STUDY

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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++.

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

This module introduces games development topics that will be built on in future modules. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Throughout this module, you are introduced to the design work which informs the development of immersive worlds and identifiable characters. You are further introduced to the concept of, and components associated with, structural forms. 

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.