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Computing for Games student
Computing For Games BSc(Hons)

Computing for Games BSc(Hons)

Launch your programming and software development career.

Key details
Location
Penryn Campus
Course duration
3 years / 4 years
Attendance
Full-time / Professional Placement
UCAS code
I610 / FY03 / PY25

Course overview

A fusion of creativity and science, this Computing for Games course will give you the skills and experiences to launch a programming and software development career within the rapidly growing games industry, and beyond.

Supported by experts in game programming, immersive technology, artificial intelligence and data science, you’ll gain an in-depth understanding of the technologies that power games and learn to push the boundaries of existing software and engines.

You’ll also learn to collaborate and communicate effectively as you lead the development of real-time interactive systems within multi-skilled game development teams. 

Why study this course at Falmouth?

  • This course is accredited by the British Computer Society (BCS), aligned with the SFIA global IT skills framework, allowing you to plan your progression and translate your competencies to global companies operating all over the world 
  • We’re ranked as the number one university for game design in England (Princeton Review, 2023) 
  • You’ll make real games in collaboration with artists, animators, composers, designers, writers and other programmers, working within an industry-style studio environment
  • You’ll get under the hood of video game engines like Unity and Unreal, learning a range of programming languages like C#, Python and C++ 

Course details

Computing for Games at Falmouth University

On this Computing for Games BSc degree, you’ll study key computing principles and related mathematical concepts, learning how to apply these to your own technical work. You'll concentrate on programming in multiple languages, including C#, Python, and C++, as well as software engineering methods, agile project management, and versioning techniques. By studying industry-standard methods, and focusing on collaboration, creativity and enterprise, you'll learn how to build and sell original games. 

Course study options  

You can gain your Computing for Games BSc(Hons) degree in three years or choose to add an Integrated Foundation Year and/or professional placement year. Discover full course details for each study option, below. 

Levelling the playing field 

All the courses in the computing subject area share a common first year. No matter your background or experience, in this year you’ll level-up your knowledge of programming and mathematics through playful experimentation in collaboration with other students. 

1

FOR GAME DESIGN IN ENGLAND*

Beginning with an introduction to programming, you’ll learn the basics of computing using modern programming languages. We’ll support complete beginners as we go through the various stages of software development, helping you apply what you’ve learned to a small team-based exercise. 

You’ll then embark on your first multi-disciplinary teamwork project alongside artists, animators, composers, designers, and writers. This project gives you a practical understanding of software engineering processes and architecture – typically using C# in Unity.

Throughout the year, you'll work individual creative computing projects into your games. These projects typically involve procedural content generation and physical computing, reflecting our research strengths. 

Modules

Principles of Computing

In this module, you’ll learn the principles of computing, discrete mathematics, statistics and technical communication. Through a series of tasks, you’ll begin to use core computer science concepts, techniques and methods to solve practical problems and leverage algorithms in your solutions.  

You'll also delve into the history of computing, engaging with the plurality of voices in the profession and the controversies evoked by algorithmic bias.

Digital Creativity 

On this module, you will explore digital media formats including text, image and sound.

You’ll play, tinker, experiment with and extend digital artefacts, transforming what already exists in one form into another form as a means of appropriation. You will then integrate your digital artefacts with digital game technologies, notably game engines, to make them interactive in some way.

You’ll also consider moral and legal questions surrounding digital creativity, such as plagiarism, intellectual property law, licensing rights, representation and media literacy.

Development Foundations

On this module, you’ll gain foundational experience of the basic principles, terminology, roles and tools used in the development of digital products and services.

Through several small-scale team projects, you’ll practice a range of prototyping methods and pitch your idea for a future project. These projects will help you to develop your project management skills, while building a professional, inclusive and supportive studio culture.

Data Fundamentals

In this module, you’ll learn the fundamentals of the data science life cycle. This will include learning how to formulate questions, collect and clean data, explore and visualise data, make statistical inferences and predictions, and report insights in a way that informs decision making.  

You'll also gain an awareness of the responsibilities, obligations and legalities of working with sensitive and personal data, including its collection, storage, analysis, management and transmission.

Individual Programming Project

In this module, you’ll refine your approach to computer programming by developing an architecturally sound project focused on object-orientated solutions.  

Through this project, you’ll build your confidence with various interfaces that enable interaction within and across different system components. You’ll practice more disciplined software engineering methodologies, develop your mastery of the notations for describing and refactoring system architectures, and apply the mathematics associated with circuit design. 

You’ll also gain a greater awareness of ethical considerations such as safety, accessibility, sustainability and the impact of supply chains.

Multidisciplinary Teamwork

On this module, you’ll work in multi-skilled teams to make a digital product or service in response to a prompt or brief. 

This work will give you the opportunity to increase your knowledge of organising and managing a software development project. Working in a multidisciplinary team will also give you hands-on experience of the full systems development life cycle and production pipelines in an ‘agile’ context commonly used in professional practice. 

By the end of the module, you and your team should have produced and evaluated a modest but functional proof of concept.

You’ll focus on developing your specialism in computing for games and collaborate with students from across the Games Academy to design and build a product.

You’ll explore key principles in computational mathematics, as well as delving into more complicated game development concepts in advanced game programming and artificial intelligence.

Modules

Advanced Game Programming

On this module, you’ll learn more about the different areas of game programming through the process of producing a game from scratch.

Through this, you’ll deepen your knowledge and understanding of languages and framework fundamentals as well as game engine architecture. 

You’ll also touch on artificial intelligence (AI) and will be challenged to incorporate it into your game or your game development process. Through this, you’ll consider how AI might impact society in the future.

Computational Mathematics

You’ll learn key mathematic principles that underpin computing, such as linear algebra, geometry, trigonometry, 3D transformation, and calculus. You’ll then apply these principles to your own technical work.

You’ll also investigate the relationship between computational mathematics and cybersecurity. By exploring security topics such as common threats and attack vectors, cryptography and steganography, certification and malware, as well as defensive programming.

World Building: Pre-production

Working in a multi-skilled team, you’ll devise a concept for a digital ‘world creation’ project. You’ll also develop a broader understanding of key game art principles, including world-building and exploratory concept work, prototyping, pre-production, and the early phases of production.

World Building: Production

Working in a multi-skilled team, you’ll continue to develop your ‘world creation’ project that you started during the previous study block.

You'll deliver content in line with production milestones and prepare to release your product and reach your target audience.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

In this module, you’ll explore the challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques. Considering real-world applications, you’ll conduct a practical research and development project looking to address a specific brief or challenge.  

Through this work, you’ll get a chance to think about the legal, social, ethical, professional and sustainability implications of AI technologies. You’ll also examine how artificial intelligence and machine learning may impact computer technology and your future career aspirations. 

You can choose to take an optional professional placement after your second year on a three-year programme, or after your third year if you’re studying for a degree with an Integrated Foundation Year. 

You’ll be responsible for finding your own placement, with support from the employability team. 

Choosing this option will enhance your industry experience and skills while studying. 

How you’ll study during your professional placement 

You’ll spend time working in a professional context, as part of a business or organisation. This can be in one role, or up to three, and must be for a minimum of 24 weeks. 

You’ll develop in-demand workplace skills, deepen your insight into industry and grow your network of contacts, all of which could help you get ahead in your career after graduation. 

Throughout this year, you’ll develop a portfolio of work that includes critical self-reflection on what has been learned from the experience. You’ll be required to evidence your experiences, the skills you’ve learned and your professional growth. 

In your third year, you’ll develop greater intellectual freedom and further your specialism in computing for games. You’ll then harness these skills to conduct your own individual research and development project under the supervision of a subject-matter specialist. This will provide you with the space to realise a substantial computing artefact of your own and apply scientific research methods to find cutting-edge insights into a topic of your choice.

Complementing this is a major collaboration, in which you’ll work in multi-skilled teams to produce an innovative digital product or service based on your own intellectual property.

Modules

Graphics & Simulation

In this module, you’ll deepen your understanding of computing and explore how application protocol interfaces (APIs) are used for graphics and simulations that underpin digital game engines.

You also develop your coding skills in the context of graphic technologies and pipelines, gaining an understanding of how simulated virtual environments operate.

Research & Development: Proposal

In this module, you’ll plan and commence an individual ‘major’ research and development project in computing. You can choose to conduct primary research centred on or supported by a novel computing artefact, or practice-based research with significant technical depth.

The development of your written proposal will include identifying an opportunity, critically reviewing relevant literature, setting a hypothesis and designing a mode of data collection, while considering all ethical implications, as well as prototyping a novel and substantial computing artefact.

Future Skills

Focusing on employability, you’ll develop a commercial awareness and entrepreneurial mindset.  

You’ll explore career options, including researching the skills required to set up your own business, establish yourself as a freelancer, or for use as an employee in a business or organisation. 

You'll also devise a group project around enterprise opportunities. Practical learning will be consolidated through critical reflection as you develop the ability to translate skills for an external challenge-led context.

Research & Development: Dissertation

On this module, you’ll continue your individual ‘major’ research and development project. Building upon the proposal you submitted, you’ll further develop your prototype computing artefact into a potentially deployable solution. In doing so, you’ll deepen your knowledge of software engineering, the use of advanced research tools, technical writing and academic conventions, as well as the interpretation and visualisation of results from statistical analyses of quantitative data.

Under the supervision of a subject-matter expert, you will: realise a novel and substantial computing artefact; execute your research and development; and critically analyse your results, disseminating your findings through a written academic dissertation. You’ll also present your insights to peers alongside a demonstration of the final computing artefact, referring to the potential impact of your project, any ethical concerns, and potential future work.

Major Collaboration

In this module, you’ll leverage your experiences from the prior stages of the course to deliver a substantial collaborative project. You’ll work in a multi-skilled team to design and implement a potentially innovative product or service.  

Typically, this will be the continuation of your previous project, but it could also be a newly proposed project that satisfies a real need, a response to a market opportunity identified by the University, a live brief from or collaboration with industry partners or research teams, or a solution to a problem presented by an external stakeholder.  

You will continue to put into practice the ethically-informed methodologies you have outlined in previous modules. Contexts can also vary but could include: enterprise solutions; mobile apps; installations; games; web applications; robots; immersive experiences; software development tools; and more.

Why study an Integrated Foundation Year route?

If you’re taking on a new subject that you haven’t studied in depth before, have been out of education for a while or have a non-standard educational background then an Integrated Foundation Year degree may be the right choice for you. It is a four-year degree with an Integrated Foundation Year to start, which allows you to explore the primary elements of your subject before progressing on to the remaining three years of the BSc(Hons) degree.

What you'll study in your Foundation year

If you choose this pathway, you'll study five core modules in your Foundation year. These are all designed to help you explore the foundational elements of your subject. You'll gain relevant technical skills, learn to experiment and take risks, develop an understanding of professional practice, have opportunities to work across disciplines and collaborate with other students on live project briefs. 

Modules

Explore

You'll begin your foundation year by working collaboratively with others to explore themes of the future. You'll take risks, experiment through play and be supported to break through barriers.

Technique

You'll take subject-specific workshops and develop essential technical and practical skills in your area of study. You'll also enhance your analytical and organisational abilities.

Apply

You'll work with your peer group to think beyond discipline by addressing a societal or global issue. You'll then showcase your work to your peers and deliver and accompanying evaluation of your process.

Industry

You'll enhance your creative and practical skills in your subject specialism by responding to typical industry briefs, underpinned by focused research and experiments. You'll also gain industry insights through guest lectures and workshops.

Launch

You'll develop your unique identity in your specialism through the production of a self-initiated body of work. Your final project will be the bridge to your next year, fully supported by evaluative reviews and critical analysis of the work you have created.

After the Foundation year, you progress into Year One of the full three-year degree, equipped with a deeper knowledge of your subject, a clear understanding of your strengths, and develop a practical and technical skillset and the confidence to excel in your chosen subject.

If you apply for and enrol onto a degree with an Integrated Foundation Year, you’ll have the option to switch onto a five-year version including a placement year. That means you’ll complete the first three years of your course before completing a placement in industry in your fourth year and returning to Falmouth for the fifth year of your programme. 

The modules above are those being studied by our students, or proposed new ones. Programme structures and modules can change as part of our curriculum enhancement and review processes. If a certain module is important to you, please discuss it with the Course Leader.

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Perlin Noise

Terrain Generated using Perlin Noise by Warwick New

Accredited by the British Computer Society (BCS)

This Computing for Games BSc(Hons) is accredited by the BCS and aligned with the SFIA global IT skills framework, allowing you to progress and translate your competencies to companies operating all over the world.

Additionally, the Games Academy is an affiliate of the British Computer Society (BCS), the Chartered Institute for IT. This means our computing qualifications are continually reviewed and updated to meet the needs and demands of the future workforce.

BCS accredited degree logo

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How you'll learn & be assessed

You will learn in an environment mirroring the industry, with technical workshops and tuition boosted by collaborative, studio-based projects. Individual and group projects with students from other disciplines will be key to your development. You'll create software, devise new applications for computing, generate solutions to technical problems, and develop novel and appealing games. 

At Falmouth, we use a 'digitally enhanced learning & teaching' approach. Your experience will always be predominantly in-person, including seminars, tutorials and studio teaching, with some, more targeted elements, being online either live (synchronous) or pre-recorded (asynchronous). You can read more here.

100% of your assessment will be coursework. 

Assessments could include: 

  • Foundation year assessments are 100% coursework based
  • Projects 
  • Papers 
  • Pitches 
  • Portfolios

Designed to mirror industry practice, students are also continually assessed on group projects through a group working strategy.

This course could be for you if...

  • You're passionate about digital games
  • You want to work as a programmer or technology specialist
  • You're always keeping up with the latest games and technologies coming out
  • You want to be able to develop real games 
  • You love working in a team
  • You're comfortable with mathematics and problem solving

Facilities

  • State-of-the-art development studios which house the latest technology and professional facilities 
  • Modern i7 machines  
  • Labs for PlayStation console development, live streaming, esports, immersive experience design, 3d printing, and robot fabrication  
  • Specialised computing hardware for game development, deep learning projects, motion capture, and immersive experiences   
  • Standard packages used in software development for the creative industries, including Adobe and Autodesk suites 
  • Studios open late during term time
  • Access to free software

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Games Academy Facilities

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Games Academy Facilities
Library facilities
Library facilities

Library Facilities

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Library Facilities
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Sports Centre

Sports Centre

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Sports Centre

Staff

You’ll be taught by computing professionals working in fields such as games, graphics and visual effects, web development, immersive technology, robotics, user research, data science, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.

Some members of staff only teach on specific modules, and your course might not feature every staff member who teaches on the course.

Dr Michael Scott

Head of Computing and Associate Professor of Computer Science Education

Dr Michael Scott is the Head of Computing and Associate Professor of Computer Science Educ...

Dr Michael Scott

Brian McDonald

Senior Lecturer Digital Games

Brian McDonald is a senior lecturer on the BA(Hons) Game Development and BSc(Hons) Computing fo...

Brian McDonald
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Andy Smith

Technical Manager/Technical Tutor

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Andy Smith

John Speakman

Lecturer

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Joseph Walton-Rivers

Lecturer

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Joseph Walton-Rivers

Warwick New

Associate Lecturer

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Warwick New
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Dr Michael Scott profile image

Got a question about this course?


If you want to know more about the course structure, our application requirements or what our graduates have gone on to achieve, our friendly course team is here to help.

 

Chat to Michael

Careers

Our graduates have worked as:

  • Graduate Game Programmer at Firesprite 
  • Associate Programmer at d3t
  • Tools Software Engineer at Ballistic Moon
  • Gameplay Programmer at Mediatonic
  • Games Programmer at Ubisoft
  • Junior Programmer at Critical Failure
  • Data Management Lead at Pineapple Studios
  • Unity Developer at SG Gaming
  • Python Automation Engineer at Imagination Technologies

Games Academy graduates have developed their own indie games, including Polargryph’s Soria, Studio Mutiny’s Sai, Knights of Borria’s Rustbreaker and Meteorite Media’s Kaya’s Vale.

How to apply

Ready to join us? You can apply for September 2024 through UCAS. You'll need to reference the course and University code (F33).

Apply via UCAS

Course route UCAS code
Computing for Games BSc(Hons) three year degree I610
Computing for Games BSc(Hons) with Integrated Foundation Year FY03
Computing for Games BSc(Hons) with professional placement PY25

We consider all applications on their own individual merit and potential. We invite all applicants to an interview day or audition to give them the opportunity to demonstrate this along with what inspires and motivates them in their field. Applicants will also be able to show their portfolio or give a performance depending on the course. We welcome applications from all subject backgrounds, whether you've specialised in STEM, the arts or humanities.

Course route Entry requirements
BSc(Hons) three year degree

104 – 120 UCAS Tariff points

GCSE Mathematics Grade 4 (C)

BSc(Hons) four year degree with professional placement

104 – 120 UCAS Tariff points

GCSE Mathematics Grade 4 (C)

BSc(Hons) four year degree with Integrated Foundation Year 

80 – 120 UCAS Tariff points

UCAS Tariff points will primarily be from Level 3 qualifications such as but not limited to A-levels, T Levels, a BTEC/UAL Extended Diploma or a Foundation Diploma. Applicants should have GCSE Mathematics Grade 4 (C), or equivalent.

Check how many points your qualifications are worth

For applicants whose first language is English we require you to have or be working towards GCSE English Language Grade 4 (C), or equivalent.

If English is not your first language you will need to meet the same standard which is equivalent to the IELTS Academic 6.0 overall score, with at least 5.5 in Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. We accept a range of in country equivalencies and approved tests.

If you need a student visa to study in the UK, you may need to take a recognised language test. You can read our English Language Requirements for more information.

For starting your studies in 2024

UK applications: 31 January 2024 (for equal consideration)

Applications after the 31 January will be considered on a first-come, first-served as long as there are places available. Apply for this course now.

International fee payers

International fee payers can apply throughout the year. But we recommend applying as early as possible, to make time for visa and travel arrangements.

Fees, costs & funding

Tuition fees for September 2024 entry

Annual tuition fee Student
£9,250 per year Full-time UK
£17,950 per year Full-time EU/international
£1,850 per professional placement year Full-Time UK and EU/international

Tuition fees for September 2025 will be confirmed in summer 2024.

Tuition fees are set annually and are subject to review each year. The University may therefore raise tuition fees in the second or subsequent years of a course, in line with inflation and/or the maximum permitted by law or Government policy. Students will be notified of any changes as soon as possible. 

The figures above don't include accommodation and living costs

Typical course costs

  • £40 - Consumable electronics
  • £30-£150 - Headset with microphone
  • £25-£100 - Webcam
  • £1,500 - Laptop or desktop capable of running appropriate software

If you need to bring equipment or materials with you, these will be outlined in your Welcome Letter

Additional typical course costs for Integrated Foundation Year pathway

  • £250 for materials
  • A laptop/desktop computer
  • Adobe Creative Suite

To engage in the digital learning activity, although you will be able to access IT suites on campus, you will benefit from a laptop to access the platforms and tools we use. Depending on your subject, you may need a specific type of computer. If you're unsure about what you might need, please contact our course advisors.

Ask a student

What better way to find out about life at Falmouth University than by asking our current students?

From course details and academic support, to the social scene and settling in, our students are ready and available to answer any questions you might have. Simply set up your account, send them a question and they'll get back to you within 24 hours.

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