BA (Hons) Game Design & Development

Overview

You prototype mechanics, build levels, and script gameplay in a real-time engine. The degree ends with a playable build, a design document, and a postmortem a studio producer could read. Pulse College teaches this award online and, where a cohort is formed, on campus. The 360 credit hours on this page are the sum of the modules listed in the curriculum, so the transcript and the prospectus describe the same load. BA (Hons) Game Design & Development is taught as one award, not a list of unrelated modules. The published length is 3 years, and the credit total is 360. Students move from Rules, Prototypes, and Player Tests through Rules, Prototypes, and Player Tests; Real-time Engine Foundations; Scripting Gameplay; Level Design; Systems Design; Production for Small Teams, and finish on Major Game Project. Each course has a question, a method, and a submission. In this field, students apply the method of the subject to a defined problem and defend the result. Reading is a core text, a case or dataset, and a critique. The artefact a marker expects is a submission that shows the method, the evidence, and the limit of the claim. The award is built so that a graduate can do the following in practice: Write a design document a teammate can build from Prototype a mechanic and test it with players Script gameplay behaviour in a real-time engine Teaching assumes the student can read a source, attempt a problem before the seminar, and revise after feedback. Attendance at live seminars is part of the design. The capstone or final course must use the methods of the earlier courses; a project that ignores them does not pass. The pages for each course name the topics that are examined. Those topics are the syllabus. A brochure line is not a substitute for them.

Assessment is coursework on each taught module plus the final project named in the curriculum. Results are recorded as credit hours against each module. Fees are the figures published by Pulse College for this award; this page does not add a separate tuition claim.

Who This Programme Is For

• ✦School leavers aiming at this profession
• ✦Career-changers who can commit to a bachelor's workload
• ✦Applicants with a portfolio or work sample where the school asks for one
• ✦Students who need a full degree rather than a short certificate

Programme Structure & Delivery

Learning Outcomes

• ✦Write a design document a teammate can build from
• ✦Prototype a mechanic and test it with players
• ✦Script gameplay behaviour in a real-time engine
• ✦Lay out a level that teaches a rule through play
• ✦Ship a playable build with a postmortem

Career Pathways

• ✦Junior game designer
• ✦Gameplay scripter
• ✦Level designer
• ✦QA analyst moving into design
• ✦Indie studio generalist

Curriculum