Game Design BA

Transform your passion for gaming into something enduring. Our Game Design BA will nurture your creativity, strengthen your technical know-how, and develop your understanding of the video games sector. Apply your talent across game art, audio, narrative design and storytelling through a combination of core modules in game design, with optional ones from computer science, film, media, sound design and business.

Why choose this course?

- Explore the world of game development and gain a holistic understanding of how games are made.

- Build an industry standard, professional portfolio to showcase your skillset after graduation.

- Work with experts and industry-standard facilities and software to design original games.

- Work based learning is built in to the programme, so you can gain the hands-on experience and skills to prepare you for the future, including through work placements.

The course is designed for those who are interested in exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of games design, including 3D modelling, animation, and creative storytelling. It provides an opportunity for you to develop the collaborative, and technical skills to produce exciting new computer games. It will introduce you to key principles of game design, from creating characters and virtual worlds, scripting and programming, to designing the sounds and graphics that make for entertaining and engaging games.

You will learn from academic and industry experts, and you can choose to undertake work placements that give you the opportunity to apply the skills you have gained on the course to professional contexts. You will also study the games industry, learning about relevant commercial, cultural, and regulatory frameworks.

In year one you will explore game design theory and history, and develop your understanding of the principles and practices of crafting games. You will examine the different elements that come together to shape a great gaming experience and acquire foundational programming skills, with the option to pursue more advanced programming for games in later years. You will start to generate your own ideas for games, learn about choice-based storytelling techniques and recognise the importance of narrative in game creation.

Your second year develops your theoretical understanding, and advances your creative and collaborative skills in games visuals and art, sound design, levelling, and world-building. You will discover the pipelines and processes used in prototyping games and gain further hands-on experience of creating 2D and 3D assets. Specialist skills such as filtering and spectral domain techniques will give you the tools for creative projects such as foley effects and computer game soundtracks.

Progression into your final year will see you focus on applying many of the skills you have learnt in years one and two through working as part of a team to create an industry-standard game product. In this year, we turn to thinking about how you could use the skills you have acquired, to provide you with a solid understanding of industry techniques that you can utilise in the conception, design, and testing of your game ideas.

About Keele
Keele University was established in 1949 by the former Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. Founded to meet the needs of a changing world, Keele has always had a pioneering vision to be a different kind of university. We excel in both teaching and research, with some of the most satisfied students in England, and research that is changing lives for the better at a regional, national and global level.

Our beautiful 600-acre campus is one of the biggest in Britain – but all the most important services and facilities are on your doorstep, with accommodation, teaching spaces, facilities including a medical centre, sports centre and pharmacy, and a range of shops, eateries and entertainment venues – including the Students’ Union – clustered around the centre.