The Art of Games Design

Why study with us?

This course enables you to develop your skills in a wide range of disciplines ranging from 3D modelling, texturing, lighting, concept art, drawing and the core specialisation of your choice. We’re keen to share our expertise with you so if you aspire to be an art director, designer, concept artist, modeller or animator, apply now.

The class sizes are kept small and the course has been structured and designed with input from industry to ensure that the right skill sets are being taught. Assignments range from technical briefs to develop your core skills to briefs from industry that allow you to try real world tasks, to creative briefs where the only limit is your imagination. The ultimate goal being, if you can imagine something, you can build it.

Each year our students never fail to amaze us with what they produce.

What can this course lead to?

Successful completion gives you the opportunity to either continue for an extra year on the BA (Hons) Digital Arts top-up course to complete a full BA with honours or stop your studies and make the transition to industry.

Graduates from our courses have gone on to win major awards including eight regional and national Royal Television Society Awards, and to work on major projects all over the world in many different subject areas.

Graduates were part of the teams that made video games including Fable III, Killzone 2, and Crackdown 2, graduates were also part of the post productions teams involved in making movies including Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Happy Feet, Quantum of Solace and the Chronicles of Narnia.

Peter Roe now works for Pixar and is currently working on The Bear. Ian Wharton now is a creative partner in Zolmo who developed the Jamie Oliver Cooking Application for the iPhone. Michael Malinowski works for Lionhead Studios. Uisdean Ross is at TT Games and spends his time working with Digital Legos.

Resources and facilities

You will work with and become adept in the most up-to-date versions of industry-standard software which include: 3ds Max, Maya, XSI and ZBrush.

Students have primary access to three computer labs to work on their projects and attend classes. These are all equipped with the relevant hardware to enable them to produce high quality work in a timely manner.

Students also have access to other dedicated resources including Wacom Tablets, Nikon D80s, HD Video cameras and all current major video game consoles.

Have a look at our learning resources for Games Design and Digital Art.

News

Award winning graduate demonstrates his 'app'titude
Ian Wharton, a globally-successful University of Cumbria graduate, visited Brampton Road campus and proved to be an inspiration to current students on multimedia design courses.

Entry requirements 100 UCAS points

Find out more about equivalent qualifications on the UCAS tariff table.

Please check any additional selection criteria below .

Credit and UCAS requirements UCAS code: W280 UCAS points: 100 Selection criteria

Potential students are asked for interview and to bring a portfolio of work. This can include examples of your course work, sketchbooks and projects you have worked on in your spare time. Occasionally applicants do not have any work to show and that's fine - it's why you are coming to study here. What we really want to see is work you are passionate about, what interests you and what challenges you.

The actual interview is quite informal. You'll be asked a few questions to help us get to know you and your portfolio will be reviewed. You'll also have the opportunity to ask us questions, view student work and tour our welcoming campus. Feel free to bring family and friends, they are welcome.

Costs

Click the links below to view information on your study type and residence status. If you are unsure of your status, please see the UKCISA website for more information.

Full-time students

• Home

The tuition fee for the 2013/14 academic year has been set at £6,200 (including an automatic £800 fee discount).

As a full-time UK student, you are entitled to a tuition fee loan which doesn’t have to be repaid until you start earning £21,000 (if you're from England) or £15,795 (if you're from Scotland). You may also be eligible for a maintenance loan (up to £5,500) and a maintenance grant (up to £3,354). For more information about student loans and grants, visit our student finance page.

Additional funding

National Scholarship Programme

The National Scholarship Programme is designed to support students with a household income of less than £25,000. Full-time students may be eligible for one of 110 NSP awards for full-time students worth up to £6,000.

Cumbria Bursary

The Cumbria Bursary is an annual cash award of £1,000 for up to three years of study. There are 300 Cumbria Bursaries available in 2013.

More financial support

Access to financial support doesn’t end at registration. We have several awards and support funds available to our current students, including:

• Achievement scholarships
• Outstanding performance awards
• Access to Learning Fund
• Utilities trust

• EU

The tuition fee for the 2013/14 academic year has been set at £6,200 (including an automatic £800 fee discount).

As a full-time EU student, you are entitled to a tuition fee loan which doesn’t have to be repaid until you start earning £21,000 a year (or the equivalent in your country). For more information about student loans, visit our student finance page.

Additional funding

National Scholarship Programme

The National Scholarship Programme is designed to support students with a household income of less than £25,000. Full-time students may be eligible for one of 110 NSP awards for full-time students worth up to £6,000.

Cumbria Bursary

The Cumbria Bursary is an annual cash award of £1,000 for up to three years of study. There are 300 Cumbria Bursaries available in 2013.

More financial support

Access to financial support doesn’t end at registration. We have several awards and support funds available to our current students, including:

• Achievement scholarships
• Outstanding performance awards
• Utilities trust

• International

The tuition fee for the 2013/14 academic year has been set at £9,960.

Fees are billed annually and may be paid by the student or a sponsor. 75 percent of the annual tuition fees must be paid before or at registration. For students requiring a Tier 4 Student Visa, a deposit of £3,500 is expected as a minimum before a CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies) will be issued. For more information, visit our international student finance page.

Early payment discount

If you are paying your own fees, you may be eligible for an early payment discount of £1,000. This discount is awarded to students who pay in full before registration.

Additional funding

National Scholarship Programme

The National Scholarship Programme is designed to support students with a household income of less than £25,000. Full-time students may be eligible for one of 110 NSP awards for full-time students worth up to £6,000.

Cumbria Bursary

The Cumbria Bursary is an annual cash award of £1,000 for up to three years of study. There are 300 Cumbria Bursaries available in 2013.

Additional financial support

Our money doctors will be on hand throughout the year to help you manage your money while you’re in the UK. However, if you do happen to run into financial difficulty during your time here, you may be able to access a small emergency support fund.

Part-time students

• Home

The tuition fee for students starting study in the 2013/14 academic year is £6,200 (including an automatic £800 fee discount). This fee is billed annually. For part-time students, the annual fee is calculated based on the number of years you take to complete your course. For example, a student studying part-time for six years may expect to pay £3,100 per year (where the full-time option takes three years).

As a part-time UK student, you are entitled to a tuition fee loan which doesn’t have to be repaid until you start earning £21,000 (if you're from England) or £15,795 (if you're from Scotland). For more information about student loans and grants, visit our student finance page.

Additional funding

National Scholarship Programme

The National Scholarship Programme is designed to support students with a household income of less than £25,000. Full-time students may be eligible for one of 110 NSP awards for full-time students worth up to £6,000.

Cumbria Bursary

The Cumbria Bursary is an annual cash award of £1,000 for up to three years of study. There are 300 Cumbria Bursaries available in 2013.

More financial support

Access to financial support doesn’t end at registration. We have several awards and support funds available to our current students, including:

• Achievement scholarships
• Outstanding performance awards
• Access to Learning Fund
• Utilities trust

• EU

The tuition fee for the 2013/14 academic year has been set at £6,200 (including an automatic £800 fee discount). The tuition fee for students starting study in the 2013/14 academic year is £6,200 (including an automatic £800 fee discount). This fee is billed annually. For part-time students, the annual fee is calculated based on the number of years you take to complete your course. For example, a student studying part-time for six years may expect to pay £3,100 per year (where the full-time option takes three years).

As a part-time EU student, you are entitled to a tuition fee loan which doesn’t have to be repaid until you start earning £21,000 a year (or the equivalent in your country). For more information about student loans, visit our student finance page.

Additional funding

National Scholarship Programme

The National Scholarship Programme is designed to support students with a household income of less than £25,000. Full-time students may be eligible for one of 110 NSP awards for full-time students worth up to £6,000.

Cumbria Bursary

The Cumbria Bursary is an annual cash award of £1,000 for up to three years of study. There are 300 Cumbria Bursaries available in 2013.

More financial support

Access to financial support doesn’t end at registration. We have several awards and support funds available to our current students, including:

• Achievement scholarships
• Outstanding performance awards
• Utilities trust

Additional contact information

To see much more of what we do please visit our website:
http://digitalarts.cumbria.ac.uk

Maxwell Robertson
Senior Lecturer/ Programme Leader
Tel: 01228 400354
Email: maxwell.robertson@cumbria.ac.uk UCAS Link

Visit UCAS

Modules

For detailed summary of all course content please read our programme specification for this course (PDF).

Course summary

You develop the skills relevant to games design. You study a broad range of modules to equip you for a job market where you must be able to master changing skills over the course of your career.

In the first year you learn the basics of concept art, drawing, design, modelling, animation and narrative structure. You also follow a personal development module to help equip you for an ever changing workplace. In the second year you are introduced to more advanced concepts in games design and you work on projects in more depth.

These projects help you learn team-based skills and get you used to production pipelines, both features of the commercial world. Critical to success in games design are two complementary attributes. The technical parameters are important, but the artistic and creative aspects are even more so - you should be able to come up with ideas, visualise and develop them, and take them through to production.

All modules are supported by continuous assessment, peer review, in-class feedback and critiques. You are taught by staff with many years of experience in industry and education. Your learning is supported by up-to-date equipment, with software that reflects current industry practice.

Case studies

I'm now working as a Technical Director at Pixar Animation Studios in San Francisco. I've wanted to work at Pixar since I was 15 and actually getting to work alongside all the big-names here like John Lasseter, Ed Catmul, Pete Doctor, Andrew Stanton and Brad Bird is pretty surreal!
Peter Roe, Games Design

Project briefs are fun and interesting. You design and make characters, in addition to building video game levels and websites. The course is versatile in that you can cover any subject you want to. It really prepares you for the computer games industry.
Nicola Carr, FdA The Art of Games Design