Program Overview

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Games Technology MSci/BSc (Hons)

Course Overview

The course doesn’t only teach you how to use game engines – it teaches you the programming and scientific skills necessary to extend commercial engines and develop your own from scratch.

These are the skills the industry looks for in game programmers:

• the mastery of advanced techniques to leverage and extend industry-standard engines in the creation of immersive, interactive experiences
• an understanding of the engineering and technology which underpins digital artwork and real-time rendered animations
• the confidence and ability to develop your own game engine systems, from graphics renderers to physics libraries, using high-performance programming techniques.

Rated Gold Overall

Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2023

5 QS Stars for Teaching and Facilities

QS Stars University Ratings

Top 5 Student City in England (Coventry)

QS Best Student Cities Index 2025

Why you should study this course

• The technology, practices and challenges involved in game development are continually evolving, therefore the course content reacts dynamically to reflect the complexities of this modern and increasingly interconnected sector.
• The course aims to empower you with the fundamental capabilities needed to pursue independent game development, as well as giving you the opportunity to gain professional skills for and a wider contextual understanding of, game engineering, with a view to succeeding in larger studio environments.
• Develop your own games and game technologies in our dedicated Game Development Laboratories.
• Explore emerging technologies with virtual and augmented reality hardware.
• Gain experience with console and cross-platform development.

What you'll study

Year one

• Introduction to Games Programming – 20 credits
• Mathematical Skills for Computing Professionals – 20 credits
• Computer Systems – 20 credits
• Object-oriented Programming for Game Development – 20 credits
• Working with Data – 20 credits
• Responsible Game Design – 20 credits

Year two

• On-Screen! Graphics Programming for Game Development – 20 credits
• Digital Reality: Emerging Technologies in Game Development – 20 credits
• Playing TAG: Technical Art for Games – 20 credits
• #Defining Gravity: High-Performance Physics Simulation – 20 credits
• Game Dev Tycoon: Professional Game Development – 20 credits
• Smoke and Mirrors: AI for Game Development – 20 credits

Placement year

• UK Work Placement – 0 credits
• International Study/Work Placement – 0 credits

Final year

• Fantastic Exploits and Where to Find Them: Security in Netgames – 20 credits
• Advanced Technical Art for Games – 20 credits
• Tool Time: Understanding Commercial Game Engines – 20 credits
• RISC/Reward: Mobile Game Development – 20 credits
• Games Technology Research Project – 40 credits

Additional year

• Heterogeneous Computing: High-performance Game Development – 20 credits
• Serious Games – 20 credits
• Going Cross-platform: Console Game Development – 20 credits
• Procedural Generation for Game Development – 20 credits
• Games Technology Team Project – 40 credits

How you'll learn

Teaching contact hours

As a full-time undergraduate student, you will study modules totalling 120 credits each academic year. A typical 20 credit module requires a total of 200 hours study. This is made up of teaching contact hours, guided and independent study.

Guided and independent study

Throughout your studies, you will be expected to spend time in guided and independent study to make up the required study hours per module. You'll be digging deeper into topics, review what you've learnt and complete assignments. This can be completed around your personal commitments. As you progress through your studies, you'll spend more time in independent study.

Online learning

As an innovative university, we use different teaching methods including online tools and emerging technologies. So, some of your teaching hours and assessments may be delivered online.

Assessment

This course will be assessed using a variety of methods which will vary depending upon the module.

Assessment methods may include:

• formal examinations
• phase tests
• essays
• group work
• presentations
• reports
• projects
• coursework
• exams
• individual assignments.

International experience opportunities

Computer game development is considered an international business. Most of the technical subjects you could learn are applicable worldwide and, where they exist, significant regional or country-specific differences are highlighted. For example, the emphasis for different colours in different cultures, such as white being associated with death in Japan.

If you have a desire to travel it is possible to study abroad for a year at universities around the world. Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) projects means you may also have the opportunity to work on projects with students in universities which have previously included Brazil and Indonesia.

Many of the field trips and industry visits that may become available, take place abroad. In the past, for example, students have visited Indonesia where students participated in an international games jam, visited local game companies and an exciting cultural programme.

Entry requirements

Typical entry requirements:

• UK: 120-128 UCAS points
• International: IELTS of 6.0 overall, with no component lower than 5.5

Fees and funding

• UK, Ireland, Channel Islands or Isle of Man: £9,535 per year
• EU: £9,535 per year with EU Support Bursary
• International: £19,850 per year

Facilities

• The Game Lab: High-specification PC lab where the majority of your lectures and laboratories will be delivered.
• The High-Performance Lab: HPC developer-spec’d machines to encourage students to explore more advanced and demanding software engineering challenges.
• Motion-Capture Studio: A bespoke facility complete with green-screen, control room and lighting rig, empowering students to explore advanced human-computer interaction and simulation technologies.

Careers and opportunities

Upon successful completion of the BSc (Hons) course, you should be able to:

• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the underlying technology, design methods and programming languages required to practice as an IT professional
• appreciate the cultural, commercial, ethical and professional issues connected with the IT industry, and professional practice within it
• demonstrate awareness of emergent technologies and techniques in the wider computing domain, such as VR implementation techniques, pervasive computing, designing software to be engaging and usable as well as cutting edge graphics programming
• apply appropriate problem-solving techniques and design protocols to computing requirements or issues
• research the concept, design and development of a product in the computing domain, providing relevant and useful conclusions in the evaluation of the implementation.

In addition to the above outcomes, upon successful completion of the Games Technology MSci, you should be able to:

• employ algorithms to generate new content autonomously, or with minimal developer input and design software systems intended to provide continually novel user experiences of consistent quality
• leverage your knowledge and technical skills towards the creation of play experiences where the focus is on training, rehabilitation, simulation, or treatment, rather than leisure, and understand the ethical issues surrounding gamification
• structure or restructure code to make optimal use of all computational resources available on a target platform, evaluate algorithms for deployment on a given hardware solution and decompose them, to ensure maximised occupancy and energy efficiency at runtime.

The course sends graduates into the games industry and related sectors every year, and where possible, invites students back to give guest talks or participate in extracurricular activities.

In recent years, graduates from companies like Rare and Criterion Games have returned to support our Game Jam events.

As well as careers in the games industry, the course aims to equip you with the technical skills needed to excel as high-performance software developers in many collaborative or independent development environments.

Where our graduates work

• Unity Technologies
• Criterion Games
• Codemasters
• Rare Ltd
• Free Radical Design Ltd
• Flix Interactive
• Digital Media Technologies
• Bosch
• Tesco PLC
• Totem Learning Ltd