BA (Hons) Game Design

Whether it's the fun of Super Mario or the horror of Resident Evil that amaze you, this is your chance to convert your passion for playing games into knowledge about how to design them.

You'll get the most out of our course if you come with an interest in all kinds of games as you will explore, design, and create games for multiple different purposes and areas.

This programme is created with more industry focused direction and allow you to work towards specialism within the game design field by not only teaching you games design fundamentals but offering you optional modules to specialise. Our course will equip you, like many of our successful graduates, for a role in the expanding game industry. We're justly proud of the originality and quality of our students' work. By the end of your course, you should be playing a game you designed and developed yourself - and hopefully following in the footsteps of the many UEL graduates now making their mark in the games industry.

Foundation year

You can also take this course with a foundation year (FY), which means it will take you four years to complete the course full-time.

In your first term of the first year, you will explore the three core areas of games development. This is to allow you to get an idea of each field and make an informed decision, of areas that interest you. Within the second term, the course will introduce you to both theoretical and practical aspects of game design. You will explore how to express yourself via designing games, as well as learn a scripting language such as C# to prototype your design decisions. You will also experience a simulated studio environment, with an emphasis on soft skills required to work within multidisciplinary and diverse teams.

In your second year, you will select one of the offered optional modules to specialise in that area: level design, narrative design, and system design, which will progress to a more advanced version within your second term. In your core modules, you will improve your game concept prototyping skills by working on not only your original game ideas but also various themes. You will also explore theories, tools and technologies to design playful experiences in the broad field of interactive design. In the second term, you will have another simulated studio environment experience, with an emphasis on completing and publishing a small-to-medium scale game project as a multidisciplinary team. You will begin to develop your online presence and learn how to market yourself for potential internship and employment opportunities.

In your final year, you'll complete a final project that is centred around the game design specialisation you wish to further explore based on your previous studies throughout your academic career. You will also delve into developing games for various purposes other than entertainment and explore the game designer career opportunities within other fields. In the second term, you will have your simulated studio environment experience, with an emphasis on completing and publishing a polished medium scale game project as a multidisciplinary team. In a separate module, you will develop items for your personal portfolio that will showcase your skills and experiences within your chosen specialism, tailored towards the area of game design you wish to enter when you graduate.

• Tawjihi: 60% for Foundation
• 3 x AS Levels: Foundation
• US High School Diploma: GPA 2.0 for Foundation
• US High School Diploma: GPA 3.0 + SAT1 1070 for Direct Entry to Bachelor's
• International Baccalaureate (IB): 25 points with minimum 15 at Higher Level for Direct Entry to Bachelor's
• 3 x A Levels: Direct Entry to Bachelor's

We believe our courses are ideal preparation for a career in the games industry - and we can point to a couple of BAFTAs to back it up.

After graduating with a computer games degree here, Ashraf Mohammad started working with Rocksteady as a games tester. He has gone on to work on the Batman series of games and was a member of the team who won the 'Best Gameplay' and 'Best Game' BAFTAs for Batman: Arkham Asylum.

He is just one in a long list of our graduates who have made a real impact in the industry. For instance, in the last five years, two have featured in Develop Magazine's list of the industry's top 30 most promising young talents.

One of our alumni, Richard Hamer is currently appointed as lead designer at Sago Mini. Ryan Wiltshire is another graduate who has led several game development teams in different companies and has started his own game studio. Ravina Sahota recently graduated and is now working as a junior level designer at Ubisoft Reflections.

Our students have varying postgraduate interests. Some students choose to work as designers, testers, and producers in a wide range of companies while some others prefer to start their own independent studios.

Explore the different career options you can pursue with this degree and see the median salaries of the sector on our Career Coach portal.