Game design?
Cool!
Who's teaching it?
Sid Meier?
Will Wright?
or some guy we've never heard of?
think about it....
And? One of my most worthwhile classes was Intro to Computer Graphics, which was taught by someone who, in your eyes, probably wasn't "qualified" because he was neither famous nor a seasoned professional. And yet, it was in that class that I finally understood the shader pipeline and the basics of modern graphics programming. Before that class, shaders (and everything that went with them) confused the crap out of me, largely because of so many outdated and defunct OpenGL tutorials that made finding proper tutorials difficult for me.
Just because subject X may not be taught by God of Subject X doesn't necessarily mean that a class isn't worth taking.
@OP: I would suggest just contacting the professor. I've done this several times when considering what courses to take, and the additional insights of the professors has been very useful to me. You can tell him where you're at, what you're looking for, and ask for more details about what the class will offer (sure, there's a basic description, but by talking to him a little you can learn if it's going to be too basic or slow for you).
Another thing you can do is sign up for the class and then sign up for another back up class. If the game design class seems like it's going to be good after the first few days, drop your back up class. If the game design class doesn't seem like something you'd enjoy after a few days, drop it and just take your back up class. Of course, different universities have different policies on dropping classes, but at my university we have a week or two grace period, so this method works out decently enough.
