BA (Hons) Games Art and Technology
If you see yourself creating 2D game graphics, sculpting characters, vehicles, and terrains in 3D, setting and lighting game scenes and creating appealing game atmospheres and environments, this is the course for you.
BA (Hons) Games Art and Technology is a bespoke course that helps students to gain an intimate understanding of the art development process, exploring such domains as environment design, character design and technical art practice. The real fun bit: this is your chance to explore how to tell the stories that pop into your head in the most visual way possible.
It also reaches further than that and our carefully crafted curriculum is designed to prepare you for a successful career in art departments within the games industry. Students will gain a strong understanding of how 3D models are designed, built and deployed into games engines. Meaning that by the time you graduate, you will have a comprehensive grasp of the industry’s production methodologies and you will be well-prepared to make your mark in this dynamic field.
That’s not to mention the opportunity for cross-collaboration with your peers who are studying TV and film: you will explore these technologies together.
All of our Creative Technologies’ courses go beyond the classroom, offering students practical experiences and industry connections to help you seamlessly transition into the professional world because the success of our industry-focussed teaching lies in you finding your place in the industry once you have graduated.
Let your artistic talents flourish and have fun along the way as you pave your way to success with BIMM University’s BA (Hons) Games Art and Technology degree. Together, we’ll shape your future in the vibrant and ever-evolving world of games art.
Faculty
Dr. Enrique Perez is a game developer, researcher, artist, and consultant with over fifteen years of experience. They have worked on international projects in various fields, received multiple awards, and presented their work at festivals and theaters.
Enrique holds advanced degrees in Communication Science, Animation, New Media, and Game Design, and earned a Ph.D. in 2019. Currently, as Head of School: Creative Technology at BIMM University Berlin, Enrique focuses on creating a supportive and inclusive environment for the university community.
Course Specification
Mode of attendance: Full-time
Length of course: 3 years
Awarding institution: BIMM University (UK)
Campus delivery: MetStudios Berlin
Language of study: English
Final award: BA (Hons) Games Art and Technology
Credits: 180 ECTS credits (60 ECTS per year of study)// 360 FHEQ (UK) Level credits (120 FHEQ credits per year of study)
Minimum Requirements
All applicants must successfully complete an entrance interview with BIMM University Berlin (details provided on application).
Academic entry criteria meeting a minimum of 64 UCAS points, equivalent to:
- General Higher Education entrance certificate (Award of Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife/ Abitur, or a Fachgebundene Hochschulreife/ Fachhochschulreife) with an overall average grade of 3.0, including a minimum grade of 10 on the English component (Leistungsfach) on the Abiturprüfung.
- 2 A-levels at Grade C or above, or BTEC Level 3 equivalent, and normally three GCSEs at a minimum grade C/4, including English Language.
- Please reference the Entry Requirements webpage for additional international qualification equivalencies. For applicants with significant prior professional experience and aged 19-years or older, offers may be made under the BIMM University Recognition of Prior Practice Policy.
- Proof of English Language proficiency is required if English is not your first language. BIMM University Berlin requires equivalent to Level B2 CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).
Course Fees
We’re dedicated to giving our students the best education possible – which means accessing our globally successful first-rate lecturers in premium locations at the heart of Germany’s creative scene.
Such cutting-edge facilities can be expensive, but we make sure all BIMM University Berlin courses are great value for money – representing a practical and affordable investment for your future career in the industry.
Year 1
All students take the following core modules in their first year of study.
This first Creative Industries module will provide you with an overview of the games industry, its corners and edges, and – especially – its history. You’ll play a variety of games from the past and present by companies and teams of diverse sizes and focuses. In the second module, you’ll play games by a range of game companies and designers, analysing the contributions these authors have made to the games industry.
This module introduces you to the strategies and tools to set you on the right path toward pursuing a successful career in games. Whether focused on a particular career goal or considering several future possibilities, you will broaden your knowledge of the opportunities available to you as a future creative industry professional. The second module will further develop your investigative skills, exploring relevant underlying concepts and principles and interpreting these within the context of your area of study. You will explore the nature of creativity, the wider context of the game industry, and practise reflective techniques.
This module offers you an exploration of the intersection between foundational art principles and their practical implementation within game art. Through theoretical instruction and hands-on practise, developing your drawing, painting, sculpting, and other artistic skills. You will deepen your understanding of:
- Lines
- Shapes
- Figures
- Proportions
- Volume
- Depth
- Perspective
- Colour theory
- Light and shadow
You will also begin to work with storyboards, mood boards, and other artistic methods.
This module equips you, a prospective game artist, with the necessary knowledge and skills to construct visually-compelling and strategically-effective game assets.
On this module, you will master the visual game development pipeline. Develop your own 2D game lore and prepare, pack, and deploy your 2D art as homogenous collections of game assets. Explore and work on different visual styles, from pixel art and fantasy to punk and gothic, learn how to create sprites, experiment with concepts, and be introduced to UX/UI principles for games, art direction, and art bibles.
Immerse yourself in the world of Unity and Unreal, as well as other game engine tools. Enhance your proficiency in these pivotal game development tools, broaching topics such as scene assembly, fundamental control mechanisms, editor capabilities, and the intricacies of asset management and project deployment. While you conquer game engine functionality, you’ll also have the chance to build your own game mods.
This module provides you with an in-depth understanding of materials and lighting, foundational elements in 3D game art. These elements are indispensable for you to create realistic and immersive virtual environments. You’ll dive into the principles of how light interacts with different materials, the physics behind light reflection, refraction, and global illumination. Moreover, you’ll delve into the intricacies of how 3D objects unwrap and how you apply textures using UV mapping.
Work on the core principles of 3D modelling, from its fundamental use of edges, vertices, and polygons to creating geometry, understanding mesh topology, and the building of 3D assets for games. Encompassing both traditional polygonal modelling and digital sculpting, this module will equip you with essential skills to create virtual worlds and 3D objects from 2D concepts.
Practise the creation of realistic and immersive virtual environments and foundational 3D game art by working with materials and lighting on 3D software. Learn how light interacts with different materials, the physics behind light reflection, refraction, and global illumination. Delve into the intricacies of how 3D objects unwrap, and how to apply textures using UV mapping.
Get your hands dirty building physical and digital versions of different game concepts. Practise iterative design through fun challenges, learn the principles of agile development, and work on the horizontal slice of a game.
This module will look at creating props for games, including objects held by player characters and environmental scatter. You will understand key research and design principles, understanding how to define art styles, build art bibles, and use those to create effective props for games.
Year 2
All students take the following core modules in their second year of study, plus two optional modules
*Please note that the offering of optional modules in individual Film Schools, in any given academic year, will be subject to the availability of resources and sufficient student interest.
Develop the skills to carry out individual investigation as a games professional. Learn to undertake secondary research to investigate the lineage of your own creative practice, directly applying ideas to your own discipline and development. Discover the techniques and methods to practically position yourself around a chosen research topic relevant to your own practice, and gain the skills to communicate your argument via a written essay or narrated slide presentation.
The concepts you explore in this module, including your positionality and identity, are themes you will encounter frequently as a creative professional.
Immerse yourself in the creation of highly detailed 3D models using software such as ZBrush, Mudbox, and more. Sculpt, rig, and animate characters and props that show personality traits, emotions, and carefully crafted atmospheres. Play with a range of aesthetic styles prevalent in video games and implement your creations in games engines such as Unreal and Unity.
Gain further experience around the practical processes of game development, simulating experiences you are likely to encounter in professional studios. Structured around four distinct game development projects, with prototypes or fully-fleshed games as the outcome, this module introduces you to a variety of briefs and requirements from different sources, including direct input from the gaming industry, competitive environments, and academic collaborations.
Learn about shaders and explore advanced texturing and materials workflows.
This module ensures you’re equipped with the tools and understanding to design and implement state-of-the-art materials and shaders, ranging from stylised texture mapping and lighting to the advanced realms of shader programming and shader tools in game engines.
Collaboration and professionalism are essential skills in the games industry.
You will plan and collaboratively create a piece of work which links to your practice. Collaborating with others will help you develop new and innovative ideas and boost your confidence as a creative practitioner, while practising your communication, project management, reflection, and feedback skills.
Explore game development for various hardware platforms, including handhelds, mobile, or console. Create content for VR and AR applications, exploring design and physiological challenges, and examine hardware requirements, restrictions, and deployment processes.
Learn and implement the techniques to produce engaging and intuitive interfaces for games and innovative control methods, bringing those systems to life through visual design and motion graphics.
Explore procedural content creation techniques that optimise the speed of production. Delve into concepts of procedural content generation and rule-based system development using Houdini in conjunction with Unity or Unreal to create and design assets that allow artists and designers to generate and populate levels. You will also experiment with AI and other generation tools.
Learn and practise creating and implementing sound effects such as footsteps, gunshots, and ambient noise for your games, providing a sense of realism and immersion in the game world.
Discover how the music composition process involves creating original scores or licensing existing tracks to fit the game’s mood and tone, and how game engines and middleware like FMOD and Wwise provide tools for integrating sound effects and music, allowing for dynamic and responsive soundscapes.
Pending
Students will explore basic animation principles in relation to games design and games engines. Starting with simple sprite animations and progressing to building in-game animation state machines. Students will be tasked with understanding and building animation driven character controllers.
Pending
Students will use the key engines technologies they have learnt to create content for VR and AR applications exploring the design and physiological challenges.
Pending
Students will expand on scripting techniques both using code and visual forms. They’ll explore data types and more advanced techniques to facilitate tools and gameplay.
Pending
Students will learn a robust character design process by developing a brief or concept, creating call-out sheets and working to reference images. They will produce detailed sculpts of multiple characters, drawing upon their foundational art skills to create realistic-looking people.
Pending
This module continues the exploratory work you began in Context & Culture of the Creative Industries.
You will directly apply ideas to your own discipline and development, selecting an area of investigation relevant to your own practice, and communicating your argument via your medium of choice. The concepts you encounter will actively critique claims to authenticity and originality – themes you will encounter frequently throughout your career as a creative professional.
You will debate artistic production, the motivations for it, and the problems of creative autonomy. You will investigate relevant contemporary cultural issues and theories relating to society, race, gender, technology, and the environment to develop your contextual understanding of how these relate to your own creative practice, professional values, and sense of personal agency.
You will be encouraged to meet with your Personal Adviser in a 1:1 tutorial to help you reflect on the strengths and areas for development identified in your Personal and Professional Development Plan in first year, tracking your academic progress and setting new actions that will support you to achieve your best work. The research methods and study habits you develop throughout this module will prepare you for next year’s Final Project, in which you will self-direct a significant piece of academic, creative and/or professional practice.
Pending
This module covers the skills required to produce game environments. Students will learn to project manage, organise construction into modular elements, implement specific 3D modelling and sculpting/texture workflows, and integrate assets into a game engine. They will understand how to shape story and player experience through environmental factors and how to take skill learnt at the prop level to a more substantial piece.
Pending
This module covers the skills required to produce game environments. Students will learn to project manage, organise construction into modular elements, implement specific 3D modelling and sculpting/texture workflows, and integrate assets into a game engine. They will understand how to shape story and player experience through environmental factors and how to take skill learnt at the prop level to a more substantial piece.
Year 3
All students take the following core modules in their third (and final) year of study, plus one optional module.
*Please note that the offering of optional modules in individual Film Schools, in any given academic year, will be subject to the availability of resources and sufficient student interest.
Explore the crucial initial phases of game development. Learn and practise comprehensive planning and leverage research-driven ideation to produce compelling game ideas. Learn to pinpoint your target market and tailor your game to their preferences. Hone your skills in pitching game concepts, choose the most suitable project management methodologies, and ensure optimal project scope. A highlight of the course will be guidance in crafting a vertical slice, a representation of your game’s core design and mechanics.
Bring your game concept or game assets to life, navigating the challenges of game development while also engaging in the negotiation process to determine the assessment criteria of your project. Deliver a project aiming for a professional level of project management and quality assurance, keeping a developer diary to record your journey.
This module serves as the final step in preparing you for a career in the games industry. It encourages critical self-evaluation of your personal learning journey and industry engagements thus far, drawing on evidence from your entire student experience.
You will explore concepts and theories of personal and professional development to assess your readiness for work. You will have the opportunity to engage with specialised workshops, facilitated by industry experts and informed by our extensive industry connections, to provide valuable knowledge and help you develop the skills needed to launch your career.
The culmination of this module is the creation of a portfolio or showreel that showcases your talent and effectively communicates your unique professional identity.
Shape story and player experience through environmental setups. Become the architect of well-crafted and compelling game environments. Learn the techniques used to convey atmosphere within game worlds, focusing on how game art professionals utilise environments to tell stories. Gain an understanding of how space, objects, and level design collaborate to create narratives, both explicit and implicit.
By the end of the module, you will have a solid grasp of how to use the environment as an effective medium for conveying story elements, enhancing player immersion, and elevating the overall gaming experience.
Apply the skills and knowledge that you have gained during your studies at BIMM University and produce an extended piece of work exploring your creative practice. You will generate a project idea then extend and develop this project through to completion.
Pending
This module focuses on enhancing techniques to produce engaging and intuitive interfaces for games and innovative control methods alongside bringing those systems to life through graphic design and motion graphics including VR/AR interfaces.
Pending
Students will explore more advanced animation principles in relation to games design and games engines. Using creature and human rigs students will be challenged to create live rigs for virtual production and optical capture.
Pending
Many people in the creative technology sector go on to work in freelance roles or have ambitions to set up their own businesses. This module will look at key business examples of how that works, how you can access funding and what good management of people looks like. Participants will be expected to create a high-level business plan for a future business.
Pending
Students will explore storytelling and interactivity through the lens of worldbuilding and game lore. Students will explore how traditional storytelling practice has shifted and changed through the application of player agency.
Dr. Enrique Perez is a game developer, researcher, artist, consultant with over fifteen years of experience…
Giorgio Chiappa (he/him/his) is a Berlin-based researcher and educator whose work explores the dynamic intersection of…
After completing her bachelor's degree in Computer Science at TU Berlin, Kerstin decided to pursue her…
Kevin has been working as a Game Designer for the last 15 years. Starting from work…
Mischa Wasmuth is a Full Stack Developer, bringing over a decade of expertise in game development…
Nathalie Lawhead is a game designer, and experimental software developer, who's work invokes the iconography of…
Any questions?
For any questions regarding our courses or if you’d like more information on how to apply to BIMM University Berlin, please contact our Admissions Team on +49 (0)30 311 99 186 or email admissions@bimm-university.de.
