BA (Hons) Games Design and Development

Program Overview

This comprehensive BA (Hons) Games Design and Development degree prepares students for careers in the gaming industry by providing a strong foundation in art, programming, design, and production. Through industry partnerships and access to world-class facilities, students learn fundamental disciplines and explore specialist areas, gaining practical experience in project-driven modules and refining their skills in a supportive and industry-focused environment. The degree prepares graduates for various roles in the gaming industry, empowering them with the technical knowledge, creative abilities, and understanding of the production pipeline needed to excel in this thriving and innovative field.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

This BA (Hons) Games Design and Development degree will help students choose their career path as they explore a range of roles, projects, and opportunities within the video games industry. It aims to provide students with a comprehensive overview of the creative components of the game development process, developing all-round workflow skills and a clear understanding of the production pipeline.

Objectives:

• Discover career opportunities across the games industry.
• Explore specialist development areas including: audio, writing, motion capture, games theory and more.
• Become confident in the games production pipeline.
• Learn from award-winning industry professionals both within the University and beyond.

Outline:

The program spans over 3 years (Full Time) and is offered at the Bognor Regis Campus. The program is structured as follows:

Year One

• Art and Visual Design: An Introduction: Introduces art theory and provides opportunities to create artistic works demonstrating the application of these concepts.
Focuses on the foundations of art production through projects establishing a fundamental understanding of visual communication.
• Design Fundamentals: Introduces students to the fundamental principles of game design.
Covers foundational elements that comprise games and how these elements are used to create emotional player experiences.
• Games Theory and Criticism: Focuses on deconstructing theories from game studies and applying these concepts to practical games design work.
Aims to provide a critical vocabulary for analyzing games both inside and outside of the classroom and a necessary theoretical foundation for future games design work or game analyses.
• Introduction to 3D Art: Serves as a foundation for developing technical knowledge and procedural skills in the core concepts of 3D computer graphics using industry-standard software.
• Prototypes and Programming Principles: Provides a fundamental level of knowledge and understanding of key prototyping and programming principles necessary for making rapid digital game prototypes.
Aims to bring students to a common level regardless of prior programming experience.
• Working With 3D Engines: Introduces students to an industry-standard 3D engine, teaching them about its core features and how it can be used to create digital games.

Year Two

• 3D Animation for Games: Introduces students to the fundamental principles of animation and provides an opportunity to familiarize themselves with animation in the context of games development.
• Games Design Project: Practical module where students work in small groups to produce a computer game concept.
Students learn to work as teams, break tasks apart, and deliver a Games Design Document (GDD) to a set deadline, reflecting industrial practices and presentation expectations.
• Games Production: Examines topics pertaining to games production, exploring the elements a producer must manage to ensure a successful game launch.
Focuses on project management skills and processes that apply both to games and other creative industries.
• Games: Social & Cultural Contexts: Explores the social, historical and political context surrounding videogames, debating topics relating to their cultural development and impact.
Further develops critical engagement with games studies, providing additional theoretical frameworks for games development projects.
• Motion Capture Suit Technologies: Develops knowledge of a typical film and multimedia motion capture pipeline, from setting up cameras and capturing data, through to editing and transferring data to industry standard animation packages.
Offers the opportunity to develop professional technical and procedural knowledge.
• Narrative Design and Interactive Fiction: Develops understanding of fundamental theories, pipelines and processes pertaining to narrative design in videogames.
Students apply these theories in practical exercises mirroring the responsibilities of writers working in the contemporary games industry. Provides the opportunity to create a piece of interactive fiction using the tools and techniques taught.
• Writing for Games: Examines the role of the screenwriter in the development of narrative-based computer games.
Explores developing characters, dialogue and worldbuilding. Introduces debates around narrative vs Ludology and the tensions created between story and play.

Year Three

• Audio and Music for Video Games: Develops creative and technical skills in sound design, music composition and basic audio implementation for video games.
Students explore the creation of a broad range of sound assets and audio related content, as well as non-linear adaptive processes and structures. Introduces industry standard middleware for implementing sound assets in games. Includes individual mentoring and feedback from industry partners.
• Final Year Games Design Project: Independent, project-driven module where students pursue their own enthusiasms and specialisms.
Students pitch a game idea to a panel for feedback, generate pre-production documentation, and provide extensive ‘proof of concept’ for a commercially-viable computer game.
• Games Industry and Creative Careers: Develops understanding of the creative sector as an industry, including key dynamics, employability expectations, discipline-specific working practices, geographic spread, working structures, team working and inter-personal skills, freelancing, collaborative work, funding streams, portfolio development, studio setup, taxation, regulation, law and ethics.
Students consider career pathways and develop a strategy for employability, freelance work, or start-up.
• Creative Portfolio: Enhances career prospects by producing creative artifacts aligning skills with commercial and professional objectives.
Develops transferable skills in balancing creative and strategic career objectives.
• Motion Capture Face / Feature Tracking Technologies: Develops professional, technical and procedural knowledge and understanding of the core concepts of optical motion capture in the context of the Film, TV and gaming industry.
Explores software and hardware solutions, rig setup, image capture, and 2D/3D data processing.
• Working With 3D Engines: Introduces students to an industry-standard 3D engine, teaching them about its core features and how it can be used to create digital games.
• Resilience and the Freelancer: Introduces the wide range of skills required for survival in the modern creative and media industries.
Prepares students for a freelance career.

Assessment:

Students are assessed through a range of methods including:

• Creative projects
• Project work
• Creative portfolios
• Presentations
• Reflective writing

Teaching:

• Teaching takes the form of scheduled classes such as workshops, lectures, and seminars, as well as independent study outside of class time.
• Students use an iterative workflow throughout their studies, focusing on reworking and revisiting ideas to improve them.
This workflow is used in industry and prepares students for their careers.
• Students work independently and in groups on projects and seminars, developing their communication and teamwork skills.
• Smaller class sizes allow for more personalized attention and support for students.

Careers:

Graduates of this program are prepared for a range of career options across the games industry, including:

• Games designer
• Level designer
• Producer
• QA tester
• Writer
• PGCE and Masters
• MA Screen Acting
• MA Composition for Film, TV and Games
• PhD Research

Other:

The program benefits from industry partnerships with companies including HyperX, DXRacer, Twitch, ARRI, and AVID, and access to industry standard software such as Nuke, Maya and Houdini. The program is based at the University's £35 million Tech Park, which provides students with access to world-class facilities, including dedicated games development labs with industry-standard computers and software, post-production facilities, recording studios, and a learning resource center.