Games Development specialism modules
Artificial Intelligence
Focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, you will learn the historical development of AI including search, vision and planning. You will become familiar with the foundations of agent-based approaches to software design, decision making and problem solving including under uncertainty. You will have an opportunity to apply AI techniques to particular problems such as game playing and decision making.
Virtual Reality
The Virtual Reality (VR) module combines the theory and psychology of VR with practical development skills. You’ll learn the skills needed to design compelling VR environments and the skills that apply to creative practice, science and industry. This module gives you the skills needed to develop VR, including understanding the basic theory of presence in VR, which underlies the basic design principles. Using a 3D engine to create interactive virtual environments, you’ll also learn practical development skills, including creating 3D environments, designing and implementing 3D interaction for VR and building social VR experiences with interactive virtual characters.
Games Development
This module introduces you to i) industry standard tools for game development, such as game engines, and ii) the process of game development, including prototyping and playtesting. You will undertake a series of game development projects, each lasting a few weeks and with a specific brief. For each project, you’ll propose a game that fits the brief then deliver the game and document it thoroughly. Through this process, you’ll develop an awareness of intended audience and the use of media for documentation. Contemporary video game production draws on a range of techniques from AI to perform tasks like controlling virtual agents and generating novel content. This module also introduces crucial game AI concepts. Compared to mainstream AI, the emphasis is less on optimal problem-solving and more on entertaining the player with limited computational resources. This module provides practical experience of programming game AI systems and an understanding of the relevant theory.
3D Graphics and Animation
This module covers advanced methods used in current state-of-the-art graphics and animation systems. It includes mathematical foundations, computational techniques and their use in creative practice. In this module, you’ll learn how to write programs that generate animated 3D graphics. There are several distinct study areas: 3D modelling and animation, the graphics pipeline, simulation of physics and shader programming. You’ll study a range of examples and learn how to program graphics in contemporary graphical software for different applications.
Interaction Design
In this module, you’ll examine the notion of ‘interaction with technology’. You will focus on the concepts behind modern UX design and production and gain a solid grasp and practical experience of the process which allows the creation of interactive systems. This process involves specification, design, prototyping and evaluation. You’ll examine several design approaches and techniques and consider how they enable usability engineering. You’ll learn how to evaluate interactive systems against criteria such as efficiency and usability. You’ll examine accessibility issues from the perspective of different populations.