Entry Requirements

You will need a minimum of 64 UCAS points from one or more of the following:

• A Levels
• T Levels
• BTEC/UAL Extended Diploma
• Foundation Diploma in Art and Design (Level 3 or 4)
• Or equivalent EU/International qualifications, such as International Baccalaureate Diploma
• And English GCSE passes at grade 4 or above (grade A*-C) 

This list is not exhaustive, other qualifications may be considered. Entry to this course will also be determined by the quality of your application, looking primarily at your portfolio/showreel of work,
personal statement and reference.

Course Structure

Year one units

• Project Planning
• Historical and Contextual Studies
• 3D Modelling and Texturing
• Programming

Year two units

• Game Prototype
• Game Animations
• Professional and Cultural Development
• Mobile Game Prototype

Year three units

• Dissertation Project
• Final Project 
• Games Management

Timetables

Timetables are normally available one month before registration, though we endeavour to let you know an outline as soon as possible. Please note that while we make every effort to ensure that timetables are as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week. Typically year groups are expected to attend for 13 hours a week spread over two and a half days. We expect you to build on this learning through Independent Study for at least a similar period. For this time we usually have space available within the campus or at the Forum in Southend.

Guest speakers

Students benefit from several guest speakers from industry, including professionals from TT Games, Creative Assembly, ILM, Framestore and ifour.

Field trips

You will have the opportunity to visit games studios and events in UK , France and Germany.

Live briefs

Every year Games Jam competition is organised and for Every two to three months mini competitions organised where you will undertake a 'one / three hour challenge' to create :

• Sculpt a Character
• Create a Game asset
• Programming, etc.

Teaching & Learning

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of lectures, seminars and workshops, which enable you to discuss and develop your understanding of the discipline of Games Design.

HE Games is supported with high powered computers with own dedicated HE Games area which is accessible to HE students anytime with latest and updated software's and tools to work smoothly and fast. The students have access to hardware such as Game Consoles, Oculus and SDK (for VR), Motion capture, 3D printers, Wacom tablets etc.

At Level 4 you typically have around 13 hours contact time per week, typically consisting of:

• Four hours of lectures/seminars
• Six hours of workshops (including dedicated one-to-one tutorials when necessary)
• Two hours of Contextual Studies (either lecture or one-to-one tutorial)
• One hour group tutorials

Units are delivered through avariety of methods of teaching and learning. These will include:

• Technical demonstrations - designed to provide essential inductions to print and graphics resources and to support the acquisition of essential skills
• Small group teaching - studio based group sessions which are led by a tutor
• Group critiques - will usually occur towards the end of a unit before assessment
• Individual tutorials - The tutor will ask key questions regarding your project and offer advice and suggestions regarding future development
• Independent research and studio practice - during the unit students are expected to follow up on suggested directions regarding project direction

Independent learning

When not attending lectures, seminars and workshops or other timetabled sessions you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. Typically, this will involve reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library, preparing coursework assignments and presentations. A range of excellent facilities, including the library, the Learning Resource Centre and the Forum, supports your independent learning.

Assessment & Feedback

Coursework is assessed in a range of different ways in order to accommodate a variety of learning styles and aptitudes including:

• Portfolio and sketchbook submissions
• Group presentations
• Written essays
• Research folders

There are no examinations.

Feedback

You will receive formative feedback as part of your one-to-one sessions with your unit teachers. You will also receive summative feedback on all formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback is intended to help you learn and you are encouraged to discuss it with your unit leader tutor. Feedback can be given in a range of different ways in order to accommodate a variety of learning styles and aptitudes including group critiques, recorded verbal feedback and written feedback.

We aim to provide you with feedback within 20 working days of hand-in (for al formal studio based coursework assessment). For the third year Dissertation Unit you will receive feedback and grades at the same time as your Final Creative Output unit.

Course Cost

Adult, full_time: £8500 per year

Fees are per academic year for home/UK students.

The following course-related costs are included in the fees:

• Guest speakers, visiting lecturers and industry focussed workshops will be included in your course over the three years.
• Third Year students will have the opportunity to showcase their final year work at the end of their studies. This may be a local, national or online platform. Event/exhibition costs will be covered by the Faculty of HE. In the past this has included Vertex. Students will be responsible for any additional costs associated with the production of their personal project (ie: printing, materials).
• Annual £20 of printing credit per year.

Additional course costs can be found here

What Next...

As a BSc (Hons) Games Design graduate you will be prepared for employment in the creative industries such as the computers games, film and TV, visual effects and broadcast industries. In addition to this graduates could pursue software development opportunities. You may also wish to continue your studies at Masters level, to specialist postgraduate design programmes, or alternatively to professional teacher training courses.

We also offer a postgraduate support programme for Games Design graduates which gives them continued access to facilities and tutors after they leave the College to help them hone their skills for employment.

Graduate destinations

Students have progressed to a range of companies, not just in games development. Graduates progress into games and effects studios, but also animation, rigging TDs and motion capture. Typical graduate jobs include:

• Concept Artist
• Environment Artist
• Character Artist
• Game Developer
• Game Designer
• App Developer
• Motion capture animator

Typical examples of jobs graduates progress onto include:

• MSc Computer Games Technology
• MSc Computer Game Engineering
• MSc Games Development
• MSc Computer Games Systems
• MSc Computer Science

Success Stories...

Jordan Smee My Story

Course studied

Games Design BSc (Hons)

My greatest achievement so far has been my interview with Lv.80, it was an unexpected surprise as I wasn’t ready for the project I had released at that point to gain so much traction and gain their attention

View full story

My name is Jordan Smee, I am 25 years old, I studied Computer Games Development at University Centre South Essex from 2018 until 2020 and this is my story.

I was born and raised in Essex to a middle class family, in the countryside of the Dengie Area.

During my time at the college between 2015-2017 while I was doing my two years BTEC course, I was encouraged by the head of the games course at the time to consider staying on at the college to continue into the university course, and after reviewing a number of options within other universities I decided to heed that advice, as at the time the university offered a more broad course structure to some of the others which had more narrow and closely defined subjects. This was useful because at the time of choosing I had little real knowledge of the industry and didn’t know where I wanted to go within it.

During my time at the university, I had a genuinely great experience. From the moment I joined, to the moment I left, I was supported by both the tutors and by my peers, and although I ended my time at the university at home due to the pandemic. Before that time I learned plenty and grew both as a creative and as a person.

The course lead was phenomenal at ensuring we were as prepared as possible, and taking a technical minded focus enabled me, who granted was more artist focused, to broaden my skillset and give me a chance to learn and explore other avenues within game development that I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to learn or capitalise on. In tandem to this, the events and industry connection we had and used in our visit to Bossa Studio did a great job and keeping me invested and in tune with some of the expectations people were expecting from within the industry.

Within my time at the university I was given the chance to broaden my skillset and explore the various different ways in which games can be made and how to approach that. The course primarily takes a technical focus the game development and so coding, tools programming etc. take presidency but it doesn’t mean we were limited to these points, instead these were usually pathways to lead us to explore other options, coding could lead into shader creation and understanding the mix between technical and artistic pursuit, tools programming gave us faster pipelines which could be expanded to create generative tools in Blender or Maya.

These skills have given me a solid baseline upon which I can now specialise and focus in on the parts of my industry that I love, and with those other skills in toe it means I am a more capable developer and can aid in more cases than I can’t and I wouldn’t be able to do that without the time I had to gain those skills.

Since completing my course at the university I have gone on to publish an interview of my work and process in 80.lv a well-known game development website and organisation that help to share information around the industry from development logs to interviews. I have also gone on to work with Surgent Studios a transmedia company that is currently working in partnership with EA Originals on an unannounced video game project.

I also recently joined the Grads in Games organisation as an industry advocate, helping to get more up and coming graduates into the industry.

I am currently working with Surgent Studios. I am a technical artist which requires me to act as the bridge between both the programming/design teams and the art team. This means that I will be doing a variety of shader creation, tool generation for artists, optimisation of assets and materials alongside implementations and blueprint work to ensure visual consistency. I have also recently taken on a number of VFX pieces, and thus in that I also create new VFX for various aspects of our game.

I had previously worked freelance both at an indie company and a modding project, Black Clover Games and Beyond Skyrim. From there I did some minor contract work and during the spring of 2021 I was approached for the position of Technical Artist for Surgent and applied and was lucky enough to get into the company.

Doing higher education means you can gain a better understanding and a broaden your skills for the industry you want. Additionally, if your course is able and can get you to industry events, these events can enable you to make numerous connections within the fields you are aiming for. I’ve known a number of current and past students already in the short time I’ve been in the industry who know a number of my colleagues due to events they’ve been able to go to, and I know that this has enabled those students to progress further than those who have not made those connections.

I also think for those who do pursue further or higher education, the education itself should inspire you to do additional work on yourself at home or wherever you are. Courses can only teach so much and while that could be seen as a negative, it can also be an impetus for a student to go on and learn things that have been missed or get answers to questions that the subject just doesn’t or can’t answer yet.

My time at the university really helped my confidence, I have never been the most confident person in the world, but being able to chat with other people who shared my interests but could also be critical of my work and enable me to keep growing both as a creative and a person, it massively helped me figure out myself and where I wanted to be in the fields I was interested in.

I’d recommend the UCSE for those who want to gain a baseline skillset that could enable them to specialise in any field that then takes their interest. Having an overall understanding of your subject will let you more accurately decide what area you want to pursue.

My greatest achievement so far has been my interview with Lv.80, it was an unexpected surprise as I wasn’t ready for the project I had released at that point to gain so much traction and gain their attention. The interview was great and I’m very proud of the published work.

I’m looking forward to the eventual release of the project I’m working on now, and in the future I plan to continue to just make interesting and exciting games that will give people new experiences.