Foundation Degree in Games Art and Design

The course aims to help students to develop a range of skills, knowledge and understanding that will prepare them for employment in the computer games sector, creative industries and/or further academic study. 

Learners will explore the game creation process from a number of perspectives, such as asset production, game mechanics, aesthetics and engines. This is complemented by, theoretical, cultural and sociological discourse. You will also be asked to attend tutorial sessions as part of your full-time course timetable.

This course responds to the aim of widening access to higher education by offering more people in their local communities the opportunity to study a higher education course. The course will allow students to progress from Level 3 and offers opportunities for those students who have completed A Levels and are not yet ready to move onto University experiences.

The course benefits from the use of a state-of-the-art gaming room that has recently seen upwards of £60k worth of investment.  

Games Rules and Play 

• The module will invite students to question and debate their assumptions about videogame development and challenge popular stereotypes about the medium. It will introduce students to the history of the digital game and the emergence of a games development theory.

Making Games 

• As an introduction to games design, this module explores the underlying structures of games through the development of paper-based prototypes. Core to the principles at work here are definitions of play and games including notions of games as interactive systems, and play as a configurative practice. From this essentialist perspective, students are encouraged to explore and experiment with the very fundamental aspects of games; the rules, the goals and the interrelatedness of what will be considered here as the constituent parts of all games.

Introduction to Game Art 

• This module introduces the fundamental technical skills and production process inherent within the games creation process. The focus is upon creating assets that are both aesthetically engaging and technically functional. The production work follows an established iterative pattern of pre-production, production, and review; where students are encouraged to critically reflect upon the work they create throughout the process.

Drawing and Movement for Games 

• We ‘draw’ – as in ‘draw out’, to extract information from the world around us, process that information via hand/ eye/ brain coordination and make marks to explore, explain or express our responses to that world. This module will explore what it means to ‘draw’ using both static observations and timed sequences of movement. 

Study Skills 

• No matter what a student studies, it is very important for them to feel confident in their intellectual and creative abilities. This module is very specific and detailed in the way it approaches study skills by creating a series of small steps that will cumulatively amount to enhanced confidence.

Progression

• On completion of the Foundation Degree in Games Technology students are encouraged to progress onto the BA (Hons) Top-up at the University of South Wales. 

Entry Requirements

• You will need three A-Levels at grade “C” or above, or BTEC Level 3 with an overall grade of “Merit”. You will be invited to attend an interview and will undertake an assessment in literacy and numeracy to establish any support required.
• At Coleg y Cymoedd we would encourage you to do the very best that you can in your assessments. The better your grades the more options you will have and may result in you gaining entry onto a higher-level course.