Program Overview

This programme enables you to combine our popular BA Communication and Media with a Minor pathway in Game Design Studies – a new and distinctive provision in the study of interactive audiovisual media.

The world we live in is dominated by media in many forms: from entertainment and culture through news and social media to politics and promotion, the media shapes our understanding of what we know and what we consume. Whether you want to work in one of these areas, to research their impact or simply to understand more about our relationship with media, this programme provides a thorough introduction with plenty of opportunities to develop specialist skills.

A wide range of optional modules allow students to pursue their own interests and focus on particular media and communication forms, analysing how they are organised as text, how they represent the world to us and ourselves to the world (from global power politics to constructions of individual identity), and how the media industries are organised to produce and profit from them. But we teach all of our students to acquire strong research skills and they are given the opportunity to practice them through independent or collaborative research.

As a Games Design Studies student, you will develop skills in coding and programming, games scholarship, and creative design through a combination of modules from across the School of the Arts, as well as a suite of bespoke interdisciplinary modules concerning the design and interpretation of games. Topics include the history and development of gaming cultures, the complex nature of interactive media, and the critical issues that accompany engagement with virtual worlds.

Digital games represent one of the fastest growing forms of entertainment media: consequently, there is a growing need for many jobs that are not only in the games industry, but in surrounding industries as well. This programme develops a wide range of skills that prepare students for employment at various entry points in the job market, including content creation, publishing, journalism, and marketing.

Year in Industry

• This programme is available with a Year in Industry. Year Three is spent on a paid placement within an organisation in industry, broadly defined. You will be supported by the School of the Arts and the Department throughout, and your reflexive written account of the experience will contribute towards your final degree result. If you wish to study this programme with a Year in Industry, please put the option code ‘YI’ in the ‘Further Choices’ section of your UCAS application form.

What you'll learn

• Practical skills, including media writing, blogging, analysis of social media data, and video-making
• Research skills
• Commercial and cultural understanding
• Critical analysis
• Problem solving
• The ability to construct arguments and convey ideas effectively
• Effective communication and presentation skills
• Creative principles
• Techniques of critical thinking and analysis