Computer Games Design & Development - BSc (Hons)

​The BSc Computer Games Design and Development degree equips you with the skills needed to follow a career in games development or in the wider IT industry. The course covers the techniques used to create computer games, including the relevant theory and practice from Computer Science and Software Engineering. This provides you with an understanding of how games are designed and developed, in addition to the transferable knowledge and skills you can take forward in your career as games technology advances.

You will be exposed to the latest tools and technologies used in industry, as well as work on a number of game projects targeted at different hardware platforms. As you progress through the course, you will learn the skills that will allow you to explore and develop your own game ideas as well as understand the business and employment opportunities that exist in the games industry.

The UK has a vibrant, innovative video games culture, with approximately 37.3m people in the UK playing games and a market value of £5.35bn in 2019 (UKIE, 2020). The games software market made up 48% of the UK entertainment media market in 2019, larger than both video and music (ERA, 2020).

The Department has strong links with industry and key technology companies throughout the UK and Europe. All students have the opportunity to participate in research, enterprise, public engagement, student exchange and internship programmes.

Career

The primary aim of this degree programme is to develop theoretical understanding of the key concepts of computer games development and design. It will showcase the wider impact and importance of games software and technology to both society and the UK and global digital economy. Students will develop highly transferable computational thinking, analytical and problem solving skills, as well as a broad range of software development skills.

Graduates will find a wide variety of career opportunities both within the computer games sector and also the broader entertainment and media industries. More general developer roles may be found in the majority of the other industrial sectors (both public and private), including financial and professional services, advanced manufacturing, engineering and management consultancy. Graduates from the course have been employed within the games sector, for example Cloud Imperium and Ubisoft, and other sectors, for example DTM Global and CGI.

Real world experience is obtained as part of your study through optional sandwich year placements and industrial internships. Over the past few years, our computing/IT students have been successful in obtaining placements in nationally competitive schemes with Microsoft, HP, IBM, General Electric and the Met Office.