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21st March 2023
Game design is a creatively powered field that delivers the artistic, visual and interactive elements that make videogames so unique, engaging and popular around the world. It’s an industry-focused discipline that allows students to prepare for a variety of exciting roles, working everywhere from international game studios to small developers, or as independent creators.
It’s a highly competitive industry that has high standards for artistic and technical ability among its graduates. As a result, you’re probably working hard to find out what the best choices are when it comes to choosing the best postgraduate study pathway.
Keep reading to find out what the best qualifications for game designers are, what the entry requirements are, what skills you’ll develop in this field and, most importantly, which games design university might be right for you.
CONTENTS
Game design is a fascinating interdisciplinary subject that brings together the aesthetic vision and creativity of visual arts, graphic design and animation, combining it with computer science, programming and AI towards the creation of exciting and engaging games.
With high salary potential and great prospects for job satisfaction, this subject is increasingly popular with students from across art and computing backgrounds. It’s a work of passion for many, being able to change artistic visions into unforgettable gaming experiences for consumers.
It’s a subject particularly suited to analytical, creative individuals who enjoy the prospects of working with creative and technical professionals of various kinds to deliver a project collaboratively. Students will become adept with a variety of digital tools and methodologies to design and deliver their ideas.
There are several types of game design qualifications available at postgraduate level. Each type offers a distinct approach to education in this field, building different skills and preparing students for the next steps in their careers.
Taught master’s degrees, like an MA, MSc or MDes, will train students in a variety of technical and artistic techniques which lie at the centre of working professionally in game design. It will expose them to a number of real world challenges and allow them to design, prototype and create their own game elements or entire games. Many courses include professional placements or other opportunities, too.
Research degrees, like an MPhil or PhD, are an opportunity for students to gain an in-depth knowledge of game development technologies, designing and developing their own research efforts in this field and contributing to growth and innovation in the industry.
Your postgraduate studies in game development will not only prepare you for a wide range of game design jobs, but will help you find success in a number of career paths across the computing, gaming, media and visual industries.
The transferable skills and cross-industry technical skills that you develop during your game design course could also make you well-suited for broader roles, such as:
Applying to wider roles in the gaming industry is also a possibility, where you can use your skills and experience in games design and development to manage projects, guide design teams, identify new ideas or write about the industry and games.
To get a place on a chosen game design programme, applicants will typically need to have an undergraduate honours degree in a relevant area, such as games technology or computer science. This will normally need to be at 2:2 level or above, but may be set at a minimum of 2:1 in some cases. Many game design universities will also consider applicants with relevant professional qualifications or experience, even if they don’t have a previous academic degree in a related area.
Submission of a portfolio and completion of an interview may be required in many cases.
You can explore a number of games design and development courses, some of which focus more on the art and design element of the field, while others look at the mechanical and computational aspects. Potential courses include:
There are many varied game design courses out there, each offering a unique blend of modules which focus on different technical, artistic or industry topics. However, you could typically expect to study areas like:
Completing a game development course at postgraduate level will help you develop the functional knowledge and skills you’ll need to put yourself in prime position for a broad range of game design jobs.
Fundamentally, game design postgraduates will become at taking their design ideas and visions and make them into a reality, through effective research, communication, visual and mechanical design, deployment, testing, and refinement. From animations and 3D graphical designs to story-building, artificial intelligence, programming, game engineering and more, you’ll be able to turn your hand to a number of design challenges across the gaming industry.
Game design postgraduates will also cultivate a range of useful soft skills, which are relevant not only in game development contexts, but more widely too. Programming and engineering software are highly applicable to a range of computer and IT focused fields, while the communication, organisational and presentational skills developed will help graduates turn ideas into products in various contexts.
The methods of teaching assessment in a game design course will be unique to each course, allowing you to benefit from the staff expertise, industry equipment and educational approach of each game design university.
In most cases, teaching will be practical and applied in nature, with guided laboratory and studio sessions, lectures and seminars, group and individual project working, and significant levels of independent self-study and project working. Placements are also a common part of many courses.
Assessment is often mainly through coursework, typically project work, portfolio reviews and reports, and in some cases exams and presentations will also feature.
Postgraduate game design courses can vary greatly in length, depending on the type of course you’re considering and whether you’re looking to study part- or full-time.
A taught master’s degree in game design, typically an MA or an MSc, will usually take one year to study full time, or two years part-time. Some online master’s will take two years to study full time.
An MPhil in game design or development will usually take two years to study full time, while a PhD could take anywhere between three and four years full-time. Part-time study will double these timeframes.
There are currently more than 60 postgraduate game development courses to choose from across UK institutions, offered at nearly 30 game design universities up and down the country. Our university search tool is a great way of learning about all the options available to you, including the content of courses, entry requirements and more.
There are a few other subjects that you might want to consider as a prospective game design student, such as:
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