Computer Games Production

This is a Connected Degree

Portsmouth is the only University in the UK with the flexibility to choose when to do an optional paid placement or self-employed year. Either take a placement in your third year, or finish your studies first and complete a placement in your fourth year. You can decide if and when to take a placement after you've started your course.

Overview

Our award-winning Computer Games Production degree course will help you achieve your dream of becoming a computer games producer or project manager.

You’ll also develop the essential business expertise to start your own indie games studio and tackle the challenges that arise – from funding and protecting your innovative ideas, to team and project management, marketing, and leadership. By working with fellow students from our Computer Games Technology degree course, you’ll gain experience in all areas of game development.

Our course emphasises collaboration and has strong ties with the South Coast games industry, so you'll have many opportunities to work with games companies, culminating in a year-long shippable development project in your final year.

The independent games industry is skyrocketing. According to Ukie, the trade body for the UK games industry, video games contributed a record £2.91 billion to the UK economy in 2019 and the pandemic has created a huge revenue opportunity. Now’s the golden time to make your mark.

Course highlights

• Learn current industry standards by studying modules created with eminent games companies such as Rare

• Build your industry contacts by collaborating with games companies

• Learn from a teaching team with a mix of managerial experience and industry expertise

• Attend guest lectures by industry speakers to increase your industry knowledge

• Take advantage of a self-employed placement year to gain valuable professional experience

• Showcase your work at our annual Graduate Show to attract potential employers and the wider public

Accreditation

This course is accredited by TIGA (The Independent Game Developers’ Association) as delivering skills relevant to the games industry. TIGA accreditation is applicable to courses meeting any of a range of games industry needs, such as programming, art, design and entrepreneurship.

In 2021, the University of Portsmouth was awarded Best Educational Institution at the TIGA Games Industry Awards.

Careers and opportunities

The UK games industry has boomed despite the pandemic. Between 2019 and 2020, its generated revenue increased by 20% to £907 million, accelerating the UK's gross domestic profit to £2.2 billion (£4 million more than the previous year). In addition, almost 31,000 new jobs related to games studios were created – over 4,000 more than before the pandemic (TIGA, 2020).

Over the next few years, revenue and job opportunities in the UK games industry are expected to rise, so as a graduate, you'll be well-positioned to help further expand this exciting, innovative industry.

Graduate destinations

Our graduates have worked at some of the biggest names in the games industry, including:

• Black Rock

• Climax

• Codemasters

• Creative Assembly

• d3t

• Electronic Arts

• Frontier

• Jagex

• Kwalee

• Rebellion

• Sony

You can get help, advice and support for up to 5 years after you leave the University as you advance in your career.

Full time modules

Year 1
Core modules in this year include:

• 3D Modelling (20 credits)
• Art Skills for Games (20 credits)
• Coding and Scripting for Games (20 credits)
• Game Development (20 credits)
• Games Design and Context (20 credits)
• Production Studio (20 credits)

There are no optional modules in this year.

Year 2
Core modules in this year include:

• Leadership Development (20 credits)
• Student Enterprise for Games (20 credits)

Optional modules in this year include:

• Commercial Asset Production for Real Time (40 credits)
• Design and Visual Research for Cinema and Game (20 credits)
• Design Games (20 credits)
• Designing for Animation (20 credits)
• Engaged Citizenship Through Interdisciplinary Practice (20 credits)
• Gameplay Programming (20 credits)
• Maths for Games (20 credits)
• Program Consoles (20 credits)
• Programming Application Programming Interfaces (20 credits)
• Prototyping and Iterating Game Designs (20 credits)

Year 3
Core modules in this year include:

• Final Year Project (40 credits)
• Group Leadership, Management and Production Skills: Part One (20 credits)
• Group Leadership, Management and Production Skills: Part Two (20 credits)

Optional modules in this year include:

• Advanced Graphics Techniques (20 credits)
• Create Worlds (20 credits)
• Designing User Experiences and Interfaces (20 credits)
• Games Research (20 credits)
• Implementing Game Audio (20 credits)
• Motion Capture Applications (20 credits)
• Programming AI for Games (20 credits)
• Psychological Theory for Game Designers (20 credits)
• Targeting Platforms (20 credits)

We use the best and most current research and professional practice alongside feedback from our students to make sure course content is relevant to your future career or further studies.

Therefore, some course content may change over time to reflect changes in the discipline or industry and some optional modules may not run every year. If a module doesn’t run, we’ll let you know as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative module.

Professionally accredited courses provide industry-wide recognition of the quality of your qualification.

• The Independent Game Developers' Association