Games Development (Professional Placement Year) BA (Hons)

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.