Year 1: Semester 1

In the first year of the Computer Games Technology degree all students take the same units, however over the course of this year students start to specialise in either programming or graphics.

In the first semester all students try out programming in the Programming for Games unit. This unit enables students who are more interested in programming to gain knowledge and skills that they will be able to build on in subsequent units. The more graphically inclined students who take this learn the basics of programming, developing skills that they may find of use later in the course and in work. For example, they are likely to have a better appreciation of tasks undertaken by programmers and will be better able to understand the viewpoint of programmers. This communication skill is essential when working in teams to build games or other media products. All the students on this course take the Drawing for Conceptualisation unit. This unit is as much about learning to see as it is about drawing. Artistic students are taught basic skills they can build on. Technically minded students are given the opportunity to more fully appreciate the skills of the artists. As with the programming unit this enables better communication and understanding between artists and programmers.

Also during the first semester all students take the Issues in the Use of Computing Technology unit. In this students examine issues such as copyright, piracy, hacking, social engineering, and codes of conduct. More generally students start learning academic research and writing skills. They start to develop an appreciation of the complexity of issues in the wider world, where things are rarely 'black and white'.

Finally in this first semester students take a Software Skills for Media unit in which they learn the essentials of media software tools such as 3D Studio Max (for building 3D objects and environments) and Photoshop (for creating 2D pictures and textures).

Year 1: Semester 2

In the second semester of the first year students take the first of three game design units. The Game Genre unit looks in detail at different game genres, the history of games and gives students a framework for evaluating and appraising games and game ideas. Practical game design workshop sessions start in this unit, and continue through the two subsequent ones. These design sessions allow students to develop their own game design skills and experiment with their own ideas while working in small groups. Students also start to develop commercial sensibilities as they think of their ideas in terms of audiences and the current games market.

An Information and Representation unit gives students an opportunity to explore information architecture and interface design. They also learn project management skills as they work both on both individual and group projects.

Perhaps the most daunting and challenging unit that students take in the first year is the Introducing Programming and Graphics for Games unit. In this students are divided into teams according to their skill sets and told to 'make a game'. This task is supported by materials online, tutorials and lectures. However, it is up to the individual teams to decide what sort of game they will make and what sort of technology they will use to make it. This unit is designed to give students an early and accurate idea of what it is like working in games development, where sometimes projects are not well defined, deadlines are short, resources are limited and the technology is new and unknown.

Not all teams succeed in their task as well as they would like, and this is expected. The assessment of this unit rewards resourcefulness and reflection. Students learn a great deal from their experiences in this unit that then informs their choices as they progress through the course. Students are also able to try out working as programmers or graphic artists in this unit which helps them with their decision of which to specialise in when they start the second year.

In this year one second semester students are required to make a number of presentations of their work and ideas to their peers, some of these presentations being marked and forming part of the assessment for the units. This is another communication skill that is developed and used during the course. Giving presentations requires students to organise their work and make choices. They develop the confidence to stand in front of their peers and express their own ideas, a life skill that they are likely to need when they enter work after their degree.

Year 2: Semester 1

At the beginning of the second year students start to follow either a graphics pathway through the degree or a programming pathway. Once on one of these pathways they are locked into it for the rest of the degree, as they build their skills. In the first semester in the Gameplay Mechanisms unit students continue to work on their game design skills. They start to look in more detail at the underlying gameplay structures found within games, further develop their design skills and learn about creating design documents. Students' entrepreneurial abilities are tested and encouraged in the Student Enterprise unit that lasts for the whole of year two. In this innovative unit students are gathered together in teams. Each team has to set up a company, open a bank account, create and sell something (a product or service), hopefully (though not always) make a profit, then close down the company. The team members take on real company roles like financial director, marketing manager and so on. Although this unit does not teach specific game development skills it does teach skills (project management and business awareness) that are important in game development. These skills are also relevant in many different industries and give students the knowledge to help them set up their own business or work in a managerial role in an existing company.

All students take the Maths for Computer Graphics unit which looks at the mathematics that underlies 3D imagery. This is useful to both students on both the graphics and programming strand. On a higher education course it is important to explain not only how to do things but to explore the underlying principles, giving students a deeper knowledge of their chosen subject area. Game programmers need a good understanding of mathematics in order to create games. Game artists need to communicate effectively with game programmers and it is useful if they both understand basic underlying concepts. Game artists are likely to need to interact at a more technical level with 3D creation software. They may need to use, and even assist in the development of, custom 3D modelling and texturing software. They may be involved in scripting software that determines how things appear and move on screen. This unit gives them a foundation they can extend and build on if they are called to work in these more technical areas.

The programmers do a Direct X Programming and Software Engineering unit that both introduces them to game specific programming techniques and more generally teaches them the fundamentals of working in an efficient and productive way. The graphic artists continue to build on their 3D modelling skills in a Further Modelling and Animation unit where they not only build and texture 3D objects but also make them move around and animate. The artists also do a Media in Context unit where they learn to create storyboards, character style sheets and mood boards, and study theories that underlie the design of emotive characters and environments.

Year 2: Semester 2

In the second semester of the second year students continue their study of game design in a Practical Game Design unit. In this unit students are introduced to detailed designing at industry standard. Among other things they focus in depth on role playing mechanisms, real time strategy mechanisms and interactive storytelling. A Careers Unit gives students the opportunity to start thinking about work. They write a curriculum vitae, research the jobs market and do other things to start preparing for seeking a job.

Programmers have two units in this second semester. They start creating console games in Console Programming 1, working on Sony PlayStation 2 Linux development kits, some of which are available for students to borrow. The fundamental console development skills gained in this unit are applicable across many different existing and newly emerging gaming platforms. They also learn about creating and displaying 3D worlds in 3D Animation Programming. The artists spend this semester building up their animation skills in the Animating Characters unit.

At the end of the second year some students choose to spend a sandwich year working in industry. The university fully supports this and offers assistance to students, though it is the students who need to find their own placements. If a student wishes to find a work placement they need to ideally start this process at the start of their second year or even at the end of their first year.

Students have already had many opportunities to create portfolio pieces that will be important when they are looking for work. However, in the third year of their degree they do a year long Creative Technologies Project, where they can specialise and create something truly impressive for their portfolio. This is the unit and project where they can concentrate on an area that they would like to move into when they start work. It is not possible for anyone to reach industry standard in every area of game graphics or every area of programming. Students need to specialise in areas that are of particular interest to them, areas where they wish to seek work. This process started in the first year when they chose roles for themselves in the Introducing Programming and Graphics for Games unit. Now they get to work on a substantial, individual piece of work. Students have a great deal of freedom to choose what they want to do in their project. Some choose to create some artefact, for example a game, graphics, programming tool, networked delivery system, some students to choose to do a study project where they write a longer piece on something like the history and development of a game genre, the impact and consequences of violence in games or the evolution of interactive narrative in games for example. Other students do combined artefact and study projects.

A Professional Issues unit focuses students on creating their own portfolios. They explore legal, ethical, social, economic and employment related issues in the context of their own career aspirations.

Year 3: Semester 1

Students draw on their previous learning when they embark on the year long Real Time Group Project. This is the third year unit where students are once again thrown together in teams to work on a substantial piece of work. Each team comprises a group of students with a range of different skills (design, management, programming, art) and they are tasked to create an artefact featuring real time animated graphics according to a brief set by the lecturer. For example, in the 2005-6 year a task was set to create an artefact featuring Portsmouth's landmark Spinnaker Tower, but acting in a similar way to Channel Four's distinctive channel idents (where the '4' emerges from a landscape as the camera moves). This task took the Channel 4 idea, but made it more challenging as the students had to create not a pre-prepared sequence but one that was created and displayed 'live'.

As the students move through the course and specialise they get more options to choose between. So in the first semester of the third year the programmers choose between AI Programming for Games, 3D Rendering and Game Producer units. The artists choose between 3D Rendering and Game Producer units.

The AI Programming for Games unit explores different artificial intelligence (AI) systems, but specialises in game AI, giving programmers the fundamentals they can build on if they wish to specialise in creating artificial intelligence for games. The 3D Rendering unit gets to the heart of 3D systems, explaining the underlying principles in detail. For programmers this gives them the knowledge and understanding they need when creating systems for producing 3D objects on screen. For the artists this gives them a technical understanding of the systems they are using to create 3D artwork for games. The Game Producer unit is designed to give students game producer skills. In this unit students are taught about producing games and then have to role play as game producers in a simulated game development exercise that lasts for six weeks.

Year 3: Semester 2

In the final semester of the third year the programmers once again work on console game development in the Console Programming 2 unit. Here they build on the skills they developed in the first of these units. An Advanced Programming unit allows them to explore the latest developments in game programming. Since this technology moves forward at such an accelerated rate the specific content of this unit changes from year to year as technologies evolve and new gaming platforms are launched. This Advanced Programming unit is mirrored for the artists by an Advanced Graphics unit which explores the latest advances in graphics technology.

If a student has musical skills (acquired outside this course) they may choose to do a Music Project unit in this semester. Music and sound are important for games and although this course does not spend a lot of time exploring this we felt it was a good option to offer students. This unit is shared with the BSc (Hons) Music and Sound Technology course run by the Department of Creative Technologies. Students who wish to create sounds and music for games may like to consider this degree in preference to BSc (Hons) Computer Games Technology.

The final unit that the graphics students do is Imaginary Architecture and Imaginary Worlds. In this unit students draw on the graphics skills they have been developing over the three years of their course to create some portfolio-worthy concept art and a 3D location suitable for use in a game level in a specified commercial game. In the 2005-6 year the games Half-Life 2 and World of Warcraft were chosen. Students also consider the influence of gameplay on level design.