What does it take to be become a video game designer?

I'll be in college next year, and i want to make video games for life, so i was wandering, First how many years does it take to be a video game designer? Next i want to know what course do i have to take? Also, how much would i make per year?What does it take to be become a video game designer?I'd like to get into this field myself, but I want to develop my games with my own company. My guess is that you'll want to get a Master's Degree, which will probably take six years. You'll have to take a lot of math. As far as how much you will make depends on who you are developing for. There are a lot of independent developers that don't make much money at all off of their games. But if you were to be able to get on with a company like Square or Microsoft you'd probably be rich. Of course it's no easy task to get hired on by them, you would have to have a lot of experience.