MSc (Hons) Computer Games Technology - FAQs
Who should take the course?
This course should be of interest to any professional with an undergraduate degree, or equivalent experience, in game development, art and design, computing and I.T., media or communication areas. The course will benefit entrants from outside the games industry who wish to develop specialist skills in game development and enter a new career in the leisure software industry. The course will also benefit entrants from within the games industry who wish to develop and extend their specialist game development skills, and who wish to enhance their career prospects. For professionals from outside the United Kingdom this course offers an opportunity to critically investigate Western development practices.
Will the course help me get a job?
Professional guidance is offered as part of the Advanced Game Specification and Prototyping and Advanced Game Implementation units. In these core units all students gain experience of working on a game development project and have an opportunity to create a substantial portfolio piece. Further portfolio work is undertaken in the 60 credit Masters Creative Technology Project unit.
It is expected that when students graduate from this course they will find employment in the games industry or elsewhere in the media/entertainment sector. Students graduating from this programme will be prepared, by the programme's emphasis on self-initiated learning and projects, for the rapid evolution of the media/entertainment industries. They will have the skills and knowledge base required to continue their learning in their chosen specialisms as these industries move rapidly forward. They will also have project management and team working skills, which will be applicable to many industries outside the media/entertainment sector.
What other courses might I consider?
The MSc Computer Games Technology course is seen as complementary to MSc Digital Media and MSc Computer Animation with students focussing on skills that are specific to the games industry, as opposed to the broader ranges of skills offered by the other two MSc's.
If you are interested in developing game audio and musical composition skills you might consider MSc Creative and Computational Sound.
Tell me more about the games industry.
The South East of England Development Agency (SEEDA) states that the south east of England is a centre for technology industries and in particular has a high percentage of small to mediums sized businesses (SMEs). A 2003 report commissioned by SEEDA (Getting a measure of the games development business: strategies to meet global challenges) identified a cluster of game development companies in the south east region.
The Department of Creative Technologies has close ties with game developers and publishers such as Sony Entertainment Europe, Climax, Infospace and Electronic Arts and the course team includes ex-game industry professionals.
The games industry is currently going through a transition to new gaming platforms such as the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. The increasing complexity of the games (both in terms of graphics and code) mean that game development team sizes are likely to increase from around 30-40 to 100+. The UK is a world leader in game development and requires a skilled workforce to maintain this lead. The games industry is worth (globally) nearly $20 billion. The American based Entertainment Software Association reports that the U.S. computer and video game software sales grew four percent in 2004 to $7.3 billion -- a more than doubling of industry software sales since 1996. The Entertainment Leisure Software Publishers Association 2003 report states: 'The UK games market is worth more than £2 billion. It's the biggest in Europe and the third largest in the world, after USA and Japan'.