Which job is better a Software Engineer or Game Developer

I agree with Lionel and Ollie. My advice is to take Software Engineering or Computer Science in college. That will prepare you for a software engineering job in game development in addition to many other industries.

In the text after the question you do mention 'video game designer.' This is a different job (in most cases) than video game software engineer. A 'game designer' typically doesn't write code; they create and iterate on the design of the games through writing design documents, building paper prototypes, providing feedback to engineers and artists and more.

If you do decide to go with the Software Engineering or Computer Science degree in college you will have many opportunities, both formal and informal, to make games. You can often choose to make a game in your junior or senior year classes as projects. You can also get involved in game development clubs (many colleges have them) or even participate in a Global Game Jam to get experience.

As a hiring manager in the game industry I can say that the candidates who stand out have both software engineering (computer science) fundamentals in addition to some experience working in teams building games and prototypes.

One thing I do disagree with in Ollie's response: game industry software engineering salaries are not low. And the talent pool is not as large as we'd like. Finding great software engineers for game development is very difficult because there are not enough to choose from.

I would advice you go for Software Engineering mainly because its broad and you could work with virtually any company. Like Ollie said, you can take graphics and game developing courses along the line, you can even learn online. Also being a Software Engineer would give you an edge over other game developers.

As a software engineer, you may very well work as a game "software" developer. What you will learn about in college in software development will be appropriate for both.

When considering what direction to go in for a college career, I always advise people on a few different thoughts. First, be careful not to think too specifically as to what you are considering you would like to do after graduating. At this time in your life and path, there may be aspects of a particular path that are not completely clear on and that landscape of that path may change in the coming years.

What I advise people to consider is assessing what skills you would need for any particular path. Focus the initially years in college on those skills while you continue to investigate any particular speciality or specialities you are considering.

In the realm of computers and computer science, focus first on software development and engineering. For most paths that are associated with computer and software, core building blocks are essential for continued success and the ability to easy transition from one specialty to another. In the employees and perspective employees I work with, I can easily tell those that have a solid foundation and would be a good fit and provide added values versus those that have a cursory knowledge or lack of depth.

The market of people who want to work as game developers is broad and shallow. That is, there are many people wanting to do that kind of work. So, it's a buyers' market.

The executives who run game companies aren't stupid: they take advantage of all the people who apply to work in their industry to keep salaries low and working hours long.

Game development is a lot of fun, though.

My advice: get trained as a software engineer. Take the computer graphics courses and the high-performance computing courses. Then apply for game-development jobs.

But also learn other aspects of software engineering, like database and web development. That way you'll be able to put bread on your table even when (when, not if) one of the games you work on is not a big hit.