Computing for Games 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.

Launch your programming and software development career. A fusion of creativity and science, this Computing for Games course will give you the skills and experiences to launch a programming and software development career within the rapidly growing games industry, and beyond.

Supported by experts in game programming, immersive technology, artificial intelligence and data science, you’ll gain an in-depth understanding of the technologies that power games and learn to push the boundaries of existing software and engines.

You’ll also learn to collaborate and communicate effectively as you lead the development of real-time interactive systems within multi-skilled game development teams.

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
You’ll make real games in collaboration with artists, animators, composers, designers, writers and other programmers, working within an industry-style studio environment
This course is accredited by the British Computer Society (BCS), aligned with the SFIA global IT skills framework, allowing you to plan your progression and translate your competencies to global companies operating all over the world
We’re ranked as the number one university for game design in England (Princeton Review, 2025)
You’ll get under the hood of video game engines like Unity and Unreal, learning a range of programming languages like C#, Python and C++

On this Computing for Games BSc degree, you’ll study key computing principles and related mathematical concepts, learning how to apply these to your own technical work. You'll concentrate on programming in multiple languages, including C#, Python, and C++, as well as software engineering methods, agile project management, and versioning techniques. By studying industry-standard methods, and focusing on collaboration, creativity and enterprise, you'll learn how to build and sell original games.

Foundation Year:
In your foundation year, you'll study five core modules: three short modules in the first study block and two in the second (one short, one long). These are all designed to help you explore the foundational elements of both creative practice and your chosen specialism. You'll gain relevant technical skills, learn to experiment and take risks, develop an understanding of professional practice, have opportunities to work across disciplines and collaborate with other students on live project briefs.

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

Modules:
Explore
Technique
Apply
Industry
Launch

Year One:
Beginning with an introduction to programming, you’ll learn the basics of computing using Python. We’ll support complete beginners as we go through the standards for collaborative software development, helping you apply what you’ve learned to a small team-based exercise.

You’ll then embark on your first multi-disciplinary game development project alongside artists, animators, composers, designers, and writers. This project gives you a practical understanding of game engineering processes and game engine architecture - typically using either C++ in Unreal 4, or C# in Unity.

Throughout the year, you'll work individual creative computing projects into your games. These projects typically involve procedural content generation and physical computing, reflecting our research strengths.

Modules
Principles of Computing
Digital Creativity
Development Foundations
Data Fundamentals
Individual Programming Project
Multidisciplinary Teamwork

Year Two:
You’ll focus on developing your specialism in computing for games and collaborate with students from across the Games Academy to design and build a product.

You’ll explore key principles in computational mathematics, as well as delving into more complicated game development concepts in advanced game programming and artificial intelligence.

Modules
Advanced Game Programming
Computational Mathematics
World Building: Pre-production
World Building: Production
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Year Three:
In your third year, you’ll develop greater intellectual freedom and further your specialism in computing for games. You’ll then harness these skills to conduct your own individual research and development project under the supervision of a subject-matter specialist. This will provide you with the space to realise a substantial computing artefact of your own and apply scientific research methods to find cutting-edge insights into a topic of your choice.

Complementing this is a major collaboration, in which you’ll work in multi-skilled teams to produce an innovative digital product or service based on your own intellectual property.

Modules
Graphics & Simulation
Research & Development: Proposal
Future Skills
Research & Development: Dissertation
Major Collaboration

As part of our process of continuous improvement, we routinely review course content to ensure that all our students benefit from a high-quality and rewarding academic experience. As such, there may be some changes made to your course which are not immediately reflected in the content displayed on our website. Any students affected will be informed of any changes made directly.

Foundation Year assessments are 100% coursework based.
Assessment will take place at the end of each module, and you'll get feedback and evaluation throughout the year. You'll be assessed through visual, verbal and written assignments, including your portfolio and a reflective journal. In your foundation year all assessments are pass/fail to encourage students to take risks and engage with the feedback provided.

Progressing in your specialism
Students studying on courses with an Integrated Foundation Year must successfully complete and pass all foundation modules before they can progress to the next stage of their course.

Your specialism:
100% of your assessment will be coursework.

Assessments could include:
Projects
Papers
Pitches
Portfolios

Designed to mirror industry practice, students are also continually assessed on group projects through a group working strategy.