Games Design and Production with Foundation Year

The world of arts and media is changing at a phenomenal rate, and there has never been a better time to explore your creativity and the ways in which you can apply it to the world around you.

This Foundation Year provides the perfect opportunity for you to explore the key principles of art, design and media. The course is designed to help you develop your creative skills, it gives you a chance to build a larger portfolio, and provides a good transition period to familiarise yourself with the School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology and life as a student at Salford. You will then be in a strong position to progress onto your chosen degree pathway.

This is a shared Foundation Year across Art, Design and Media disciplines, and will give you a collaborative environment to explore ideas, take creative risks and become confident independent learners. You will be joining a thriving and creative community.

The Foundation Year of this four-year programme aims to provide you with an understanding of the subject to allow you to progress on to the BA (Hons) Games Design and Production course.

You will:

• develop your creative skills and academic confidence

• familiarise yourself with student life

• prepare to study on one of our degree programmes

This course is not open to international students.

The Foundation Year will provide you with a dynamic, exciting and collaborative environment in which you will become a confident self-learner, with the underpinning skills and knowledge to apply in your studies. You will be taught with students interested in progressing to different art, design and media programmes, and study modules that will help you increase your knowledge and understanding of basic art and design as well as other aspects of creative thinking.

Our strong connections within Greater Manchester’s thriving creative sector mean you will also hear from practitioners working in the industry right now about their practice, journey into the world or art and design.

In the first term you will study modules that introduce the key concepts, skills and knowledge of art and design. Modules will help you to develop your study skills such as note-taking and structuring reports. In the second semester, you will further develop your creative practice and be introduced to the creative industries.

The assignments are flexible enough to allow you to interpret and tailor your submissions to your preferred area of study. Tutors will help and support you, in creating a portfolio of work to progress onto the BSc (Hons) Games Design and Production here at the University of Salford. You will be integrated slowly into the degree course with opportunities to meet tutors from the BSc and by using our shared collaborative facilities within our vibrant New Adelphi building.

This programme prepares you to study on the three-year University undergraduate programme, meaning the duration of your degree is four years in total. The Foundation Year is not a standalone qualification.

Following the Foundation Year, the three years of BSc (Hons) Games Design and Production:

Throughout our games design degree, you will study gaming in a range of contexts, from the basics of games design and digital arts, to the fundamentals of programming. As you move into the second and third years of your degree, you will be able to focus on the area of specialism that interests you, choosing from optional modules taught by leading experts in the field. You will become experienced in group working through agile methods, you will learn about narrative and storytelling, human computer interaction and user experience, developing a broad understanding of historical and emergent technology. You will investigate developing trends while building knowledge and understanding of the broader digital creative industries.

The optional placement module and intensive team-based learning environment will give you the chance to apply your skills in a real-world setting.