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The postgraduate online event on the 11 November – 15 November 2024 is the perfect opportunity to find out more about your course of interest, speak with our academics, and discover the opportunities that further study has to offer.
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Your chosen course:
Speak to our friendly teaching staff about courses, module content and delivery methods
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Employment prospects:
Understand work placement opportunities, industry connections, and course accreditations
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Support services:
Get all the information you need about admissions, accommodation and student finance
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Life at Herts:
Hear from our students about their postgrad student experience at Herts
Leave your details below to register your interest.
Why choose Herts?
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Excellent reputation:
Ranked 1st in the UK as Top Games Development School (10th worldwide), 1st for Games Design & Development Production Excellence (Rookies World School Rankings® 2020) and 1st in the UK for Animation and Game Design (Guardian UK League Table 2023). Winners of the Outstanding Graduate of the Year (Computer Games Technology) and Outstanding Postgraduate of the Year (TIGA UK Games Education Awards 2022)
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Employment prospects:
Graduates work for most major games' companies including BAFTA winning UK games studio Creative Assembly, Frontier, Splash Damage, Guerrilla Games, Epic Games and Rare.
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Industry-related learning:
There are work related learning opportunities on this course, all students complete a live external brief provided by a major games studio as part of their coursework.
Entry requirements and key information
Minimum 2.2 degree in a relevant field (applicants with degrees in non-related subjects will also be considered as long as their portfolio deminstrates the required level of 3D skills) plus an online portfolio which demonstrates an appropriate level of relevant skills. Accreditation of professional experience may be possible for practitioners without a degree.
A minimum IELTS score of 6.5 overall with at least 5.5 in all components (or equivalent) is required for those for whom English is not their first language.
If you do not have the required level of English for entry, our
academic English courses
can help you to achieve this level.
Careers
Particular emphasis is given to providing you with the skills necessary to further your career in the Games Industry either as a specialist or generalist. This includes such positions as modelers, texture and lighting artists, character and environment designers. The course is designed to help you understand and work within the contemporary media environment.
You will also acquire enquiry and information handling skills, enterprise skills in the development and presentation of ideas, in communicating in the spoken and written word, and addressing particular audiences.
develop your Games Art and Design skills and knowledge to a professional level
choose to study parts of this course online or on campus (home students only)
produce a commercial-standard personal portfolio that reflects the forefront of current practices in approach, style and vision
explore the theoretical and contextual understanding of games art, its audiences and significances in our contemporary media culture
develop professional-level enquiry, research, creative invention, project planning and management practices
learn in a multi-disciplinary environment through discussion and the exploration of ideas.
See our
MA Games Art Vimeo Page
for showreels and alumni activity.
Why choose this course?
This MA Games Art and Design degree meets the needs of the games industry. The games industry has developed dramatically from the days of the solo practitioner to become a global market where large teams of artists work in unison to create content for the next generation of interactive game technologies. The current games art and design practitioner is likely to become a specialist in one area, such as character modelling, environment creation, lighting, animating etc. This award fuses technical knowledge of real-time rendering with the aesthetic decisions and traditional skills you will need as a games artist.
On this MA Games Art and Design course, you will also explore thinking about the cultural resonance of your work and about the audiences it is made for, about the nature of creativity, and the role of the cultural industries in a modern knowledge economy. Enquiry, research and clear communication being key elements that underpin this course.
Learning experience
This degree offers you a coherent learning experience as one of several awards within the digital media area. It enables you to develop creative practical skills in the discipline of your choosing while also mirroring current commercial practice, allowing you to work closely with students from allied disciplines such as animation and games art. That work may extend your existing skills, knowledge and understanding, or it may mean a change of direction, new learning, and new experiences.
Induction, seminars and social events for students mean that while studying and after you graduate, you will be part of a friendly and supportive postgraduate community, which includes film makers, musicians and professionals working in other areas of creative media. Senior research staff and internationally renowned professionals also work with postgraduate students, helping you to develop an original individual approach.
What will I study?
This course supports students who want to specialise in areas such as character design, hard-surface modelling, environment design or lighting and texturing as well as those who want to be generalists. We support all the standard software packages used in the industry and are constantly updating the range of technical instruction we offer.
On this degree, teaching and learning is mainly based around enquiry-led project work, allowing you to develop the independence and autonomy that is required at the postgraduate level. This degree will be delivered through a mix of lectures, seminars and workshop where you will participate in multi-disciplinary group discussions to share, challenge and develop ideas, as well as being able to grow and expand specific discipline centered skills and understanding. You will also receive tutorials to develop your individual study trajectories and responses to assignment tasks and briefs.
For the majority of this course, you will be engaged in self-managed independent study, undertaking enquiries and research, developing skills, inventing and developing ideas, realizing project outcomes and exploring the cultural resonance of their work. All students on the postgraduate media programme engage in an interdisciplinary project as a part of their MA study, giving them an opportunity to work with students from other disciplines in an experimental and creative way.
Level 7
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Module
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Credits
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Compulsory/optional
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Practice 1: Developing Skills
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30 Credits
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Compulsory
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Digital Media: Sources and Significance
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30 Credits
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Compulsory
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Practice 2: Creative Project Development
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30 Credits
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Compulsory
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Exploring Professional Practice
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30 Credits
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Compulsory
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The Exploring Professional Practice module enables you to plan and manage a small-scale research project that explores an issue or theoretical/critical approach relevant to the professional practice of your individual specialism. The module is delivered through a series of lectures and workshops examining the social, political and economic dimensions of creative digital media practices within professional contexts. You negotiate a topic and approach with your tutor and then carry out an enquiry which must include at least one interview with an appropriately informed professional practitioner. The outcome of this enquiry is an artefact with commentary or video essay equivalent to around 4,000 words. This negotiated outcome may take a variety of forms but usually will draw on or relate to the professional practices or contexts of your award field. The module equips you with the skills, knowledge and understanding to be an authoritative, informed and principled professional practitioner.
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Major Study: Games Art and Design
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60 Credits
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Compulsory
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Key staff
Dr Ian Willcock
Programme Leader (Postgraduate Media)
Neil Gallagher
Leader of Games Art and Design
Further course information
Course fact sheets
MA Games Art and Design
Download
MA Games Art and Design
Download
At the University of Hertfordshire, we want to make sure your time studying with us is as stress-free and rewarding as possible. We offer a range of support services including; student wellbeing, academic support, accommodation and childcare to ensure that you make the most of your time at Herts and can focus on studying and having fun.
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Other financial support
Find out more about other financial support available to UK and EU students
Fees 2024
UK Students
Full time
£9450 for the 2024/2025 academic year
Part time
£790 per 15 credits for the 2024/2025 academic year
EU Students
Full time
£16450 for the 2024/2025 academic year
Part time
£1370 per 15 credits for the 2024/2025 academic year
International Students
Full time
£16450 for the 2024/2025 academic year
Part time
£1370 per 15 credits for the 2024/2025 academic year
*Tuition fees are charged annually. The fees quoted above are for the specified year(s) only. Fees may be higher in future years, for both new and continuing students. Please see the University's
Fees and Finance Policy
(and in particular the section headed "When tuition fees change"), for further information about when and by how much the University may increase its fees for future years.
View detailed information about tuition fees
Living costs / accommodation
The University of Hertfordshire offers a great choice of student accommodation, on campus or nearby in the local area, to suit every student budget.
View detailed information about our accommodation
Read more about additional fees in the course fact sheet
International/EU applicants without pre-settled status in the UK
Apply through our international/EU application portal
Home and EU applicants with pre-settled/settled status in the UK
2024
2025
