Our industry-focused BA (Hons) Games Development: Programming degree is designed to give you the tools to be able to develop your own games and replicates the professional environment of a game development studio.
If you’re interested in how games are played and programmed, this is the degree course for you. This exciting degree explores the fundamentals of game development and programming, giving you the skills needed to operate as a programmer building advanced games, and becoming an expert in programming and scripting languages.
Starting with the foundations of game development through to building an advanced game programming skill set, you’ll learn the basic principles, roles, and tools used in the game development pipeline. From there you’ll take your programming abilities to the next level, building games of your own, from scratch.
You’ll develop specialist skills in physical computing, virtual reality and artificial intelligence while becoming proficient in a range of relevant programming and scripting languages such as Python, C++ and C#.
As well as honing your skills, this degree course also looks to the future, where you’ll explore the trajectory of games, and where the industry, and technology is heading; ensuring you graduate armed and ready to adapt and diversify over time to stay relevant.
This course is taught by the dBs Institute and awarded by Access Creative College
This course is taught by the dBs Institute and awarded by Falmouth University
You will study a total of 16 modules, including a final major project. Programme structures and modules can change as part of our curriculum enhancement and review processes.
In year one of your Game Development: Programming degree, you'll learn what it takes to make a game, including asset creation, project management and pipelines, pitching ideas, and considering theories about what games are and how they engage players. You'll jump into the world of computing, get comfortable using digital tools such as Unity and Unreal and get to grips with the foundations of game development by learning the basic principles, roles, and tools used in the game development pipeline.
In the second year you will advance your programming skills and experience through a combination of solo and collaborative projects. You'll be tasked with creating a whole game world for production, exploring the relationships between games and players, and be encouraged to work collaboratively with other students from across the institution taking your skills across disciplines to produce a cross-discipline project that utilises skills and disciplines across Game Art and Game Programming.
Equipped with a greater sense of autonomy, you will use your third year as an opportunity to develop greater intellectual freedom, both as an individual but also in tackling a challenge in collaboration with others. You'll prepare yourself for the job market by building a professional game portfolio, as well as developing your commercial awareness and entrepreneurial mindset; be that setting up your own business, establishing yourself as a freelancer or being an employee with high utility within a business or organisation.
Enjoy the freedom to fit your learning around you. For online students, course content – other than one-to-one sessions – will be available to access whenever suits you. Video materials that have been created for online students will also be made available to students that select to study on-site.
You will learn from tutors whose expertise extends across production, composition, sound design, sound engineering, label management, marketing and promotion.
You’ll also have access to our extensive guest lecture programme, giving you the chance to meet leading industry professionals – ranging from respected producers and performers to specialist technical staff from world-class audio companies.
As a student of this course, you will be encouraged to apply for placements and opportunities with dBs Pro, our in-house creative audio company.
This will allow you to further your experience and apply the skills you have been honing, as well as showcase your skills to clients and develop your creative own links in the industry.
Who better to tell you about our course than students already doing the course? In this video, some of our latest cohort talk about their experience of the dBs online masters degrees.
Applying for this course is easy! Simply click the "Apply" button below to submit your application directly through our website.
A member of our Admissions Team will then be in touch to discuss your suitability for the course, your interests and to arrange an interview.
Applications for undergraduate degrees are made through the University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). You can apply online through the UCAS website.
Please note that the UCAS 'on-time' application deadline for equal consideration is Wednesday 25 January 2023.
If you would like to make an application for this course, fill in your details below and a member of our admissions team will be in touch to advise you through the application process.
For detailed information on how to apply please take a look at our guide to making an application.
If you’d like to find out more about our postgraduate courses, please fill in the form below. Once submitted, a member of our admissions team will be in touch to discuss our postgraduate course offerings and the next steps of the application process.
Please note, if you currently live outside of the UK and require a Tier 4 VISA to study in the United Kingdom, we are unable to accept your application for our on campus full-time or part-time postgraduate degree programmes. If this is the case, please apply for one of our online postgraduate courses instead.