575 | 2 | 19.4594 | 4 | 74.6 miles |
| Spring Arbor | MI | - | 1 | 60.8655 | 91 | 75.3 miles |
| Lansing | MI | 112,579 | 5 | 18.9833 | 209 | 77.3 miles |
| Milan | OH | - | 1 | 27.8478 | 15 | 79.1 miles |