Games Design and Art

About this course
Study BA Games Design and Art and unlock your creative potential and refine your game-making skills with a combination of hands-on practice and theory. Throughout the course you will be constantly making games. You’ll use a research-led approach to this game making and play with ideas and concepts. We'll encourage you to express your own ideas and work on projects related to your own approaches, background, and areas of interest. You’ll cover design, art, interaction design, play and storytelling, as well as as host of technical skills in both coding and asset production. You’ll also cover the emerging fields of purposeful games and serious games and explore how games can be designed to have social impact and cultural significance. You’ll learn to apply design-thinking to the creation of brand-new games and refine them through research-led creative investigation, making, prototyping, user testing and designing games.

A game making-focused curriculum will help you prepare for your future, with opportunities to meet professionals from the industry. Students also have opportunities to undertake a placement in a game’s studio setting them up for a successful career in the field. This is reflected in the Graduate Outcomes where 92% of our graduates were in employment or further study 15 months after graduation (Graduate Outcomes 2022/2023, published in 2025)

Key features of the course:

• BA Games Design and Art is based in Winchester School of Art allowing you to work creatively while gaining essential technical skills.

• You’ll work in our dedicated games studios based in our brand new Capital House building in Winchester, the games and creative technology centre at the University of Southampton.

• You will have your own dedicated space to work at on campus as part of a vibrant, creative environment designed to mirror the collaborative practices of a game’s studio.

• Opportunities to explore the full spectrum of game making, not only video games or AR and VR games but also physical games such as location-based games, tabletop games, and even escape rooms.

• As part of your degree you’ll be able to visit games studios and attend conferences, alongside numerous opportunities to pitch and present your ideas and games to industry.

Student Support
You’ll become part of a close-knit community of game makers and artists, supported by inspiring tutors who are committed to helping students achieve their creative goals. You will be working closely with your peers in a close-knit studio environment, you’ll collaborate, inspire one another and explore concepts you are passionate about.

Further information
The BA Games Design and Art is a three-year, full-time course at our Winchester School of Art. You can also add a year abroad or a year in industry, extending your degree to four years. For details, visit our course page.