Houston, TX (population: 2,307,883) has five game design schools within its city limits. University of Houston, the highest ranked school in the city with a game design program, has a total student population of 37,000. It is the 1576th highest ranked school in the USA and the 66th highest in the state of Texas (#1 is Rice University). To learn more about game design programs in Houston, ratemyprofessors.com has reviews of game design professors at University of Houston such as Stuart Larson.
Game Design students from Houston 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 Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown area alone, there are 6,720 employed computer software engineers, systems software earning an average salary of $96,960. Computer software engineers, applications in this area earn $91,190/yr and there are 8,070 employed.
Houston lies in Harris county, which is one of the 154 counties in Texas. Overall, the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown area has 2,563,840 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 0.7% unemployment rate, $21.58/hr average worker wage, and a $44,880 average annual salary. Thus, about 3.147 out of every 1000 jobs in Houston are held by computer software engineers, applications, and 2.621/1000 are held by computer software engineers, systems software.
Of the 5 game design schools in Houston, only 1 has a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, The Art Institute of Houston comes out as the most expensive ($34,131/yr) for game design students, with University of Houston as the lowest, reported at only $10,281/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Houston |
| South Houston | TX | - | 1 | 23.7623 | 5 | 11.9 miles |
| Pearland | TX | 94,215 | 0 | - | 0 | 16.0 miles |
| Pasadena | TX | 148,101 | 8 | 24.6579 | 264 | 16.3 miles |
| Missouri City | TX | 77,622 | 0 | - | 0 | 16.5 miles |
| Baytown | TX | 71,405 | 1 | 12.8813 | 98 | 25.3 miles |
| League City | TX | 78,312 | 0 | - | 0 | 25.7 miles |
| The Woodlands | TX | 101,065 | 1 | 14.626 | 77 | 27.6 miles |
| Texas City | TX | 44,907 | 1 | 8.31197 | 63 | 35.9 miles |
| Conroe | TX | 61,600 | 0 | - | 0 | 38.3 miles |
| Prairie View | TX | - | 1 | 50.8259 | 82 | 42.2 miles |
| Galveston | TX | 57,154 | 3 | 22.3727 | 45 | 47.7 miles |
| Beaumont | TX | 110,900 | 4 | 27.5152 | 152 | 78.1 miles |
| College Station | TX | 90,406 | 1 | 0.218495 | 0 | 79.5 miles |
| Bryan | TX | 73,832 | 2 | 27.1681 | 5 | 85.5 miles |