Transform your passion for gaming into something enduring. Our Game Design BA will nurture your creativity, strengthen your technical know-how, and develop your understanding of the video games sector. Apply your talent across game art, audio, narrative design and storytelling through a combination of core modules in game design, with optional ones from computer science, film, media, sound design and business.

Course overview

Explore the imaginative world of computer game design and gain a holistic overview of this thriving industry on Keele's Game Design BA. You will develop a portfolio of professional work and gain specialist expertise to give you a range of skills and experiences upon graduation.

The course is designed for those who are interested in exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of games design, including 3D modelling, animation, and creative storytelling. It provides an opportunity for you to develop the collaborative, and technical skills to produce exciting new computer games. It will introduce you to key principles of game design, from creating characters and virtual worlds, scripting and programming, to designing the sounds and graphics that make for entertaining and engaging games.

In year one you will explore game design theory and history and develop your understanding of the principles and practices of crafting games. You will examine the different elements that come together to shape a great gaming experience and acquire foundational programming skills, with the option to pursue more advanced programming for games in later years. You will start to generate your own ideas for games, learn about choice-based storytelling techniques and recognise the importance of narrative in game creation.

Your second year develops your theoretical understanding and advances your creative and collaborative skills in games visuals and art, sound design, levelling, and world-building. You will discover the pipelines and processes used in prototyping games and gain further hands-on experience of creating 2D and 3D assets. Specialist skills such as filtering and spectral domain techniques will give you the tools for creative projects such as foley effects and computer game soundtracks.

Our Foundation Year provides an excellent alternative route to Keele, providing a unique opportunity to better prepare for your chosen degree, and with guaranteed entry onto your undergraduate course once you successfully complete your Foundation Year.

This extra year of study can improve your academic skills, expand your subject knowledge, give you a better understanding of higher education and, perhaps most importantly of all, build your confidence.

Your future career

The UK video games industry is the one of the largest in the world, vitally important economically and culturally. Games are among the UKs most valuable and fastest-growing forms of entertainment media.

This course will equip you with the creative and technical skills to prepare you for a range of careers, whether that is in the gaming sector, the wider creative industries, or beyond.

You will graduate with a portfolio of creative work with which you can showcase your distinctive skills and experiences to prospective employers and investors.

As well as the subject-specific capabilities, you will hone transferable skills including collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking, and communicating complex material to a range of audiences.

Jobs that a graduate of this course could progress on to include:

Games Producer

Writer for games

Animator for games

Programmer for games

Sound designer for games

Games Tester

Artist for games

Level Designer

Duration of study: 3 years / 4 years with international or placement year