Program Overview

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Games Design MA

Overview

The MA Games Design at UCA Farnham combines the latest creative practice and academic research, placing you at the cutting edge of the global games industry. You'll be prepared for the needs of the digital games industry, as we guide you through the various aspects of game development in an industrial context, allied to a rigorous research programme exploring and applying the latest theory in game studies.

Curriculum

The curriculum blends technical skills with creative practice and academic rigour. In this sense, it is a 'generalist course' rather than one focused on a technological approach to games design. This course focuses on three areas: skills, project management, and research.

Integrated Pre-Masters

We also offer this degree with an Integrated Pre-Masters course for international and UK students. The course prepares you for postgraduate study by improving your academic and creative skills before your degree begins.

Course Entry Options

• MA
• MA with Integrated Pre-Masters

Course Details

MA

• Campus: Farnham
• Start date(s): September 2025, September 2026
• Duration: 1 year full-time
• Entry requirements:
  • Honours degree (or equivalent qualification) in the subject/related discipline
  • Relevant work experience

MA with Integrated Pre-Masters

• Campus: Farnham
• Start date(s): September 2025, September 2026
• Duration: 2 years full-time
• Entry requirements:
  • A recognised bachelor degree or 3 year diploma with a strong portfolio in a relevant subject

What You'll Study

Integrated Pre-Masters (if undertaken)

• Our Integrated Pre-Master's course will prepare for postgraduate study by improving your academic and creative skills before your degree begins.
• You'll build a portfolio of work whilst you explore your subject specialism and benefit from personal development tutoring that will support your academic growth and help refine your specialism.
• If you need to enhance your English language skills you can opt to join a pre-sessional English course to improve your IELTS score as well.

Term One

• Expressive Game Design
  • From basic design tools to conceptualizing, prototyping and critically play testing games, you will be able to craft and formalise game systems tailored towards end user engagement.
  • Within this unit you will design and prototype compelling game mechanics for immersive play, which can support a given message, or meaning other than for commercial entertainment.
  • You will also reflect on your own experience of play, while exploring key historical games to identify a poor player connection.
  • These will be analysed and deconstructed with the aim of identifying design solutions that would enhance the game loop, benefiting the end user experience and positively reimagining the product.
• Games Research and Professional Contexts 1
  • You will learn to synthesise theoretical research methods and industry practices of game evaluation to provide a critically informed and reflective toolset for analysing and critically assessing games, gameplay experiences, and their practice.
  • There is also a professional practice strand of this unit, that provides you with industry and practitioner-led insights into how game design and art practices are analysed and assessed within the game development process.

Term Two

• Prototyping Lab: Genre and Affect
  • You will have the opportunity to create innovative game design prototypes, which demonstrate an understanding of how games design must take account of, and subvert genre conventions and produce affects (emotion, mood, sensation) in the player.
• Games Research and Professional Contexts 2
  • In this unit, you will learn a range of key theories, concepts, and debates relevant to video games including player typologies, cultures, experiences of immersion and affect.
  • It provides a platform for a dialogue between critical, scholarly perspectives and professional practice, and you will be encouraged to produce a reflective synthesis on these sometimes-disparate elements.
  • This unit incorporates a Creative Start-up component, where you will have an exciting opportunity to develop your knowledge, skills and attitudes in a real-world business context, and enables you to develop your confidence and strengthen your CV.

Term Three

• Games Design Major Project
  • This is the culmination of the course and enables the synthesis of the knowledge and skills acquired in all the previous units.
  • It will require you to undertake a specialist and challenging project of your interest and choosing in games design, and will demonstrate a professional level of accomplishment.
  • Optionally, the project may also involve collaboration with industry.
  • The project will encompass research, design, development, and evaluation stages, which will be suitably planned and documented and accompanied by a set of digital assets and artefacts produced by the project.

Specifications

• Course information 2025/26 entry
• Course information annex for Integrated Pre-Masters 2025/26 entry
• Student regulations

Fees and Funding

Tuition Fees

• UK: £10,500 (2025/26)
• EU: £10,500 (2025/26) (see fee discount information)
• International: £18,000 (2025/26) (MA), £17,500 (2025/26) (Integrated International Pre-Masters course - Sept & Jan), £8,750 (2025/26) (Integrated International Pre-Masters course - May)

UCA Scholarships and Fee Discounts

• At UCA we have a number of financial support information available to assist you with the cost of your studies.
• Current UCA students and alumni may be eligible for a tuition fee discount.

Financial Support

• There are lots of ways you can access additional financial support to help you fund your studies - both from UCA and from external sources.
• Discover what support you might qualify for please see our scholarships and fee discounts.

Additional Course Costs

• In addition to the tuition fees there may be other costs for your course.
• The things that you are likely to need to budget for to get the most out of a creative arts education will include books, printing costs, occasional or optional study trips and/or project materials.
• These costs will vary according to the nature of your project work and the individual choices that you make.
• Please see the Additional Course Costs section of the Course Information Document for more details of the costs you may incur.

Facilities and Equipment

• We have studios with high-end PCs with Alienware towers, 4k dual screen monitors and Wacom Cintiq graphics tablets, all dedicated to games design, with software including Unity and Unreal games engines.
• There is also a VR development studio, and a dedicated Games Incubator Studio for graduate entrepreneurs looking to set up their own companies or looking to release games to market.
• In addition, our Farnham campus has sound production and Foley studios, pro tools and a specialist library.

Career Opportunities

• Our students have previously graduated to find themselves within easily accessible pathways that have guided them to prosperous and fulfilling job roles within the games industry:
  • Concept designer
  • Game designer
  • Games developer
  • Multi-media programmer
  • Multi-media specialist
  • Software engineer
  • VFX Artist

Entry and Portfolio Requirements

• For this course we will need to see your portfolio for review.
• You can either submit a digital portfolio or request an in-person portfolio review with the course team.
• View Games Design portfolio advice

English Language Requirements

• If you take the IELTS test you will need to achieve the following scores (or an equivalent from other UCA-approved English tests):
  • Master's Degree (MA/MSc/MFA/MBA/MArch/MMus): 6.5 overall with no less than 5.5 in any section
  • Pre-Master's (13 Weeks): 6.0 overall with no less than 5.5 in any section
  • Pre-Master's (30 Weeks): 5.5 overall with no less than 5.5 in any section

Apply Now

• Please use the following fields to help select the right application link for you:
  • My location: UK/International/EU
  • I am interested to start in: Select entry year
  • I would like to study for: Select study option
• Apply

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