Computer Games Technology (Hons) Birmingham City University

Overview

On the course, you will learn a range of technical and professional skills, including understanding fundamentals and advanced ‘coding’ practices, graphics programming, network communications and artificial intelligence. We also stress the importance of being able to work independently and in teams, as well as the development of strong written and oral communication skills.

Core to the philosophy of the Computer Games Technology course at Birmingham City University is the importance of going beyond your studies – therefore, we encourage participation in many extracurricular activities. Being located in the heart of Birmingham city centre means we are close to many independent game studios, who regularly host events throughout the year. We also regularly participate in international game development competitions such as Global Game Jam and Microsoft’s Imagine Cup, all of which give you the opportunity to showcase your talent on a wider stage.

The course is intended not only to expose you to mainstream and traditional game development, but also to working in disciplines that are allied and emerging for example serious and educational game development, augmented and virtual reality as well as simulations.

The course will not only develop you into being professional and work-ready, it’ll also help you become a creative problem solver, as well as encouraging you to be innovative and enterprising.

Upon graduation, you could progress into a range of careers in the game industry, for example game or graphics programmer, tools programmer or QA tester in either larger companies or independent studios. The skills learnt also give you the opportunity to work in allied disciplines such as a serious or educational game developer. Alternatively, you could work in more traditional computing or software engineering roles, start your own company or progress into further education (for example, a PhD).

• The School of Computing and Digital Technology has a range of state-of-the-art computing facilities, including a dedicated computer games development lab. This houses high specification game development PCs, Sony PlayStation Dev Kits and a range of industry standard software.
• We have strong ties with the games industry including Microsoft, Sony and many local independent studios.
• The course explores the technical development of computer games focusing predominately on games programming and software engineering.
• We have an established research reputation in the application of computer games technology to healthcare and medicine. We actively encourage students to collaborate and explore how computer games can be used to solve problems in other fields and disciplines.
• By exposing you to current industry standard technologies and encouraging the development of your practical computer programming skills, we make you more employable across a range of computing disciplines.
• The course encourages you to engage with industry, allowing a number of flexible paths to gaining work experience, including work-based learning modules, taking a placement year and working on your own commercial products within the University.