Games Development MA

This programme runs as part of a suite of six courses available from Digital Media Kingston: User Experience Design MA/MSc, Games Development MA/MSc and 3D Computer Generated Imagery MA/MSc.

This new suite of courses are twinned across the arts and sciences to prepare you for employment in the digital media industry where teams of specialists work together to develop and author innovative digital media projects.

The courses have been specifically designed to utilise the best digital media expertise and resources from across the three faculties of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA); Art and Social Sciences (FASS); Science, Engineering and Computing (SEC). They have been developed in consultation with our industry panel which includes representatives from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, DreamWorks and Samsung Design Europe.

The emphasis on project and team work provides an industry-focused learning experience where you can hone your own specialist skills in a professional context. Work placements, real projects, internships and an industry mentoring scheme mean these courses will arm you for entry into the fast-growing and highly competitive digital media arena.

What will you study?

In the introductory part of the course, common across all DMI courses, you will work with other students from diverse academic, creative and technical backgrounds to experience the commonalities in professional digital media practice.

The second part of the course is shared with Games Development MSc and 3D Computer Generated Imagery MA/MSc students. It focuses on the craft of computer animation and visual effects, including the core 3D graphics skills of modelling, shading, lighting, rendering, animation and rigging, and associated skills such as rotoscoping and match moving.

The specialist modules focus on developing experiential interfaces and games design principles. Optional modules allow you to either develop an individual design project and/or specialise in narrative, audio or experience design in project work with other DMi students.

For your final project you will be encouraged to work in a team, taking a professional role (eg programmer, level designer, art director etc) to produce a professional piece of work. Alternatively you may undertake an industry-based project.

Please note that this is an indicative list of modules and is not intended as a definitive list. Those listed here may also be a mixture of core and optional modules.

Core modules

• Digital Interdisciplinary Practice

• Digital Interdisciplinary Practice

  Responding to the changes and new demands of the digital media Industries, the focus of Digital Interdisciplinary Practice is establishing students' team-working skills through innovative project development practices devised in consultation with external advisors from industry.  These may be innovative and complex and involve high-levels of creative problem solving and user testing, developing students' ability to interpret,  interact and participate in iterative design processes and agile development practices.  Students' will be expected to present work in the context of their own practice, making their understanding of development processes for digital media clear and contextualising their own contribution.  They will also be expected to develop an understanding of how iterative design processes and agile development practices relate to career opportunities in the digital media industries, cultivate their professional practice and initiate professional standard working relationships towards group projects.

  
   
• Digital Content Production Processes

• Digital Content Production Processes

  This module forms one of the cornerstones of the Digital Media suite of courses and is one of two modules that all students will take. Its focus is on the various modes of production such as but not limited to: games production, mobile computing, online social spaces and interactive media. Indicative content may include idea development formalisations, responding to a brief, researching the brief, developing a pitch, pre-production paperwork, production pipelines, post production and testing etc. These practices will be contextualised by emerging and constantly changing legal frameworks of intellectual property, digital rights in the 21^st Century and the increasing concerns over accessibility are also explored.

  
   
• Fundamentals of CGI

• Fundamentals of CGI

  It is anticipated that students undertaking this module will already have experience of 3D computer generated imagery (CGI) in some form. This module develops student's skills up to a level that will enable them to continue with project components at postgraduate level. This will include the theoretical aspects of CGI. The module will ensure that students are competent in the preferred industry standard software used on this postgraduate course.

  
   
• Applications of CGI

• Applications of CGI

  This module will further develop your skills in 3D CGI modelling and rendering to an advanced level. You will specialise in the area specific to your overall degree course. This module will enable you to specialise in creating models for buildings, environments and interior spaces, photorealistic rendering and compositing into live action.

  
   
• Experience Design I

• Experience Design I

  The focus of this module is 'active design research'. The context is emerging principles of experience design media in advertising and cultural (as well as) spatial consumption.  You will:

  • interrogate the meaning of experience design;
  • evaluate the cultural contexts of 'good' and 'bad' experience design (in, for example, mobile and interactive);
  • produce prototypes for the purpose of design research; and
  • have the opportunity to design and apply primary research and user experience analyses to your own prototypes. 

  Throughout the module, we will encourage you to develop and investigate the possibility of experience design proposals for all sensory modes (see, hear, touch, smell and taste).

  
   
• Games Design

• Games Design

  Games development is a highly complex, intensive process requiring teams of programmers, artists, project managers, writers, musicians and many others. The game designer is central to this process and designers must be able to communicate their vision to artists, programmers, producers, marketing staff, and others involved in the development process, and accept feedback on their work. This involves presenting ideas both verbally and on paper and in technical demos, in a range of 2D and 3D graphics and animation packages, with some programming skills at least at scripting' level.

  
   

Option modules

• Sequences and Stories

• Sequences and Stories

  This module aims to:

  • develop an understanding of classic and alternative narrative structures and storytelling device;  
  • develop analytical skills that can be used to understand a scene shot by shot with respect to narrative functions;
  • explore verbal storytelling - discourse and deliver;
  • develop a critical awareness of the relationship between filmmaker and audience;
  • encourage you to use your own personal experiences, and your knowledge of a variety of media to develop stories of your own with both verbal and visual components;
  • learn storyboarding skills and give you the opportunity to critically evaluate your own practice.
  
   
• Digital Audio

• Digital Audio

  This module aims to:

  • develop your understanding of digital music production;
  • provide you with the skills to use MIDI qequencers and samplers in the creation of audio files; e.g. sound effects, music, samples, field recording, MIDI, etc.;
  • to enhance your understanding of the makeup of analog and digital audio;
  • engage you critically with the principles of sound design for digital media products including websites, CDRoms, digital video and mobile content.
  
   
• Live Project

• Live Project

  This optional module for both MA and MSc students uses your previous experience to this point. A live brief will be customised and developed with a professional industry organisation or partner. This will set a demanding challenge for you to address future facing problems in digital media production.

  
   
• Design Research Project
• Experience Design II

• Experience Design II

  In this module you will produce an integrated interaction/experience design project with digital media tools of your own choosing.

  Drawing on concepts and theories explored in Experience Design I, you will continue to work in groups. You will extend your principle investigations to produce a prototype to cover all the human senses – sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. The prototype design should work both within and beyond the screen.

  You have the opportunity in this module to explore and/or experiment with the possibility of one or more experience design methodologies, which will include structural design elements for the five senses.

  
   

Staff from three faculties teach on this course.

Find out more...

Read about our new state of the art games laboratory.

Find out more...

We want to make sure you get all the support you need while you are with us. Here you can see the range of support we can offer you while you're doing this course.

Find out more...