Games Software Development – BSc (Honours)

At a glance

Learn the skills required to pursue a career as a software developer in the competitive games industry on this respected course. Designed in collaboration with top national and international games companies, it is one of only a small number of industry-accredited undergraduate courses in game programming in the UK.

Key points
• Benefit from established relationships with top games companies.• Excellent facilities include one of Europe's largest PlayStation® 3 teaching labs.
• One of only a small number of industry-accredited UK undergraduate game programming courses.
• Gain a competitive advantage with a one-year placement at one our partner organisations.

What is games software development?
Games software development is a course for game programmers. Programming games is one of the most challenging and rewarding fields of software engineering, demanding a strong grasp of programming, mathematics and hardware architectures combined with a creative passion for games and an ability to work within interdisciplinary teams.

This course

This course is for people interested in the technology of games and who would like to work in the games development industry or related areas. You study the skills and techniques that are demanded by the industry, such as • programming • software engineering and mathematics • software optimisation and using dedicated computer hardware for games. The course is one of only a small number in the country accredited by the British Computer Society and Skillset.

As a student, your career prospects are enhanced by the course’s long established relationships with global and national games companies such as Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, SN Systems and Sumo Digital. These companies support the course by providing equipment, inputting into the course design and ensuring we teach the very latest topics. For example, Sumo Digital now offer a placement scheme targeted at programming students from this course, providing two students on track for a first-class honours degree a one year placement with them.

Our excellent facilities include one of Europe's largest PlayStation® 3 teaching labs and the Digital Design Centre which boasts six specialist computers suites. We also have our own commercially licensed game development studio called Steel Minions.

In addition to working on Sony's consoles the course provides the opportunity to work on mobile platforms such as iOS and Android as well as a very strong emphasis on DirectX: the API used on PCs and Microsoft's Xbox consoles.

Once you’ve developed your skills in industry-standard facilities, you apply what you’ve learnt in to industry with a 12-15 month third-year placement, gaining important real world experience before you graduate. Previous students have obtained placements at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Sumo-Digital, Team17, SN Systems and Autodesk on salaries of up to £18,000.

You graduate with a personal portfolio of your work that you can show prospective employers, and we advise you how to maximise its potential. We also invite industry speakers to give talks on specialist topics and offer employability advice.

Key areas of study
During the course you
• develop programming skills
• use industry standard application programming interfaces such as Microsoft's DirectX and programming for the Sony PlayStation® 3 (PS3) and PlayStation® Portable (PSP)
• learn technologies and architectures for games
• study project management techniques
• use industry standard 3D graphics and modelling packages such as 3D Studio Max and Maya
• cover topics related to gaming, such as ethics