BA (Hons) Games Design and Development

In this module you will carry out an individual investigation, utilising secondary research to investigate the lineage of your creative practice. 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 in written or via a 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.

This module offers you exposure to practical game development processes, simulating experiences you will likely encounter in professional studios. Structured around four distinct development projects, the course introduces you to a variety of briefs from different sources, including direct input from the gaming industry, competitive environments, and academic collaborations.

This module will require you to utilise your acquired knowledge to plan and create, collaboratively, a piece of work that links to your practice. Collaborating with others can help you develop new and innovative ideas and can also help you develop confidence as a creative practitioner whilst practising your communication, project management, reflection and feedback skills.

This module offers an intricate exploration into game design, prioritizing the creation of compelling player experiences. The curriculum not only covers advanced design principles but delves deeply into level design and the art of “game feel” – the tactile, emotional feedback a player gets from interactions within the game. Drawing from player psychology, motivation theory, and the PENS (Player Experience of Need Satisfaction) model, you will be equipped to craft memorable game experiences that resonate deeply with players.

This module dives into the art and craft of intertwining compelling narratives within the interactive medium of games. You’ll explore how stories are structured, told, and integrated, examining the unique challenges and opportunities that games present for storytelling. Throughout the module, you’ll unravel the intricate dynamics between player agency, branching narratives, and linear storytelling, aiming to craft experiences that resonate deeply with players and leave a lasting impact.

This module focuses on learning 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.

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.

This module will introduce participants to the concept of procedural content creation which can substantially increase the speed of production. The sessions will look at the basic concepts of proceduralism and rule-based system development with students using Houdini in conjunction with Unity or Unreal to create and design assets that will allow artists and designers to generate and populate levels. Students will also experiment with AI art generation tools.

This module introduces the art direction and creation of highly-detailed 3D models using software such as ZBrush or Mudbox. The models are then rigged with a digital skeleton, allowing for animation and movement in game engines like Unity or Unreal.

This module introduces Materials and Shaders, Shaders are small programs that run on the graphics processing unit (GPU) of a computer, allowing for real-time rendering of objects with realistic lighting and shading effects. These effects can include reflections, refractions, and even dynamic weather patterns. Materials define the surface properties of objects, such as texture, colour, and reflectivity. They work in conjunction with shaders to create the final appearance of an object in a game world

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.

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.

Sound design involves creating and implementing sound effects, such as footsteps, gunshots, and ambient noise, to provide a sense of realism and immersion in the game world. Music composition involves creating original scores or licensing existing tracks to fit the game’s mood and tone.

Game engines and middleware like FMOD and Wwise provide tools for integrating sound effects and music into the game, allowing for dynamic and responsive soundscapes that change in response to player actions and events in the game world.

Students will explore design for various hardware platforms: this might include handhelds, mobile or console. They will examine hardware requirements, restrictions and deployment processes.

Students will use the key engines technologies they have learnt to create content for VR and AR applications exploring the design and physiological challenges.

This module will enable you to 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.

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.

In this module you will dive deep into the nuanced art of creating intricate, immersive, and believable game universes. This advanced module emphasizes not only the design of worlds but also the lore, cultures, ecosystems, and histories that make them resonate with players. By its conclusion, you’ll possess a comprehensive toolkit for crafting dynamic and interconnected game worlds that captivate audiences and enhance gameplay.

In this module, you’ll explore the crucial initial phases of game development. Through this journey, you appreciate the importance of comprehensive planning and leverage research-driven ideation to produce compelling game ideas. As you refine your concept, you learn to pinpoint your target market and tailor your game to their preferences. You also hone your skills in pitching game concepts, choose the most suitable project management methodologies, and ensure the optimal project scope. A highlight of the course will be guiding you in crafting a vertical slice, a representation of your game’s core design and mechanics.

In this module, you will 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. You will deliver a project aiming for a professional level of project management and quality assurance, keeping a developer diary to record your journey.

Students will be exposed to incorporating game engine technology into film and TV workflows initially using comping techniques and moving onto using virtual volumes.

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.

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.

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.