BSc (Hons) Computer Game Applications Development

Year 2 Core Modules

You must study and pass all five core modules​

Brief description

Develop ability and awareness within the field of 3D art asset creation. Learn to identify and use appropriate 3D techniques to create artefacts for Games, Illustration, Animation, Digital Media and 3D Prints. 

Indicative content:

• Polygon Modelling: Core Polygon modelling techniques for the creation of digital or analogue artefacts.
• Digital Sculpting: Core Sculpting techniques. Core NURBS modelling techniques for the creation of digital or analogue artefacts.
• Textures and materials: The use of textures and materials for specific processes and goals.
• Lighting and Camera implementation: Explanation of the properties of light and lighting/camera set-up.
• Virtual Environments: Creation of 3D environments, displaying an awareness of form, function and design.
• Implementation: Implementation and application of 3D processes within the development and realisation of creativity, conceptualisation and imagination.
• Technologies: The new and evolving technologies in this discipline, and the manner in which they affect practice.
• Interpretation: Demonstrate visual analysis skills as they flow into visual interpretation.

Brief description

Learn to identify and form a critical argument by gaining a set of academic tools to analyse and evaluate issues, trends and work which sits within your area of practice.

Indicative content:

• Historical Traditions of Creative Practice: Through a series of presentations, analyse historical snapshots to discuss the traditions of fields of practice, identifying key practitioners of the time and key works.
• Creative Work in Context: The study of creative works and the ways in which the environmental, political, social and economic context within which it was created can be seen to influence the final form and its reception.
• Art Media History and Current Practices: For a specific area of interest, build connections  between historical practices and current trends in art and media production.
• Forming Critical Arguments: Analyse academic writing around the field of practice to form a case study to enhance understanding of critical argument creation.
• Literature and Critical Arguments: Explore related literature and its role in supporting academic critique.
• Dissemination Practices: Explore traditions and new forms of academic practice to inform research and also the final form of your coursework.

Brief description

The artistic and and technical processes in the field of concept art and production for entertainment such as computer games, film, comics, animation. Explore your field through visual research, observational and digital concept design skills, and industry standard applications to aid your creative process. Produce a portfolio of evidence which exhibits a firm grasp of two dimensional digital production methods through conceptual and practical skills development.

Indicative content:

• Visual Research: Targeted visual research methods appropriate to concept design, building reliable resources via image gathering, scrapbooks, blogs or sketchbooks, online/offline resources.
• Observational Drawing: Drawing from life, expanding beyond reality, concepts grounded in real world scenarios, proving fantastical ideas.
• Concept Incubation: Idea generation, photo collage, sketching, concept development, mood-boarding, thumbnailing, iteration, variation.
• Defining the Domain of Practice: Explore key figures and current trends; historical grounding for genre, cliche, archetype and representation. Evaluate examples of entertainment design for creature, character, vehicle, industrial, product, environment, graphic design. 
• Concept Development: Design drawing, digital painting, 3D layout and sculpting for 2D design, digitising real world sources. 
• Workflows, Process and Pipeline: Identify and assess design problems, identify creative software solutions, employ an effective design pipeline framework. 
• Artefact Creation: Layout design considerations of concept images to effectively present completed work such as for print, pitching, clients, presentation. 

Brief description

The processes and purposes of designing and developing a piece of interactive entertainment and the challenges involved in team based design.

Module content:

• Historical Overview: How games have been designed, prominent genres, styles and techniques.
• Concept and Communication: Conceptualising and communicating ideas, scoping requirements, giving and receiving critique.
• Design Process: Establishing a process, proposing solutions, iteration and documentation.
• Core Design: Working up the concept, graphics, features, setting, story, objectives, levels.
• The Development Team: Roles and responsibilities, scheduling and milestones, inclusive and supportive working.
• Rules and Mechanics: Implementing choices, interactivity, strategies, motivation and reward, balancing gameplay.
• Look and Feel: Establishing a style, ambience, colour and mood, sound effects, and music.
• Cultural and Commercial Awareness: Designing for an audience, markets, genres and platforms.

Brief description

The relationship between written story, performance and visual storytelling in animated sequences. Explore narrative and acting theory in relation to the creation of an animated performance and test these ideas through the creation of and interation upon animated sequence(s). 

Module content:

• Narrative Context: Explore and apply narrative concepts and processes relating to story development for an animated character performance.
• Animation Context: Explore and develop an animated character performance in a narrative context.
• Observational Context: Develop and apply skills for observation from life to an animated performance.
• Pre-Production: Develop appropriate pre-production documentation to support the development of a character performance in a narrative context, such as story beats, storyboards and animatics.
• Believable Movement: Express believable motion, weight, balance and expressive potential through drawing, planning thumbnails and in 3D animated performances.
• Performance-Animator as Actor: Explore the thinking character through observational drawing and performance. Develop technical and conceptual abilities to apply these concepts in the creation of 3D animated performances.
• Non-Verbal Communication: Explore the use and varying degrees of exaggeration of body language, gesture, and facial expression as communicative devices within an animated performance.
• Dialogue: Explore the development, utilisation and refinement of effective and convincing dialogue in an animated performance.
• Acting for Camera: Demonstrate the dramatic use of the visual frame within which the performance occurs. Apply directorial camera techniques demonstrating understanding of film language and cinematography to visually support the performance.
• Presentation: Iterate upon, finalise and compile animated performance(s) to best showcase contextual understanding and practical skills development.

Year 2 Option Modules - Term 2

If you are a Direct Entrant (new student) to this year of study and have not previously taken module ABE101, then you MUST take ABE201 as part of your Microcredential selection. If you have previously taken ABE101 then you are NOT permitted to take ABE201.

Instructions: Please choose a total of TWENTY credits of optional modules in Term 2. This can include microcredential (ABE) modules.

Brief description

Throughout the microcredential you will become familiar with university systems (including the virtual learning environment), consider what attributes make a successful student and develop key successful student habits.

Indicative content

• Navigating Abertay Systems: Be introduced to and understand how to engage with Abertay systems and tools such as MyLearningSpace, MS Teams, OASIS, MyAbertay etc.
• Expectations of University and You: Explore your own and the universities expectations of you and of the university; Consider the code of conduct; independent learning; blended learning; how university is structured; health and safety; and the Abertay attributes.
• Understanding and Searching Information: How scholarly information is generated and disseminated, key characteristics of different information types. Planning, using, and refining appropriate search strategies; online search tools; using a range of web and database search functionality. 
• Successful Student Behaviours: Develop strategies to key successful student behaviours including Defeating Procrastination, Time Management, Notetaking and preparing for classes, Growth Mindset, Accessing student support and opportunities.
• Referencing: Understand what is meant by academic integrity, plagiarism, and the need for appropriate referencing; creating reference lists and in-text citations; use of referencing tools to manage information.
• Sounding Academic: Explore what lecturers mean by “academic style” and “the right language”; Understand what is meant by and how to learn the rules of academic writing characteristics. Consider how this differs between college and university; Learn how to paraphrase. Explore how assessments, marking and feedback works at university.
• Evaluating Information: Using appropriate quality criteria to critically evaluate information from any source to determine authority and bias.

Brief description

This microcredential provides you with the space and time to develop your skills in designing, planning, delivering, and showcasing an artefact responding to the societal issue. The microcredential is flexible and you will have a choice of what and how you create your response.

Indicative content

• The Big Issue: You will be introduced to the big society issue that will be the focus of your artefact response. Learning materials available will help you consider your response to the challenge.
• Developing Ideas: You will think creatively as to how you will respond to the big issue. You will consider your intended artefact aims, outcomes and target audience. 
• Responding to the Challenge: Resources and guidance will be available as you respond to the challenge and create your artefact.
• Preparing for the Showcase: Guidance will be available on how best to showcase your artefact for the assessment. You will develop your presentation skills to support you in showcasing the artefact. 
• Showcase Event: You will attend a showcase event and present your artefact.

Brief description

You will discuss a range of anti-racist approaches and how they apply within the context of professional communications. You will examine case studies and scenarios to identify the nature of bias in society explore ways to be anti-racist especially in professional communications.

Indicative content

• Racial Bias in Society: Using case studies and scenarios to discuss various forms of racism in society, you will explore the need for anti-racist practice in professional communications. 
• Classification of Anti-Racist Practice: This section compares different anti-racists approaches applied across several contexts. You will discuss the challenges and benefits of each approach. You will identify barriers to implementation of anti-racist practice.
• Discuss Anti-Racist Approaches for Successful Professional Communications: You will be introduced to various communications frameworks (e.g. the humanity-centric framework) and will explore scenarios for the application of these frameworks in a range of professional contexts.
• Embedding Anti-Racism in Digital and Social Media Communications: How can you discuss matters of race and anti-racism on digital and social media while maintaining a professional persona. We will examine cases for best practices and explore ways to avoid bigoted language in digital communications. 

Brief description

In this module you will study two ways of analysing language: (i) a basic introduction to conversation analysis and discourse analysis as applied to ordinary talk/texting, and (ii) and introduction text mining, based on identifying patterns and developing insights from text-based data available on the Internet (e.g., social media data, online texts, online reviews etc).

Indicative content

• Conversation Analysis and Talk and Text as Action: A brief overview of the CA focus on language as action; an examination of how people talk in terms of questions, answers, invitations, excuses, justifications etc.; an examination of texting, emojis, misunderstandings.
• Text Mining: Introduction to text mining and its uses in a social sciences and business context; Online data sources; The text mining process: data collection, pre-processing and analysis; effectively communicating and visualising insights from textual data.

Brief description

By the end of this microcredential, you will be able to evaluate and select machine learning algorithms and AWS services to be appropriately applied to different business problems.

Indicative content

• Introduction to Machine Learning: What is ML? ML process, business problem solved with ML, ML tools, Amazon SageMaker, ML challenges, supervised learning (regression, classification), unsupervised learning (clustering, dimensionality reduction), reinforcement learning, etc.
• Implementing a ML pipeline using Amazon Sage Maker: Formulating ML problems, collecting and securing data, extracting, transferring and loading data, evaluating your data, finding corelation, feature engineering, data cleaning, dealing with outliers, training, deployment, performance evaluation, hyperparameters and model tuning.
• Forecasting: Time series analysis, Amazon Forecast, Implementing a forecast model, Stock Predictions.
• Computer Vision: Facial Recognition, Image and Video Analysis, Dataset Preparation.
• Natural Language Processing: Amazon Comprehend, Polly, Translate, and Lex, Creating a chatbot, Alexa, etc.

Brief description

This online module will support you to get familiar with sustainability and introduce you to tools that can help you to understand and reduce your climate impact. By increasing your sustainability self-awareness, you will be able to make a positive difference in your own life, and in the organisations and communities around you.

Indicative content

• What is sustainability and how is it linked to Climate Change?: We define sustainability, enhancing understanding of the links between society, economy, and environment. Climate change is explained and linked to sustainability. We provide clear accessible information about the reliable science of climate change. We describe the need efforts towards limiting human-induced global warming (limiting cumulative CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions). 
• Global Sustainability: We introduce the United Nations Sustainability Goals (SDGs). The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests. 
• Personal Sustainability: The WWF environmental footprint tool is a great way to start your personal sustainability journey. The planet is in crisis - from climate change to the pollution in our oceans and devastation of our forests. It's up to all of us to fix it. Take your first step with our environmental footprint calculator. 
• Community Sustainability and Climate Resilience: Community climate resilience comes in many forms. In this topic we introduce ideas which can provide multiple benefits of people, planet, and prosperity. We showcase inspiring examples whereby working with natural processes (Biophilic design, blue and green infrastructure) we can connect people with nature to improve their well-being and quality of life, whilst simultaneously tackling climate change and storing carbon.
• Global Solutions: What is the world doing about it? What impact do Global Climate and Biodiversity agreements (COP26 etc) really have? What’s happening here? Where are the challenges and the good news stories? We showcase positive initiatives focussed on progress.

Brief description

By the end of the module, you will know more about key aspects of nutrition and health and be better equipped to identify and tackle the barriers that prevent you from eating well.

Indicative content

• Healthy eating on a budget: This topic will show you that healthy eating doesn’t have to be expensive! You will be given basic nutritional knowledge, as well as skills and practical tips to be able to eat a healthy diet on a budget. You will then be able to develop your own menu and share it with your peers, so you learn from us as well as from each other.
• Prebiotics, probiotics and health: You will learn about the importance of our microbiota on health, and how what we eat can modulate it. You will be provided with cooking tips and will be able to develop your own fermented foods for better gut health.
• Fat or sugar, which is worse?: You may have heard that fats are bad for our health, or perhaps you have heard it is all about the sugars? You will learn about the role of both sugars and fats in our diet; what makes them good or bad for health and the science behind it. You will be given the tools to assess your own sugar and fat intake as well as tips to implement the changes you need to eat better. 
• The British diet vs Mediterranean diet: What is a Mediterranean diet and what are its real benefits? Is it just a diet or a pattern? Can we get the same benefits as those living in Mediterranean countries? In this topic, you will explore how feasible it is for us to adopt the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle, considering the seasonality of ingredients as well as sustainability. 
• What drives our food choices?: How healthy do you think your diet is? Do you find it easy to eat well? With this topic you will become more aware of our obesogenic environment, of how the food industry talks to us, and how the media report nutritional claims. You will learn to look more closely and more critically at your environment, so you can make healthier decisions.

Brief description

This microcredential will help you to refine your current writing skills through the analysis and discussion of a range of texts and exercises, enabling you to then apply these techniques to assignments for your other modules.

Indicative content

• Speaking the language: How to develop your academic and professional vocabulary: understanding the genre; understanding your reader’s expectations.
• Meeting expectations: Why different assignments have different requirements: decoding instructions; selecting appropriate writing techniques.
• Tightening up the nuts and bolts: How to improve your writing accuracy: reviewing key grammar and punctuation issues; improving your editing and proofreading.
• Standing on the shoulders of giants: How to borrow from the greats: reviewing the principles of citing sources; using writing techniques to incorporate research into writing.

Brief description

This module will help you develop a better understanding of the difference between media reporting and scientific evaluation. It will equip you with the skills to look beyond sensational stories related to human behaviour and dig deeper into a topic area to validate the evidence.

Indicative content

• Paranormal Beliefs and Experiences: Is Extrasensory Perception Real? Is there really evidence that we can predict the future?
• Myths about the Brain: Can repressed memories be recovered in therapy? How easily are false memories created? What are the implications for the justice system? 
• Myths about our Mind and Body: Is the key to success in everyday life simply a case of posing like a powerful superhero? 
• Myths about Language: Does being bilingual make you smarter and keep your brain younger? Are bilingual people less likely to get dementia as a result of this lifelong brain training?

Brief description

Through this microcredential you will gain an insight into what the world of work may look like in the (near) future. This includes developing a knowledge of how the economy and labour market evolves and why individual skills-sets and employability are so important and intrinsically linked to this process.

Indicative content

• The future of work: What will the future of work look like? What is used to predict how the world or work will change? Can the future of the economy and of work be accurately predicted? 
• Key factors that influence change: Identifying some of the key factors that influence how the world of work and our economy evolves and changes.
• The key role of skills and personal employability: The emergence and decline of skills: skills are fundamental to the economy (and graduate employers). What skills will be most in demand and/or be most valuable to our economy in future and why? Understand the importance of skills to the economy (and to graduate employers) at both the macro and micro level. Know what specific new skills are emerging and becoming more valuable and sought after, (as others are in decline) for our modern economy and graduate labour market. 
• Labour market information - what is it for?: Labour market Information is hugely important to our understanding of our economy at any given time: and also, in looking at the present and past to help predict future growth, opportunities, shortages and skills gaps. Recognise the importance of key Labour Market Information (LMI). Have the ability to source and use key Labour Market Information (LMI). Understand how to use accurate Labour Market Information as a tool to help their own personal development and future career planning. 
• What now?: Some help and steer – suggestions to you may wish to use your new knowledge and insight to help with your own career aspirations, planning and personal/professional development while at university.

Brief description

Some businesses have the sole focus of making money whereas others exist to also make a difference. Social enterprises are becoming more popular, and recognisable, and are making an impact across the world. From supporting the homeless, to giving waste products a second life, social enterprises are fighting for various causes. 

Indicative content

• What is a social enterprise and how does it function?: What the definition of a social enterprise is with examples from different sectors.
• How do social enterprises identify problems to tackle?: How social enterprises decide on what they will tackle and how they will do it. 
• How do you gather evidence that there is a problem requiring a solution?: Way in which you can gather evidence and data to validate the idea for a social enterprise. Determining needs and wants within a category. 
• How to identify skills and knowledge gaps: Understanding the skillsets within a founding team to fulfil the tasks required to start a social enterprise. 
• How to understand the problem you are trying to solve: Knowing the problem, you are trying to solve and how this effects the target customers the social enterprise is aimed at. Looking at the issues in a customer-focussed way. 
• How to develop a social impact plan: What is involved in a social impact plan and how to put one together. 

Brief description

This module will introduce you to the study of AI and Society. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a set of technologies and concepts and can be understood as using computers and software to denote problem-solving capacities and knowledge acquisition (intelligence) which otherwise we believe only belongs to natural beings such as humans.

Indicative content

• Introduction to the core concepts: A brief introduction to the concepts of “artificial”, “intelligence” and “society”. 
• Introduction to the problem of AI and Society: A discussion of where the problem of the impact of AI on Society comes from, presentation of some of the original debates and examples.
• Contemporary debates: A discussion of the contemporary debates about the impact of AI on Society, with examples.

Brief description

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how has it shaped our past and present? These are questions we will explore on a guided tour of AI from the past to the present and the future. You will develop a better understanding of what AI is and isn’t.

Indicative content

• Historical AI: Tracing the historical development of “traditional” AI systems including aircraft autopilots, expert systems, and accounting/financial software.
• Current AI: Covering the contemporary generation of AI technologies in areas such as speech recognition (e.g., Alexa, Siri) and recommendation systems (e.g., Amazon, YouTube). Examples will be drawn from Health, Sport, Games, Engineering, Business, Law and Computing. 
• Future AI: Exploring the limitations of today’s AI when it comes to general intelligence and contextual adaptation. Examples will be drawn from Health, Sport, Games, Engineering, Business, Law and Computing.
• My AI: How AI will impact your future, and how you can use AI to help you achieve your career goals.  Reflection on how AI may inform your subject area going forward.

Brief description

This microcredential is aimed at you, if you have an interest in technology but are not experts. The microcredential will develop your digital safety and how to stay safe online.

Indicative content

• Threat Landscape: Cyberattacks and online threats. System vulnerabilities. Social Engineering. Rights and computer laws.
• Authentication: Password security. Biometrics. MFA and Password managers. Good practices for authentication.
• Secure Communication: Web browser security. Certificates and trust. Effective encryption. Secure communication methods.
• Personal Information Privacy: Information leakage. Personal information privacy and open-source intelligence. Device encryption and security. Security mindfulness.
• Malware: Types of malware. Identifying malicious software. Malware propagation techniques. Malware removal and preventative measures.

Brief description

This microcredential will help you to develop and build your own confidence in applying numeracy skills in real world situations.

Indicative content

• What is my GPA and how likely am I to get a First? (BASIC NUMERACY): Calculation and manipulation of data using Percentages, Indices (Powers), Roots, Probability, and simple equations. 
• The power of prediction (GRAPHS): Straight line graphs, Gradients, Equations of a straight line, Intercepts. Drawing graphs - Linear equations, Distances between points. Simultaneous linear equations.  
• Love a good puzzle (ALGEBRA): Changing subject of formulae. Factorisation - common factors, Difference of two squares, Trinomials. Solving simultaneous equations by Substitution and Elimination.
• Advanced power of prediction (FUNCTIONS): Introduction to functions – Linear and Quadratic and solving quadratic equations. Factorising Quadratic equations.
• Love a good triangle (TRIGONOMETRY): Trignometric functions - Sine, cosine and tangent. Trignometric formulae.

Brief description

In this microcredential, you will learn more about how digital media production professionals in the UK and China are working together to reduce barriers and identify new opportunities for collaboration and growth.

Indicative content

• History and future of videogames in China: Focussing on the videogame sector as a case study of Chinese digital creative industries, how has the videogames market and industry developed in China, how is the Chinese videogames economy currently constituted, and what does the future hold?
• Consumer trends and audience preferences: What is popular with audiences in China? What can we note about preferences in terms of narrative content, aesthetics, play styles etc. when compared with other markets?
• Policy and regulation: What unique regulations or limitations are imposed on digital media within China, and what similarities are there with other national and transnational regulations? How is creative content development and publishing shaped by policy in China? What social and ethical challenges are presented by regulation, in China as well as in the UK?
• Transnational working and co-production: How is digital creative content conceived, developed, and released by professionals working across borders? What are the challenges for small and independent creative studios, compared with multi-nationals with studios based in and outside China?
• Publishing in China: How do digital media content like videogames make it to market in China? What processes and requirements must creative businesses be aware of, and how do developers find, connect to, and work with Chinese publishers? How to consumers in China access content, including on grey markets?
• Challenges and success: Hear from UK and Chinese professionals on the China market, co-operation, the hurdles they cleared, and how they found success.

Brief description

Increasingly, the role of creativity in supporting and maintaining wellbeing is being researched and celebrated. This module will introduce you to the current theory in this area, as well as a range of creative resources shown to be helpful for both self-care and the support of others.

Indicative content

• Why does creativity matter?: An introduction to why creativity matters when it comes to mental health.
• Your brain on words: The place of stories in their various forms as a resource for wellbeing.
• Engaging the senses: The potential of tools such as music and art for self-care.

Year 3 Core Modules

You must study and pass all five core modules

Brief description

The principles of formalising, implementing, testing and iterating on functional game mechanics applied in the context of a game engine.

Indicative content:

• Modern game functionality programming: Review of modern game development with regards to use of game engines and methods and levels where game functionality can be implemented.
• Aspects of game design: Theoretical and practical aspects of the game design process derived from established conventions. Analyse a game system from a game theoretical perspective and construction and upkeep of documentation.
• From design to function: Design interpretation and extrapolation. The process of going from written design to design suitable for engine implementation. Consideration for correct game engine OO standards in visual scripting as well as code.
• Maintainable design: Review and evaluation of the aspects of game functionality relevant to the iteration and evolution of game mechanics and how this integrates with other personnel in the development team.
• Hardware integration: Dealing with hardware integration and aligning hardware to work with a game engine and specific game functionality.
• Data logging, debugging and testing gameplay: Practices and specifics related to gameplay functionality.
• Numerical analysis and data for game balancing: Review and evaluation of mathematical techniques and their application to aid in the balancing of gameplay parameters.

Brief description

The computer graphics programmable pipeline and various graphics techniques. Develop and evaluate techniques used to manipulate 3D graphics in real-time.

Indicative content:

• Graphics programming: Introduction to the graphics programmable pipeline.
• Shaders: Creation and use of shaders within the context of the programmable pipeline.
• Development: Develop applications and shaders which include topics such as lighting, vertex manipulation, post processing and tessellation.

Brief description

The principles of computer networks as applied to the development of various types of networked computer games. Develop and evaluate  techniques implementation with a particular emphasis on real-time fast action games.

Indicative content:

• Background to Network Computer Games: Review of network computer games with a particular emphasis on network functionality and performance issues.
• Network Protocols: Review of the main protocols within TCP/IP and their relevance to the development of various types of networked computer games.
• Network Architectures for Games: Review and evaluate the main network architectures and their relevance to network games: Client-Server, Peer-to- Peer, Hybrid, Multi-Server.
• Distribution of Functionality: Critically evaluate methods for distributing the functionality and processing requirements of a network computer game between participating hosts on a network.
• Message Passing Structure: Review and evaluate methods for passing data between hosts in network games.
• Latency Mitigation: Critically evaluate the effects of, and potential solutions to dealing with latency in network computer games.
• Prediction: Critically review dead reckoning, prediction and smoothing techniques and approaches for implementing fast action network computer games with a particular emphasis on maintaining the user experience.
• Testing: Methods for testing the functionality and performance of networked computer games in order to evaluate robustness against network variations.

Brief description

Work together on an interactive media project as part of a multidisciplinary team. Contribute to the team by taking on a professional role suited to your area of study. Expect to: communicate with clients and relevant stakeholders; participate in pitching and presentations; research and test technical pipelines; create project documentation and planning materials; and contribute to the iterative design and development of a final interactive prototype.

Indicative content:

• Team Organisation and Management: Attend and participate in team meetings, keep meeting minutes, and assign roles and responsibilities; Identify and overcome team problems, understand conflicts and approaches to conflict resolution, and engage with team building.
• Communication and Professionalism: Demonstrate the ability to communicate within the team, with tutors, with clients/mentors, and with other stakeholders in a professional and respectful manner.
• Development Methodologies: Understand and apply appropriate development methodologies framed by the requirements of a project and balance of a team, e.g. agile, scrum, lean, spiral, feature-driven, waterfall/traditional.
• Research and Concept Development: Research similar products and competitors; Research and interpret the product marketplace, considering platform, user profiles, costs, regional differences etc; Conduct visual and audio research; Iteratively develop design concepts in response to a given brief.
• Technologies and Pipelines: Research software and hardware technologies; Develop a technical plan for game development; Research, develop, test and document production pipelines.
• Style and Branding: Develop a brand for the team and the project; Research, develop, document, and communicate a defined visual and audio style; Produce marketing and promotional materials.
• Pitching and Presentation: Use appropriate software, hardware, game engines, and other tools to deliver a working digital prototype; Engage with regular user testing to inform design iteration, demonstrating an appreciation of user experience.
• Prototype Development, Testing, and Iteration: Use appropriate software, hardware, game engines, and other tools to deliver a working digital prototype; Engage with regular user testing to inform design iteration, demonstrating an appreciation of user experience.
• Release Management: Manage the software development process using source control, defect tracking, and build processes.
• Project Delivery: Consider the methods for delivering products to the market, including market cycles, digital distribution, and the publisher-developer relationship; Deliver a complete prototype with accompanying press kit.

Brief description

Introduction to some of the many Artificial Intelligence techniques which are currently, or could in the near future, be used to enhance the development of intelligent game systems.

Indicative content:

• ‘Traditional’ AI: Pathfinding, including A* and its derivatives, Flocking and Steering, Rule Based Systems, Finite State Machines.
• AI Techniques: Fuzzy Logic and Fuzzy State Machines, Genetic Algorithms, Artificial Neural Networks.
• Applications of AI: Combining AI techniques to produce A-life and Intelligent Agents in games.
• Machine Learning: The ability of a machine to learn from its environment.
• Mining: Knowledge discovery and the process of finding hidden patterns in data.
• Intelligence on the Internet: Analyse the emergence of intelligent agents on the internet.

Brief description

The principles of formalising, implementing, testing and iterating on functional game mechanics applied in the context of a game engine.

Module content:

• Modern game functionality programming: Review of modern game development with regards to use of game engines and methods and levels where game functionality can be implemented.
• Aspects of game design: Theoretical and practical aspects of the game design process derived from established conventions. Analyse a game system from a game theoretical perspective and construction and upkeep of documentation.
• From design to function: Design interpretation and extrapolation. The process of going from written design to design suitable for engine implementation. Consideration for correct game engine OO standards in visual scripting as well as code.
• Maintainable design: Review and evaluation of the aspects of game functionality relevant to the iteration and evolution of game mechanics and how this integrates with other personnel in the development team.
• Hardware integration: Dealing with hardware integration and aligning hardware to work with a game engine and specific game functionality.
• Data logging, debugging and testing gameplay: Practices and specifics related to gameplay functionality.
• Numerical analysis and data for game balancing: Review and evaluation of mathematical techniques and their application to aid in the balancing of gameplay parameters.

Year 4 Core Modules

You must study and pass all five core modules

Brief description

Introduction to the theory and practice of digital audio and music for games programming students.

Indicative content:

• Introduction to Audio: How the ear works, frequency and pitch, amplitude, phase, sampling, aliasing, Nyquist, time vs. frequency representations, sinusoids, effects of basic operators.
• Digital Audio: Digital representations, sample rate, bit depth, numerical computation concerns for audio ADCs and DACs, processing latency.
• Audio Processing: Basic processing techniques and their implementations: normalisation, mixing, distortion, digital fillers, IIR/FIR, pitch and frequency shifting, ring modulation, reverb.
• Audio Design for Games: Putting the above into practice: how audio is used in the design and implementation of games.
• Audio Compression: Lossless codecs, perception and masking, perception of quality, perceptual codecs, streaming audio, audio processing for real-time chat, producing audio assets for games.
• Audio in Game Engines: Audio facilities in real-world game engines and middleware.
• Digital Music: How music theory relates to audio basics, structure of music and basic compositional techniques, sequencing and MIDI, streams of notes, streams of control messages, synthesis vs. sample playback, waveforms, envelopes.
• Spatial Audio: Perception of spatial audio, multichannel audio, binaural audio, environmental audio design, characteristics of materials, reproducing an environment through processing, audio for virtual reality.
• Interface Design with Audio: Delivering information effectively, user comfort and fatigue, how to improve accessibility through audio, current developments in audio for games interfaces.

Brief description

Emerging technology trends used in computer games development. Develop and apply techniques using existing technologies to explore these trends.

Indicative content:

• Human Computer Interface: Input devices and methods of interaction with gaming platforms.
• Visualisation: Programming techniques applicable to modern video graphics hardware.
• Platform: Emerging hardware platforms used for computer games development.
• Innovation: Enquiry based activity into technologies beyond that which is currently used for computer games development.

Brief description

Undertake the practical and development work for a major, in-depth individual project in an aspect of your programme. Devise the idea for the project and proof of concept to support the specification of a well-researched project proposal document.in Term 1. Carry out and complete the main development work for the project in Term 2.

Indicative content:

• Investigation, Research and Selection: Initial investigation of project topic, Background research of project topic and Selection of project topic.
• Evaluation: Methods of evaluating a project.
• Legal, Social, Professional and Ethical Issues: Consideration of Legal, social, ethical and professional issues.
• Proposal: Production of a project proposal.
• Project Feasibility and Proof of Concept: Demonstrate feasibility of project.
• Self-Directed Problem Solving, Originality and Creativity
• Self-motivation, Initiative and Insight
• Software Design Skills
• Recording, Reporting and Communication Skills
• Employability and Professional Development

Brief description

Present as a dissertation, a major, in-depth individual project in an aspect of your programme. Normally, you devise the project drawing from current industry and/or research based problem areas. Undertake the work and present it in a structured and coherent manner which allows for critical and insightful review and evaluation. Write the dissertation in academic style appropriate to your domain of study.

Indicative content:

• Introduction: Introduce the topic of the project and the problem area, and appropriate research question.
• Investigate: Investigate previous work in the chosen project area and show how the work of the project relates to it.
• Justify: Demonstrate a sound justification for the approach and methodology adopted.
• Document: Document the output of the project with some originality.
• Evaluate: Critically evaluate the output, using third party evaluation where appropriate, and recognise the strengths and limitations of the work.
• Communicate: Communicate your work professionally in the required academic format/style. Demonstrate an ability for independent learning and linkage to future work and career aspirations.

Brief description

The principles, practices and techniques in tools development. Develop and evaluate software tools with particular emphasis on addressing the needs of the game industry.

Module content:

• Background to Tool Development: Review of games development tools with a particular emphasis on real world examples and applications.
• Legacy Codebases: Review of working practices and techniques associated with dealing with legacy code in tools.
• Databases: Review of databases relevant to games and how they are inter-faced with tools.
• Tool Design and UX: Aspects of producing a tool fit for purpose and functional for the user. The importance of  user centred design.
• Application Programming: Review of platforms, API’s, languages and processes to build tool applications with industry examples.
• SE: Review and application of established software engineering practices.
• Tool creation: Bringing aspects of 3D graphics, data management and user experience together to make a cohesive and functional tool.
• Code review: Practices of Code review and team discussion on programming.

Brief description

Introduction to the theory and practice of digital audio and music for games programming students.

Indicative content:

• Introduction to Audio: How the ear works, frequency and pitch, amplitude, phase, sampling, aliasing, Nyquist, time vs. frequency representations, sinusoids, effects of basic operators.
• Digital Audio: Digital representations, sample rate, bit depth, numerical computation concerns for audio ADCs and DACs, processing latency.
• Audio Processing: Basic processing techniques and their implementations: normalisation, mixing, distortion, digital fillers, IIR/FIR, pitch and frequency shifting, ring modulation, reverb.
• Audio Design for Games: Putting the above into practice: how audio is used in the design and implementation of games.
• Audio Compression: Lossless codecs, perception and masking, perception of quality, perceptual codecs, streaming audio, audio processing for real-time chat, producing audio assets for games.
• Audio in Game Engines: Audio facilities in real-world game engines and middleware.
• Digital Music: How music theory relates to audio basics, structure of music and basic compositional techniques, sequencing and MIDI, streams of notes, streams of control messages, synthesis vs. sample playback, waveforms, envelopes.
• Spatial Audio: Perception of spatial audio, multichannel audio, binaural audio, environmental audio design, characteristics of materials, reproducing an environment through processing, audio for virtual reality.
• Interface Design with Audio: Delivering information effectively, user comfort and fatigue, how to improve accessibility through audio, current developments in audio for games interfaces.