This is a degree in world-making. You craft stories, characters and plot in order to build imaginary worlds that a player can journey through. Our work is driven by creativity and imagination as well as technical excellence at Essex you master both game design and computer programming, giving you total control over the worlds you want to create.

Our course gives you the skills to design and specify complex, non-trivial games through focusing on the following areas:

The mechanics of a game, including gameplay elements and the relationship with story

The concepts and techniques of computer game programming

Real and virtual worlds

Artificial intelligence behaviours for non-player characters

2D and 3D graphic effects and game objects (e.g. weapon systems)

At the end of your course, you will be able to create the outline design specification for a computer game of your own design, and to implement a game using industry-standard techniques.

Our School is a community of scholars leading the way in technological research and development. Today's computer scientists are creative people who are focused and committed, yet restless and experimental. We are home to many of the world's top scientists, and our work is driven by creativity and imagination as well as technical excellence.

Both for entertainment and for more serious purposes such as virtual reality training, computer games, gamification and games intelligences are increasingly important in today's world.

Study abroad

Your education extends beyond the university campus. We support you in expanding your education through offering the opportunity to spend a year or a term studying abroad at one of our partner universities. The four-year version of our degree allows you to spend the third year abroad or employed on a placement abroad, while otherwise remaining identical to the three-year course.

Placement year

Alternatively, you can spend your third year on a placement with an external organisation, as part of one of our placement year degrees. The learning outcomes associated with this programme focus on using the specialist technical skills acquired in the first two years of the course and developing communications skills with customers.