BSc (Hons) Games Development drafted draft

Program Overview

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Introduction

Ask your Tutor to book a Games Development Taster Session by contacting us here: schools@uos.ac.uk

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A Games Studio Experience like no other

The experience you will receive on our course is second to none. Our Games Development degree is a

fully integrated games studio

experience from day one. This means that rather than learning in isolation, you are directly applying your skills to a game within a games studio environment from the very beginning. Industry leaders, senior students and qualified staff are all on hand from day one to provide mentorship as you begin this journey with us.

From the moment you set foot in the door, you are greeted with our Games Development Pathway system. As you work on your games studio game, you will become exposed to the career paths that exist within the games industry. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, you will receive mentorship and career guidance on these paths to help you decide which one to specialise in for the rest of your degree. By the end of your first semester with us, you will know how the industry works, how you fit within the industry and have a fully complete game under your belt for your portfolio.

Towards the end of your degree, you will have the opportunity to submit your games to the UK Games Funded Tranzfuser competition and join our Games Hub, of which we have had finalists every year since 2016.

We are home to the biggest games festival in the East of England: Game Anglia.

Games studios from across the UK attend this festival, and part of the festivities includes the indie development zone, where students on our degree can showcase their work. Have your games played by those in the games industry and win awards!

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A focus on the cutting edge

We teach the most current knowledge that blends industry-standard practices with world-leading academic research. We are one of the only universities in the UK that teaches a games design pathway with the inclusion of psychology and neuroscientific perspectives. Most games design courses in the UK have a focus on games art, setting you up to become a games artist with not enough depth in game design principles. Psychological and neuroscientific perspectives and theories are essential for your development as a games designer, and learning on our BSc (Hons) Games Development degree will give you the knowledge and skills to succeed as a games developer in the present-day games industry.

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Our Games

Our student-made games are award winning, and are developed in a professional games studio with industry leader mentorship from day one. Play some of the games made over the years below:

With an employment rate of 80%

, our alumni are employed in industry leading companies:

Ubisoft, d3t, Rockstar, Splash Damage, Rebellion, Junk Fish, Sumo Digital, EA Games, and more.

Working on games you have played:

Hogwarts Legacy, Watch_Dogs 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, Horizon Zero Dawn, Killzone Mercenary, Ghost Recon Wildlands, and others.

We have also curated successful student indie development teams, such as the multi-award winning Miracle Tea Studios and the newly award winning Alarming Ladder Studios.

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Student Successes

Chris Filip, now the International Business Development Fund Manager at the British Film Institute, is part of 2021 MCV/Develop's 30 Under 30. Chris also co-founded Game Anglia, a not-for-profit Community Interest Company that provides networking opportunities and game development programmes to independent game developers and young people in the East of England.

Joseph Kinglake, an Associate Design Director at Sumo Digital, was listed as an honourable mention in the same MCV Develop 30 Under 30 list.

Katie Millar, now the Production Coordinator at Mooncolony, was listed as an honourable mention for 2022 MCV/Develop's 30 Under 30. Katie oversaw the Video Game Ambassador's (VGA) community, where industry professionals are able to share their knowledge and network with others through Into Game's volunteering system.

Find out about more of our student success stories here

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testimonial-student.png

Read Charlotte's full story in the Career Opportunities section below!

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What our graduate employers say

"Charlotte has settled into d3t well, making us all respect her awesomeness. Described by one client as "a rockstar", she's got talent, tenacity and learns incredibly quickly. It's always a big learning curve coming to your first job in a games company, but Charlotte has taken all of these challenges and come out the other side with a smile on her face. The skills she learnt at the University of Suffolk were a really good foundation for the tasks and situations she's already faced" Hal Sandbach,

Head of Design d3t Ltd.

“A comprehensive understanding of games design is extremely important in the gaming industry and has a direct impact on the quality and success of our products. We have a number of graduates from the course on our staff and their ideas and skills have helped them to excel and push our business forward.”

Rob Head, Managing Director Sliding Pixel.

"A number of students and graduates from the BSc (Hons) Games Development course have recently worked with our art and design team in the development of mobile and social games. This course provides a local pool of talented and enthusiastic individuals that we have been fortunate to be able to draw upon."

Matt David, Managing Director Devrico.

Program Outline

Course modules

The two core pathways offered as part of BSc (Hons) Games Development focus on Design and Programming. In the first year, you will study 3 core modules and 3 modules that you have chosen from the pathway system.

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On the design pathway, you will become architects of engaging and emotive experiences. It is your fundamental duty to understand your audience intimately and to design for desirable emotions, and for the anticipation of those desirable emotions. As a first year student, you will be introduced to a range of duties performed by game designers and be acquainted with the principles and tools with which you can begin to develop your own games. By the end of your first year, you will have gained a deep understanding of your players and what they want, in addition to unlocking the ability to trigger specific emotions in those players. Other topics you'll learn in this year include immersion, empathy, motivation and engagement, narrative structure, game loops, fun, and mechanics.

The programming pathway begins your journey towards becoming a software engineer, you will be introduced to fundamental programming concepts, computational problem solving, algorithms and data structures along with a light dose of maths useful for software development. We'll work in C++ and C# to ensure you are learning industry standard languages and to help set you up for the work you will undertake in the second year of study.

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In your second year on the design pathway, you will augment your knowledge by studying the advanced behavioural psychological techniques that are applied to games. These include extrinsic motivation and habit forming loops, feedback loops, game balancing and difficulty adjustment, behavioural economics, Flow and attention, loss aversion and behavioural momentum, progression, and a whole wealth of design principles that are at the forefront of human knowledge. You will then have the opportunity to apply this knowledge as creative directors, overseeing the development process of your creative vision, from original concepts and documentation through to testing and polishing.

Students on the programming pathway take a deeper dive into writing code for games, you will look at graphics programming with OpenGL, AI techniques core to building immersive experiences, all alongside an intensive module that has you writing your own 2D game engine, pulling together elements from all the other modules you have worked through in your studies.

Additionally, you will delve into the realm of cutting edge games design research, and understand how to use the latest techniques in the field, and to start thinking about how to innovate in projects of your own. We are one of the only universities in the UK with this focus on the cutting edge, equipping you with design knowledge that you otherwise wouldn't receive, with opportunities to obtain grant funding for games related projects, and engage with world renowned conferences such as the Foundations of Digital Games and Computer-Human-Interaction PLAY (CHI PLAY).

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In your final year, you will engage in larger scale individual and group projects, bringing to fruition a significant and carefully curated body of work to showcase to prospective employers, or to take forward into postgraduate study. Having assimilated two years’ worth of knowledge, and had the chance to explore a wealth of design solutions, you will be bursting with ideas for your Game Development Masterclass project, and armed to the teeth with the tools and techniques you will need to plan, develop, manage, and give life to an unforgettable interactive experience. You are almost ready to take the game development scene by storm and you will need a professional online presence and CV. We have first-hand experience of industry recruitment and with our support you will stand out from the crowd.

With plenty of room to accommodate your own interests and specialism’s, our students progress into the games industry, and related sectors, as game designers, level designers, producers, gameplay programmers, engine programmers, technical artists, scripters, project managers and testers.

Full downloadable information regarding all University of Suffolk courses, including Key Facts, Course Aims, Course Structure and Assessment, is available in the Definitive Course Record.

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Design Methods 1 (Design)

Harness the power of fundamental design skills and learn how to craft a wide variety of engaging player experiences. Engage with topics such as motivation, players, emotion and mechanics. These concepts are considered with reference to the player's interactive experience and contextually, in conjunction with associated tools, as a part of the iterative development process.

Design Methods 2 (Design)

Continue on your design journey by engaging in topics such as immersion and narrative structure. You will be introduced to design work which informs the development of immersive worlds and identifiable characters.

Introduction to Game Development (Requisite Core)

Develop games in a contemporary game engine (e.g. Unity, Unreal) to bring your designs to life! This module equips you with a wide variety of transferable skills, including problem-solving, critical thinking, scripting.

Group Project (Requisite Core)

Experimenting with your newly-acquired design skills, develop your projects and test them on your chosen audience. Working in teams, you will adopt a professional pipeline to turn your ideas into realities. You will also work with students from the second year who will act as more senior members of the team.

Introduction to Non Digital Game Design (Design)

Non digital game making allows you to focus on the key components of game development without the barrier of developing the game within a game engine. You will apply the design skills learned in other modules directly into this one, allowing you to rapidly iterate and hone your design skills in an efficient and effective way.

Games Jams (Requisite)

Game jams are events that require you to create a game in a limited timeframe, and are usually accompanied with certain design constraints, such as a theme that participants should design towards. By engaging in game creation through game jams, you will be introduced to the co-creation process and improve your soft skills, design skills and problem solving.

Introduction to Programming (Programming)

You will produce several small scale projects that allow you to explore and investigate the topics covered through workshops and lectures. The core programming language is C++.

Algorithms and Data Structures (Programming)

An introduction to the range of algorithms and data structures that are used throughout programming.

Maths for Software Development (Programming)

An introduction to mathematics orientated towards Computer Science, with a focus on Discrete Mathematics and Linear Algebra. These topics are at the core of computer science and software engineering and form a solid foundation for all further modules on the course.

Advanced Design Methods (Design)

Games design has deep behavioural psychological underpinnings which will be covered here. You will obtain a solid understanding of topics such as knowledge, intelligence and memory, behavioural economics, social mechanics, conditioning, habit forming, and reinforcement. You will be introduced to systems design and the structural forms associated with sustainable fun, progression and replayability with reference to a cross section of genres and experiential goals.

Digital Scripting for Games (Design)

It is crucial that you have sufficient understanding of the technical aspects of game development so that you are able to produce your own prototypes, explore mechanics and create fully-fledged games. Continue learning how to develop games and enhance your abilities in gameplay scripting as you iterate on a range of 2D and 3D games.

Games Research Methods (Mandatory - Core)

Explore the cutting edge of games development by engaging with the vast amount of research that is published within the field. Learn how research can be used as an additional tool in your arsenal to enhance your games. For example, design a game using VR and Neuralfeedback, which allows you to use brain activity to influence the game. Use eye-tracking technology to understand player behaviour or even as a mechanic itself. Use state of the art user experience techniques to create innovative mechanics and intuitive interfaces. As part of this module, this is an opportunity to compete in an annual game design competition which is internationally recognised and seen by several industry members.

Managing Games Production (Mandatory - Core)

Having developed games in a team, it is now your turn to manage a small team of your own as you oversee the development of games from original concepts and documentation through to testing and polishing.

Rapid Game Development (Optional Design)

Enhance your game development skills and build on the creative process. Over the course of the module you will be completing a series of games and engage with professional critique of games made by your peers. This process is designed to challenge your boundaries and as a method to recognise your creative identity. This module is designed to explicitly recognise your creative voice and pulls together skills learned over the course of the degree so far.

Level Design (Optional Design)

Level design is the method through which we develop physical spaces for our players to experience; as designers, we want these spaces to not only provide a set of suitable challenges for the player, but they should also engender feelings and emotions. This module looks at a range of techniques that can be applied across both single and multiplayer levels for first or third person games in both single and multiplayer forms.

Game Engine Development (Optional Programming)

Study the multitude of elements that make up a game engine, then design and develop your own 2D game engine.

Tools Programming (Programming)

This module explains the basic features and concepts of GUI Programming and the creation of tools applications/plugins, etc. with a variety of uses within a game’s development environment.

Artificial Intelligence for Games (Programming)

Learn a range of AI techniques commonly used in the games industry including; pathfinding, finite state machines and behaviour trees.

Programming for Graphics (Programming)

The module introduces students to the fundamental algorithms, theory, principles methods and techniques of 2D and 3D computer graphics. The mathematical underpinnings are covered in further detail from the level 4 Math for Software Development module. You will develop skills in implementing and developing computer graphic applications with C++ and standard graphics libraries (such as OpenGL) within a games programming context. The shader pipeline is also introduced, with you producing shader programs for use in your graphics applications.

Honours Project (Mandatory)

This module represents the culmination of skills you have learnt over the course of the degree in addition to the acquisition of new skills. Spanning the entire academic year, it is a major project intended to push your boundaries to produce a substantial piece of work in your field of study. You have a degree of creative freedom with this project and you will be assigned a supervisor to guide and mentor you throughout. Notable past dissertations include topics such as: eliciting awe through a 3D environment, the procedural generation of level missions, the investigation into the effect of music and lighting on flow and styles of play, designing meaningful quests, the impact of rewards against player traits, and more. This module is a way for you to demonstrate to employers your expertise in an area within games, but also as a way to prepare you for postgraduate study.

Game Development Masterclass (Requisite)

Build a single, high-quality game in a small team. The game which is developed can be created for any platform including non-digital and on any subject matter, however, there should have a clear and identified target market. You will also gain an understanding of the importance of building an early business case for your proposed game, as well as understanding the various potential markets and platforms. It is highly encouraged that the games developed in this module are also submitted to the Tranzfuser competition through our Games Hub, to give you the chance at obtaining funding and continuing your game development journey!

Portfolio (Requisite)

You are almost ready to take the game development scene by storm and you will need a professional online presence and curriculum vitae. We have first-hand experience of industry recruitment and with our support you will stand out from the crowd. You will also engage with mock interviews as part of this module, further preparing you for the road ahead into the games industry.

Professional Practice (Requisite)

Working with industry partners, you will have the opportunity to engage with a professional brief and dip your toes into the world of professional game development.

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Career opportunities

Our Ipswich-based students have worked on games such as Horizon Zero Dawn, Killzone Mercenary, Watchdogs 2, Ghost Recon Wildlands and Star Citizen.

Graduates from the BSc (Hons) Games Development degree have been employed by top games studios in the UK and abroad. Graduate destinations include:

Ubisoft (Romania), d3t Ltd,

Guerilla Games, Rockstar,

Electronic Arts (Romania),

Spil Games (

Netherlands)

, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Splash Damage, Sliding Pixel,

The Imaginati,

Dreadnought Studios, DGForm (Italy), Imaginarium Studios, War Hungry Games, Firelight Games, Betdigital,

Aeria Games  (Germany), GmbH, Techland, Hammer Studio (China).

Graduates have been employed in a wide variety of job roles within the games industry, demonstrating the high standard and flexibility of the course content. Positions which our graduates have achieved after graduation include:

Level Designer,  Lead Game designer, Technical Designer, Assistant Producer, Game Designer, Software Developer, Full-Stack Engineer, Gameplay programmer, Quest Designer, Game Designer, QA Games Tester, QA Team Lead, Content Designer, Games Master, Product Co-ordinator,

Assistant Pipeline Director, Indie Developer.

Games graduates have been employed in technical and design roles by Derivco, Conga, Coderus, Orbital and Media, Betdigital Ltd.

There are regular opportunities for internships linked to your course of study. These are made available through companies in the video games