Wow this is a lot of input, so it should be noted while of course I'm taking salary into account, it is definitely Not why I want to be a game designer. First "Let's say rent costs $2k/month." that seems high, we pay about that much for my house and it's got 4 bedrooms. I also noticed in my research I did find other programmers were listed as making less than game designers. I also don't want to be a "pure game designer" and I don't idealize them, my real problem is deside what degree to get, speaking of which what colleges would you guys recommend? Ive been looking at DigiPen. Ignore any errors, it's a bit ironic this text box is glitchy.

A note on terminology.  People outside of the industry often use the terms "design" and "designer" as a bit of a catch-all term for people who work on games, but it's actually a specific role in the industry; a designer is someone who's job involves creating rules, balancing formulae, etc., and a programmer is not generally considered to be a designer at all (unless it's a small team and they're filling multiple roles).

We generally use the term "developer" as a catch-all.

That being said, most of the above replies apply either way.

So, that out of the way, what specifically do you invision yourself doing? Would you be writing code? Creating art? Working with formulas and creating design documents? 

My two favorite things to do are 3d modeling and programming, I use blender and have even started a project though I admit, its very big for one person

3 hours ago, Tiny Giraffe said:

First "Let's say rent costs $2k/month." that seems high

California rents approach or exceed that. 

18 minutes ago, Tiny Giraffe said:

My two favorite things to do are 3d modeling and programming,

Artist pay and programmer pay are very different. Programmers are paid much higher than designers and artists. https://www.gameindustrycareerguide.com/video-game-programmer-salary/

3 hours ago, Tiny Giraffe said:

my real problem is deside what degree to get

Depends on which job you want. One way to make a decision.

12 hours ago, Scouting Ninja said:

There is less than a 1 000 AAA companies left. That means only 3 000 - 12 000 AAA developers exist at any given time; lots of those are scattered over the world.

I'd say that's an underestimate. There are fewer AAA companies - I'll estimate about 50 - and quite a few second tier developers - maybe 100 - and they each probably employ somewhere between 50 and 300 people on average. So, 150x175 = a bit over 25,000 developers at that sort of level, making recognisable branded games for PC and consoles. Plus there are many more at smaller companies, or at mobile developers. The UK alone employs over 12,000 game developers, for example.

3 hours ago, Kylotan said:

I'd say that's an underestimate.  ... a bit over 25,000 developers...

Yes. "More than 27,000 game industry professionals" attended GDC in 2016. Mind you, that includes programmers, artists, producers, designers, marketing, business... And that includes more than AAA devs. But it includes ONLY those who took time off from their game jobs to attend one conference in San Francisco. 

14 hours ago, Kylotan said:

I'd say that's an underestimate.

9 hours ago, Tom Sloper said:

Yes. "More than 27,000 game industry professionals"

I want to be clear that I was thinking of management positions, so not the ground floor artist and programmers or the marketing department.

If someone tells you they programmed the combat system for Dark Souls, your first thought isn't "This is the developer of Dark Souls". 

My numbers:

I think the problem here is with the word "Game Developer" it is too open to interpretation.

20 hours ago, Tiny Giraffe said:

My two favorite things to do are 3d modeling and programming, I use blender and have even started a project though I admit, its very big for one person

If you want to be a 3D modeler focus on your portfolio. Some 3D artist will say a degree isn't needed, yet finding a job without one is much harder.

Blender is not recognized by many of the large companies, it's reputation is improving but it is going to take some time. So you will need to get experience with Maya or Max before applying to a large company. 3Ds Max has a student license.

Indie and Big Indie developers do accept Blender experience.

54 minutes ago, Scouting Ninja said:

you will need to get experience with Maya or Max before applying to a large company. 3Ds Max has a student license.

Indie and Big Indie developers do accept Blender experience.

That seems, well stupid, you can model anything in blender, what does 3d max or maya have that blender doesn't?

Commercial support, and an established userbase; those packages are what has been the professional standard for years (back when Blender wasn't so great), and that won't change without some compelling reason. Existing workflows and pipelines are designed around Maya and 3dsMax, and existing workforces are experienced in using it.

Fortunately, the skills are largely transferable, so you can start learning with Blender.

Oh, well fair enough when I do switch which would you recommend I use?