Games Design

Have you ever played a video game and wished that the gameplay was less frustrating or the level design more challenging? This course will take your technical skills to the next level as you design game scenarios and work out the gameplay and playability, programming and designing levels with the respective degrees of difficulty and fun. Working with games art and visual effects art students to add visual appeal, you will programme Blueprint games.

Working alone, in teams or in industry-focused charrettes, you will develop the digital toolset, technical invention and contextual knowledge to create stimulating and fun games. You will graduate with an industry-ready reel demonstrating your invention and technical prowess.

The course will focus on students designing game scenarios, working out the gameplay and playability and designing the levels with the respective degrees of difficulty, working with Games Art, Visual Effects Art, and Animation students.

You’ll be able to personalise your studies by choosing from a range of up to eight optional modules. Your course also includes our School-wide, sector-leading CoLab module.

Employability
Graduates from this course will be able to go into a range of roles. Examples include:

• Gameplay designer

• Games writer

• Level Designer

• AR/VR designer

• Technical artist

• Technical animator

• UX/UI designer

• AI programmer

• Engine programmer

• Gameplay programmer

• Generalist programmer

• Network programmer

• Digital tools engineer

Facilities
You’ll be based in our new Design & Digital Arts Building. Opening for 2024 admission, our new Design & Digital Arts Building will place Nottingham as a UK hub for film, television, animation, UX design, games design, graphic design and more.

You'll have access to industry-standard facilities which include a virtual production studio, an in-camera Visual Effects studio and a black box studio, as well as collaborative studio spaces, future technology suites and exhibition spaces.

[Year one]

• Introducing Gameplay (40 credit points)
• Games Studies (20 credit points)
• Introducing 3D digital art (20 credit points)
• Programming Gameplay (40 credit points)
  [Year two]
• System and Level Design (40 credit points)
• Games Design Studio (40 credit points)
• CoLab: Research, Exploration and Risk-taking (20 credit points)
• Optional module.
  You will also choose one optional 20-credit module from:
• 3D Materials and Exploration
• Storyboarding
• Exploring Creative Coding
• Performance for Motion Capture
• Sound Art & Design
• Open-source 3D Art
• Tabletop Game Development
• Interactive Narrative
  [Year three]
• Optional Placement Year (Sandwich)*
  We have an option for all of our students to undertake a placement year (Sandwich) and allow you to decide whether this is right for you once you have completed years 1 and 2 of your course. This time spent working in industry provides our students with crucial work experience, which is highly prized and much sought after by employers upon graduation. If you are successful in securing a placement you will have the chance to gain an additional Certificate or Diploma in Professional Practice, dependent on duration.

• If you choose to take the sandwich route option, you will still need to apply for this course with the full-time UCAS code.
  [Final year]
  Games Design Project (60 credit points)
  Screen Arts Collaboration (40 credit points)
  Games Entrepreneurship (20 credit points)

Year 1 coursework (87%), practical exams (13%)
Year 2 coursework (93%), practical exams (7%)
Year 3 coursework (93%), practical exams (7%)
People excel in different ways, and we want everybody to have the best possible chance of success. On this course you will be assessed on a range of individual and group presentations, and your final year project. Your work in Year Two accounts for 20% of your final degree mark, and your work in your final year accounts for the other 80%.