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Games Design at Nottingham Trent University - UCAS

Course options

2025 - 2026
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Nottingham Trent University has participated in the Teaching Excellence Framework. These ratings were awarded in 2023, for four years.

Open days

8Mar
Nottingham Trent University - open day event
Undergraduate
26Apr
Nottingham Trent University - open day event
Undergraduate

Course summary

Have you ever played a video game and wished that the gameplay was less frustrating or the level design more challenging? This course will take your technical skills to the next level as you design game scenarios and work out the gameplay and playability, programming and designing levels with the respective degrees of difficulty and fun. Working with games art and visual effects art students to add visual appeal, you will programme Blueprint games. Working alone, in teams or in industry-focused charrettes, you will develop the digital toolset, technical invention and contextual knowledge to create stimulating and fun games. You will graduate with an industry-ready reel demonstrating your invention and technical prowess. The course will focus on students designing game scenarios, working out the gameplay and playability and designing the levels with the respective degrees of difficulty, working with Games Art, Visual Effects Art, and Animation students. You’ll be able to personalise your studies by choosing from a range of up to eight optional modules. Your course also includes our School-wide, sector-leading CoLab module. Employability Graduates will be prepared for a broad range of careers in games design. This could include roles such as level designer, gameplay designer, games UX designer, games writer, graphics programmer, AI programmer, generalist programmer and games tester. Facilities We’re committed to helping you explore, expand and refine your craft, as you discover new creative horizons with some truly great tools, equipment and workspaces. Visit our facilities hub at www.ntu.ac.uk/artfacilities to find out more. We are also proud to be launching the new Design & Digital Arts building to prepare our graduates for success in professional, technical and commercial careers in the growing cultural and creative industries. This landmark building will place Nottingham as a UK hub for film, television, animation, UX design, games design, graphic design and more. Facilities include: Collaborative studio spaces for each discipline Digital Innovation Lab and VR/Mixed Reality Studio Exhibition spaces TV and Film Studio Black Box studio Film Production editing suites Screen printing room Sound studios Stop Motion Studio Café

Modules

[Year one]

  • Introducing Gameplay (40 credit points)
  • Games Studies (20 credit points)
  • Introducing 3D digital art (20 credit points)
  • Programming game play (40 credit points)
[Year two]
  • Programming Gameplay (40 credit points)
  • System and Level Design (40 credit points)
  • Games Design Studio (40 credit points)
  • CoLab: Research, Exploration and Risk-taking (20 credit points)
  • Optional module.
You will also choose one optional 20-credit module from:
  • 3D Materials and Exploration
  • Storyboarding
  • Experimental Animation
  • Exploring Creative Coding
  • Digital Matte Painting
  • Performance for Motion Capture
  • Sound Art & Design
  • Web3 & Creative Autonomy
[Year three]
  • Optional Placement Year (Sandwich)*
We have an option for all of our students to undertake a placement year (Sandwich) and allow you to decide whether this is right for you once you have completed years 1 and 2 of your course. This time spent working in industry provides our students with crucial work experience, which is highly prized and much sought after by employers upon graduation. If you are successful in securing a placement you will have the chance to gain an additional Certificate or Diploma in Professional Practice, dependent on duration.
  • If you choose to take the sandwich route option, you will still need to apply for this course with the full-time UCAS code.
[Final year] Games Design Project (60 credit points) Screen Arts Collaboration (40 credit points) Games Entrepreneurship (20 credit points)

Assessment method

Year 1 coursework (87%), practical exams (13%) Year 2 coursework (93%), practical exams (7%) Year 3 coursework (93%), practical exams (7%) People excel in different ways, and we want everybody to have the best possible chance of success. On this course you will be assessed on a range of individual and group presentations, and your final year project. Your work in Year Two accounts for 20% of your final degree mark, and your work in your final year accounts for the other 80%.

How to apply

29Jan

This is the deadline for applications to be completed and sent for this course. If the university or college still has places available you can apply after this date, but your application is not guaranteed to be considered.

Application codes

Course code:
W202
Institution code:
N91
Campus name:
City Campus
Campus code:
1

Points of entry

The following entry points are available for this course:

  • Year 1

Entry requirements

Qualification requirements

A lower offer may be made based on a range of factors, including your background (such as where you live and the school or college you attended), your experiences and individual circumstances (you may have been in care, for example). This is called a contextual offer and we get data from UCAS to make these decisions. NTU offers a student experience like no other, and this approach helps us to find students who have the potential to succeed here, but may have faced barriers that can make it more difficult to access university. We also consider equivalent qualifications and combinations. Please contact Nottingham Trent University Admissions team for further information.

Student Outcomes

Operated by the Office for Students
84%
Employment after 15 months (Most common jobs)
93%
Go onto work and study

The number of student respondents and response rates can be important in interpreting the data – it is important to note your experience may be different from theirs. This data will be based on the subject area rather than the specific course. Read more about this data on the Discover Uni website.

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

No fee information has been provided for this course

Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .

Additional fee information

The UK Government recently announced an increase to the Home Undergraduate tuition fee from £9,250 (the 2024 entry fee) to £9,535 for 2025 entry. This is subject to Parliamentary approval and is therefore still to be confirmed. The current expectation is that the NTU tuition fee for 2025 entry will be £9,535.
Games Design at Nottingham Trent University - UCAS