Game Development: Art with Integrated Foundation Year

Develop your skills by entering the creative industries on an Integrated Foundation Year degree.

If you’re interested in taking on a new subject that you’ve not had the opportunity to study in depth before, or have been out of education for a while, then our Integrated Foundation Year courses might be for you. These four-year courses include an introductory year to help you build the core skills needed for specialist degree-level study.

This is a chance for you to let your imagination run wild and explore your creativity, expand your professional skills and develop enhanced subject knowledge in the domain you want to study. We’ll help nurture your expertise in problem solving, risk-taking, designing and making as you develop your abilities through five core modules.

After your foundation year, you’ll have a deeper knowledge of your subject, a clear understanding of your strengths, a developed practical and technical skill set and the confidence to excel in your chosen degree subject when you join other students for the rest of your course.

We’re ranked as the number one university for game design in England (Princeton Review, 2025), and we take that accolade very seriously. On this Game Development degree, you’ll establish your specialism within the field, gaining industry-level technical, creative and professional skills within an environment that mirrors a real games development studio. You’ll also work as you might in industry, learning to communicate and collaborate effectively as you operate in multi-skilled teams to develop your own games from the outset.

You will:
Develop technical, design thinking and production skills in your chosen specialism.
Learn teamwork, leadership and project management skills through a variety of learning environments.
Develop critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills through the development of unique and innovative projects.
Complete your chosen degree over a four-year period.
Build your own games from day one and have the opportunity to establish your own company in your third year
Work in one of the largest and best-equipped dedicated game-making spaces of any university in the UK
Learn in a department dedicated to gaming and be surrounded by people working in all aspects of the industry
Develop a multidisciplinary approach, using Unity and Unreal to touch upon all aspects of game creation
Showcase your work to industry leaders through our annual Games Expo and gain professional insights via guest lecturers
Have the flexibility to change your area of specialism based on your skills and interests