BA (Hons) Game Arts and Design

If you haven’t applied to the University of Plymouth for September 2019 entry, prior to the UCAS deadline, there may still be vacancies on your chosen course.

It’s not too late to apply

• Our course is designed in close collaboration with games developers and researchers to ensure technologies, skills and techniques are up to date.
  
• Access all areas – our dedicated lab space open until 10pm, and take advantage of our other amazing facilities, including a 35-seat, 360° immersive vision theatre.
  
• Your assessments are 100 per cent coursework – no exams.
  
• Be inspired by lecturers who are experts in their field, with backgrounds in both industry and research. The exciting work going on in our research groups, i-DAT and Planetary Collegium, feeds back into the teaching on this course.
  
• Get ready for work - take an optional additional year and secure a paid placement with a games company. 
  
• Broaden your horizons with great enrichment activities including overseas field trips.  Previous locations have included Berlin, Helsinki and New York. 
  
• Get exclusive insights with talks from guest speakers from the creative arts and technology industries.
  

• Year 1

• Get a grounding in key techniques and gain a critical understanding of the theories behind game development. You are introduced to character development, interaction technologies and approaches to immersion, along with the coding skills and creative design strategies that underpin them.
  

  Core modules

  • DAT406 Digital Making

    This module introduces students to a key set of digital technologies that are core to the production of current digital artwork. This will include exposure to a wide range of software, hardware and networking components commonly used by digital artists and designers. This is a Plymouth Plus module.

  • DAT411 Disruptive Design Strategies

    This module introduces students to practical and creative processes that encourage experimentation and foster critical thinking. Through conceptual understanding of artistic practice combined with technical production skills in a range of areas, such as 2D and 3D design, digital fabrication, and physical computing (electronics and microcontrollers), students are expected to develop physical prototypes and media outputs that demonstrate innovative thinking within a multi-disciplinary context. Induction is given to a fully-equipped maker space, digital fabrication suites, and a 360° Immersive Vision Theatre.

  • GAD402 Immersive Experience

    This module introduces issues and techniques involved in designing and developing immersive experiences. This module takes a user-centred approach to the production of virtual and blended reality environments (including a wide range of different styles and types of game. The key to this module is the combination and integration of sensory stimuli to produce an engaging and compelling, whilst at the same time coherent user experience.

  • GAD405 Creative Coding

    This module provides an introduction to programming for digital artists and designers. The syllabus, topics, examples and style of teaching are designed to support interaction, graphics, video, animation, sound, embedded systems and integration with live data sources.

  • GAD412 Narrative Sequence

    You will explore interactive storytelling and animation / sequence creation within your work via a range of traditional and digital media and formats. Storytelling, narrative pacing, creative writing and animation are features of this module. Critical reflective writing underpins practical work.

  • GAD413 3D Design for Games

    Students create character and environment concepts as digital paintings, and realise their designs as detailed 3D models. Drawing and painting skills are developed, exploring figure, proportion, lighting, colour and value. Students learn advanced modelling and texturing skills using state-of-the-art software platforms, rigging their characters for animation and exporting them to game engines. In addition, students develop presentation skills and showcase their work in a digital portfolio.

• Year 2

• You are introduced to advanced design and programming techniques, helping you develop your individual creative practice. Professional collaborations with industry give you insights into the benefits of both individual and group ways of working.
  

  Core modules

  • DAT502 Creative Industries

    This module explores the dynamic changes that are sweeping through traditional media and communications industries, brought about by the impact of new technologies. It explores, through group production projects, the practical issues underpinning the management of distributed organisations. The module includes an international field trip

  • GAD511 Game Programming

    This module builds on the game programming skills developed to this point, and applies them to working with a range of different game genres. Students explore first-person shooters, 3rd-person adventures, driving games, 2D platformers and arcade shoot `em ups. Working individually, they choose two of these genres and produce games that demonstrates the application of animation, physics, trigonometry, artificial intelligence, user interface, and game state management.

  • GAD512 Level Design

    This module focuses on designing virtual environments and game levels. Students will consider the ludic and narrative role of level design and apply these to the production of an interactive game environment. Students will be presented with a variety of theoretical frameworks that will help them better understand human cognitive processes and thus aid them in designing and creating more engaging game levels. Automated procedural generation will also be explored.

  • ILLUS511 Technique and Approach 2

    Individual research identifies, analyses, and communicates an investigation into the work of an individual or a group of practitioners in illustration or an allied practice. Lectures and research run concurrently throughout the module, to support the writing of an essay. Preparation for dissertation is undertaken. Drawing skills develop along with knowledge of the value of drawing within your illustrative practice.

• Placement year (optional)

• An optional paid 48-week work placement offers invaluable practical work experience. We recommend it because it enhances your final year of study and you are also more likely to receive project sponsorship and immediate employment with your placement company after you graduate.
  

  Core modules

  • FAPY602 Industry Placement

    A 48-week period of professional training spent as the third year of a sandwich programme undertaking an approved placement with a suitable company. This provides an opportunity for the student to gain relevant industrial experience to consolidate the first two stages of study and to prepare for the final stage and employment after graduation.

• Final year

• Focus on your own particular areas of interest by selecting from a range of optional modules and a significant final year project. These allow you to develop skills relevant to industry and enhance your employability.
  

  Core modules

  • GAD631 Final Year Project

    The Final Year Project is student-led, negotiated through close liaison with an allocated supervisor. Students are expected to develop a creative, practical industry-standard project, accompanied with a written work that demonstrates sophisticated research methods, a critical engagement to theoretical discourses and debates, an understanding of production processes, and a developed awareness of markets, audiences, and industrial contexts. The practical element needs to comprise of a significant digital media production that is innovative and experimental in its approach and placed within a contemporary framework. Resources such as software, hardware, and labs, as well as tutorials in research and writing are given to the students to ensure they are fully-equipped to produce a sophisticated result. The final works are exhibited on the Degree Show at the end of the school year.

  Optional modules

  • DAT621 Realtime Performativity

    This module prepares students for the future of web and Internet systems by introducing them to state-of-the-art and currently emerging technologies in this area, with an aim to develop practical and theoretical techniques that inform the production of complex web systems. The module makes extensive use of the IBM WebSphere and its applications on the Smarter Planet initiative, which presents innovative solutions for industries, cities, and whole societies by utilizing intelligent connectivity, cognitive computing applications, automation, and optimized data-driven systems. The module is optional, and it is recommended for students that are interested in pursuing specialization on web development.

  • DAT624 Venture Cultures

    This module introduces students to the concepts of entrepreneurship through the practical exploration of individual, collaborative and organisational creative enterprise. Operating as a pragmatic vehicle for generating new ventures within the creative industries, the formation of prototype companies enables students to rehearse the commercialisation of their practice. By the end of this module, students have in place a business plan for a start-up company of a digital product or service related to their field of expertise, i.e. interactive design, web development, immersive media, gaming, Internet of Things, etc. Industry experts are invited frequently to provide guidance for the students¿ projects, and to give valuable advice and feedback for the final project outcomes. The module is optional.

  • DAT625 Machine Learning for Artistic Practice

    This module covers machine learning and its applications within the areas of digital media, such as big data and visualization, automation, conversational agents, and voice, face, and sentiment recognition systems. The students are given a comprehensive historical overview of ¿intelligent¿ computational agents, from cybernetics to DeepMind, Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit, Baidu AI, and IBM Watson, and they focus on understanding and implementing contemporary development practices in machine learning and Artificial Intelligence, with an emphasis on creative applications for artistic practice. The module is optional, and it is recommended for students that are interested in pursuing a BSc degree and a specialization on information design.

  • GAD621 Gameplay and X-Reality

    This module explores contemporary frameworks for gameplay and virtual environments (AR, VR, XR), with a focus on production methodologies and the broader field of ¿play¿ within a creative and technological context. It provides a grounding in relevant cultural, social, psychological, and economic theories, as well as strategies for synthesis of design and production of experimental prototypes. Practical workshops cover game development platforms (3D modelling and animation, game engines, motion capture systems), as well as speculative and emerging environments for AR/VR/XR development, including headsets, tracking technologies, and sensory-based systems. The module is optional, and it is recommended for students that are interested in pursuing specialization on game design and immersive media.

Every undergraduate taught course has a detailed programme specification document describing the course aims, the course structure, the teaching and learning methods, the learning outcomes and the rules of assessment.

The following programme specification represents the latest course structure and may be subject to change:

BA Hons Game Arts and Design programme specification 2019 2020 5837

UCAS tariff

112