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Game and Level Design BA Honours

Gain the technical training and overall knowledge to build your creative portfolio and succeed in the competitive games industry and beyond
Code
W248
Start
September 2024
Duration
3 years full-time
Attendance
Full-time
Fees
£9,250 (UK)*
£16,600 (INT)*
Course leader
Penda Tomlinson

Do you want to design and balance game mechanics as well as tell stories? On this hands-on course, you'll be making games with a mix of digital and paper prototyping and planning from week one.

Why choose Game and Level Design BA at Middlesex?

Learn to design game mechanics as well as tell stories. Staff have experience across AAA, indie, tabletop and mobile gaming. You will develop your skills in designing and prototyping games as well as several forms of storytelling. On this highly practical course, you'll be making games with a mix of digital and paper prototyping and planning from week one.

Our students work with Middlesex students from our 3D animation, art and design, music, and computing departments as part of our coordinated workshop activities and making games.

Our links with industry partners also give you access to live briefs, guest lecturers, and potential employers. These include CCP, CD Projekt Red, Creative Assembly, King, Mediatonic, Media Molecule, and NaturalMotion among many others.

What you will gain

The games industry is complex, diverse and spans a variety of old and new technologies from print to computer software to 3D printed game pieces. This BA gives you the skills and knowledge you need to become a successful games designer in this fast-changing industry.

You’ll gain hands-on experience that will help you build your portfolio that will set you up for a successful career in a range of creative industries. This degree's mix of in-person and online teaching will prepare you for the distributed nature of the world of work.

You’ll develop your employability skills and industry connections with a range of work placements and internship opportunities. Year after year, students from this programme produce fantastic, high-quality game prototypes. Take a look at some of the games created by our students past and present.

3 great reasons to pick this course

  • 5th in London
    for overall student positivity (National Student Survey 2023)
  • Studio facilities second to none
    including: Professionally equipped Motion Capture studio, Green Screen room for Virtual Production, suites of digital workstations, 3D printing and scanning studio and a music recording studio
  • Develop your employability skills and make industry connections
    with a range of work placements and internship opportunities. Our links with industry partners give you access to live briefs, guest lecturers, and potential employers.

What you will learn

You will learn key skills, such as game design and prototyping, game engine scripting, environmental storytelling, game writing, idea generation and selection, game prototyping, basic programming, writing and storytelling for games and environmental design.


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Students use a range of software and techniques to make playable prototypes quickly, including Adventure Game Studio, RPGMaker, RenPy, Unity and Unreal.

The overall themes of this degree are project work, analysis, research, reflection, collaboration, making, diversity, play and experimentation.

Year 1

Your first year provides an overall introduction, where you will begin to learn the essential skills you need to become an effective games designer. These include such skills as, programming, level design, mechanics and some basic 3D modelling and sound editing. You will also learn about the broader context of games – their history and cultural impact, player experience and theories relating to game design.

Year 2

Your second year develops the topics that were introduced in year one with a greater emphasis on group work (including projects with students on other courses) and experimentation with environmental storytelling and non-linear storytelling skills.

Year 3

Your final year is where you can develop and specialise your skills even further and showcase your mastery with a significant project. You will produce a complete level environment using your advanced level design knowledge. You will develop your portfolio using updated project work from over your three years of study and undertake an industry-focused project, which may be the result of an internship, a live industry brief or a negotiated topic.

Modules

  • Year 1 - Compulsory

    • Prototyping and Scripting (30 credits)

      Develop an understanding of workflows for making game prototypes using two different game engines as examples.

    • Mechanics of Player Experience and Playtesting (30 credits)

      Explore the key theoretical concepts and history of game development and player experience-focused design.

    • Games Design Fundamentals (30 credits)

      Learn the key design processes and skills for games design from idea generation, evaluation, and pitching to testing a level prototype.

    • Professional Studio Practice 1 (30 credits)

      Collaborate on pitching, designing, and making a game prototype as groups.

  • Year 2 - Compulsory

    • Professional Studio Practice 2: Industry Projects (30 credits)

      Work to fulfil an industry brief as a collaborative group. Work with students from different specialities managing asset workflows to produce a prototype.

    • Advanced Prototyping and Programming (30 credits)

      Develop an understanding of the technical challenges of designing for delivering a game to multiple platforms (PC, Mobile, Console). Develop a prototype for a cross-platform game.

    • Level Design and Gameplay Events (30 credits)

      Learning to craft player experiences using worldbuilding and characterization techniques that include game writing and environment design.

    • Game Cultures Design Beyond Entertainment (30 credits)

      Explore the key theoretical concepts and history of game development in a wide range of contexts. This includes looking at serious games and games for education.

  • Year 3 - Compulsory

    • Advanced Level Design Environmental Storytelling (30 credits)

      Develop a more advanced appreciation for creating story-based experiences using assets, sound, and writing to create well rounded levels.

    • Games Design Processes, Research, and Playtesting (30 credits)

      Propose a games design research topic and write a substantial examination of the existing knowledge on the subject. Using an existing game or a prototype they will carry out a playtest study to examine the design question that interest them.

    • Final Major Project (30 credits)

      Take a game idea from pitch to advanced prototype. Most students will work as a group and are encouraged and supported in finding students from other disciplines to collaborate with.

To find out more about this course, please download the Game and Level Design specification (PDF).

  1. Teaching and independent learning
  2. Coursework and assessment

Facilities

This course is well-resourced with state-of-the-art facilities - you will have access to over 30 workstations equipped with an impressive array of the latest software including Unity, Processing, OpenFrameworks, Maya, Z-Brush, After Effects, Flash, Final Cut Pro and Photoshop. You will also have access to a Vicon Motion Capture and Green screen facility, and a music recording studio.

Student support

We offer lots of support to help you while you're studying including financial advice, wellbeing, mental health and disability support.

Additional needs

We'll support you if you have additional needs such as sensory impairment or dyslexia. And if you want to find out whether Middlesex is the right place for you before you apply, get in touch with our Disability and Dyslexia team.

Wellness

Our specialist teams will support your mental health. We have free individual counselling sessions, workshops, support groups and useful guides.

Work while you study

Our Middlesex Unitemps branch will help you find work that fits around uni and your other commitments. We have hundreds of student jobs on campus that pay the London Living Wage and above. Visit the Middlesex Unitemps page.

Financial support

You can apply for scholarships and bursaries and our MDX Student Starter Kit to help with up to £1,000 of goods, including a new laptop or iPad.

We have also reduced the costs of studying with free laptop loans, free learning resources and discounts to save money on everyday things. Check out our guide to student life on a budget.

How can the Game and Level Design BA support your career?

This degree equips you with the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive as a game designer in a dynamic industry. Through hands-on experience, you will develop a portfolio that will set you up for a successful career in a range of creative industries.

Graduate job roles

This degree opens up a wide variety of different career options, including technical game designer, gameplay designer, level designer, interaction designer, app designer, developer and programmer.

Graduate employers

Graduates from the course have gone into a range of roles throughout the gaming and creative industries:

  • Junior open world designer at CDProjeckt Red
  • Game designer at Outplay Entertainment
  • Game developer at Trick27
  • Level designer at Pixel Foundation
  • QA tester at Rockstar
  • Account assistant at PlayStation
  • Assistant producer at Square Enix

Transferable skills

This degree's mix of in-person and online teaching will prepare you for the distributed nature of the world of work. You will gain experience and skills in management and team collaboration.

MDXworks

Our careers and employability service, MDXworks will launch you into the world of work from the beginning of your course, with placements, projects and networking opportunities through our 1000+ links with industry and big-name employers in London and globally.

Our dedicated lifetime career support, like our business start-up support programme and funding for entrepreneurs, has put us in the top 10 UK universities for students who want to be CEOs and entrepreneurs (Hitachi, 2021).

MDXcelerator Student Start-Up Support

Want to be your own boss? You'll have the chance to pitch your business to gain mentoring and grants of up to £15,000.

Global network

You’ll study with students from 122 countries who’ll hopefully become part of your global network. And after you graduate, we'll still support you through our alumni network to help you progress in your chosen career.

Work placements

Placements and internships can greatly improve your future job prospects after you graduate. They usually boost your confidence and academic results by giving you the opportunity to practice what have learned in a professional setting.

Our specialist employability service will help you find placement opportunities.

  1. UK entry
  2. International entry
  3. How to apply

The fees below are for the 2024/25 academic year:

UK students1

Full-time: £9,250

Part-time: £77 per taught credit

International students2

Full-time students: £16,600

Part-time students: £138 per taught credit

Additional costs

The following study tools are included in your fees:

  • Free access to resources, learning materials and software you need to succeed on your course
  • Free laptop loans for up to 24 hours
  • Free specialist software for your course
  • Free printing for academic paperwork
  • Free online training with LinkedIn Learning.

The following course-related costs are not included in the fees, and you will need to budget for these:

  • Additional books that you wish to purchase
  • Memory media
  • Stationery
  • Travel to some (non-course essential) external events

Scholarships and bursaries

To help make uni affordable, we do everything we can to support you including our:

  • MDX Excellence Scholarship offers grants of up to £2,000 per year for UK students
  • Regional or International Merit Awards which reward International students with up to £2,000 towards course fees
  • Our MDX Student Starter Kit to help with up to £1,000 of goods, including a new laptop or iPad.

Find out more about undergraduate funding and all of our scholarships and bursaries.

Fees disclaimers

1. UK fees: The university reserves the right to increase undergraduate tuition fees in line with changes to legislation, regulation and any government guidance or decisions. The tuition fees for part-time UK study are subject to annual review and we reserve the right to increase the fees each academic year by no more than the level of inflation.

2. International fees: Tuition fees are subject to annual review and we reserve the right to increase the fees each academic year by no more than the level of inflation.

Any annual increase in tuition fees as provided for above will be notified to students at the earliest opportunity in advance of the academic year to which any applicable inflationary rise may apply.


We’ll carefully manage any future changes to courses, or the support and other services available to you, if these are necessary because of things like changes to government health and safety advice, or any changes to the law.

Any decisions will be taken in line with both external advice and the University’s Regulations which include information on this.

Our priority will always be to maintain academic standards and quality so that your learning outcomes are not affected by any adjustments that we may have to make.

At all times we’ll aim to keep you well informed of how we may need to respond to changing circumstances, and about support that we’ll provide to you.

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