Turn your love of games into a career with our hands-on, industry-focused Games Development course.
- Build a diverse portfolio of games and playful experiences that showcase talents and inspire curiosity.
- Take an experimental, imaginative approach to game design that crosses disciplinary boundaries.
- Develop essential and in-demand skills in collaboration, adaptability, and professional practice.
Whether you're interested in the artistic, technical or production side of gaming, our Games Development course prepares you for a diverse range of opportunities in the global games industry. You’ll develop the creative, computing and professional skills needed to turn unique game ideas into compelling published titles.
Using innovative teaching methods that prioritise collaboration, working across disciplines, and creative flexibility, we'll help you make games that are expressive, impactful, and tell great stories. If you see your future in AAA gaming or beyond, this forward-thinking course will encourage you to reimagine what games are, and what they can do.
By joining this course you'll become part of a committed community of game makers. You can expect to learn by making, to be encouraged to be curious and experimental, and to collaborate with others. We value and reward unique ideas and risk-taking, and help you think about games not only as commercial products but also meaningful art experiences.
The course begins with a close review of the fundamentals of games, or the ‘rules of play’, while covering the key design skills, programming tools and co-creation strategies that lead to compelling titles. You’ll explore the function of game engines, make 2D assets, and test your developing knowledge in a series of mini game jams.
Your second year shifts attention to narrative design, game sound and 3D asset creation. Alongside this you’ll engage emerging forms of game-making for extended realities (XR), while building essential industry-insight through modules that target commercial/entrepreneurial thinking.
Year three encourages you to think differently about the form and function of games. You’ll build both ‘tangible games’ and ‘serious games’, and consider how the real-time capabilities of game engines can add a playful twist to a range of art, design and performance disciplines. Following this the course transforms into a professional games studio, providing you an opportunity to develop a complete and original title. Here you'll dive deeper into the workflows that underpin the industry, and receive advice and feedback from regional professional game designers, developers and producers.
**More about the Professional Placement Year**
A Professional Placement Year (PPY), traditionally known as a sandwich year, is where a student undertakes a period of work with an external organisation for between 9-13 months. The placement occurs between the students' second and third years of undergraduate study. Students can engage in up to 3 placements to make up the total time and are required to source the placement(s) themselves with support from the Careers & Employability Team.
Course Details - Modules
Year one -
Build a tabletop game and a portfolio of mini game prototypes. Key topics:
- Understanding game concepts, rules, and the psychology of gaming.
- History of gaming and games theory.
- Introduction to game engines and coding.
- Graphic design, illustration for 2D character, and level design.
- Prototyping and testing games concepts.
Year two-
Build a 2D, a 3D, and a VR game. Key topics:
- Technical development and design skills for both 2D and 3D games.
- Writing interactive narratives.
- Marketing and entrepreneurship.
- 3D modelling and animation.
- Web games.
- Sound design.
- Extended realities working with the Bristol VR Lab .
Year three -
Build a serious game, a tangible game, and a playful interactive entertainment experience. Key topics:
- Serious games.
- Data visualisation.
- AI and machine learning.
- Tangible games.
- Real-time interaction using game engine technologies.
- Commercial games studio workflows.
Course Details – Assessment Method
Our Games Development programme is entirely coursework assessed. You’ll work on games and playful experiences of varying form and focus, as well as portfolios of art assets, code, sound design, and experiments in interaction.
Creative and technical work is supported by assessments that deploy communicational tools used in both the games industry and arts practice. You’ll compile game design documents and QA records, write contextual summaries and reflective accounts, deliver pitches, conduct UX sessions and collaborate on industry showcase events.
Course Details – Professional Bodies
Professional Bodies are not listed for this Course.
How to Apply
26 January This is the deadline for applications to be completed and sent for this course. If the university or college still has places available you can apply after this date, but your application is not guaranteed to be considered.
Application Codes
Course code:
GD02
Institution code:
B20
Campus Name:
Main Site
Campus code:
Points of Entry
The following entry points are available for this course:
Year 1
Entry Requirements for Advanced Entry (Year 2 and Beyond)
Entry Requirements for Advanced Entry are not listed for this Course.
International applicants
Standard Qualification Requirements
A-Level – overall grades BCC-CCC are accepted.
Grade Merit is preferred.
Access to HE courses – typical offers for applicants with Access to HE will be the Access to HE Diploma or Access to HE Certificate (60 credits, 45 of which must be Level 3, including 15 at merit or higher).
International Baccalaureate – a minimum of 27 points are accepted.
