BA/BSc (Hons) Game Design
London, United Kingdom
Bachelor's degree
DURATION
3 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
Jan 2026
TUITION FEES
EUR 16,500 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* non-EU/EEA/swiss students 2-year accelarated programme
Design, production, testing. Study Game Design and gain experience in the full game production pipeline. Study the art of connecting with audiences and meeting business needs with a BA(Hons) Content Creation & Digital Marketing degree.
What you can expect from your degree
The gaming industry has exploded in recent years thanks to exciting technological advances that have opened the door to dynamic, immersive experiences like never before. With gaming companies on the lookout for talented game designers, programmers and testers, now’s the perfect time to study a game design degree course.
At SAE, you’ll learn how to design and develop next-level video games while advancing your game development and design skills. Beat the competition by graduating industry-ready more quickly with a 2-year accelerated degree (all campuses) – saving money on course and accommodation fees – or take the more traditional 3-year route (across all campuses from September 2025 onwards).
Across your time at SAE, you’ll explore level design and narrative construction by completing real-world project briefs in a simulated games studio environment. You’ll gain advanced skills in industry-standard software packages, such as Unreal Engine 5, Unity 3D, Adobe Creative Suite, Autodesk Suite (Maya) and Visual Studio, plus expert proficiency in programming languages C# and C++.
SAE’s highly experienced Experts will introduce you to the professional world of game design, showing you the ropes in level design, playtesting, programming, UI/UX design and industry workflows. As you explore common game engines and asset development fundamentals, you’ll complete group projects and run playtesting for the games you’ve developed, validating your understanding of game design theory and application.
Levelling up
As you progress your studies, you’ll get ready to embrace real-world success thanks to SAE’s focus on practical learning, business planning skills and games industry knowledge. In your final trimester/semester, you’ll complete a Major Project in a chosen area of specialism – a perfect opportunity to connect with industry experts with a view to future game design employment.
At the end of your time with us, you’ll graduate equipped with the skills of a professional game developer and ready to launch into the industry as a game designer, game developer, concept artist, multimedia specialist or software engineer. Simply put, SAE’s groundbreaking game design degree really puts you ahead of the game.
1st Trimester
Develop the essential technical game design skills and knowledge needed to collaborate with professionals and your fellow creative media students.
- GD (T1) Game Programming Basics
- GD (T1) Game Development Basics
2nd Trimester
Across your second trimester, you’ll broaden your scope to put what you’ve learned in Trimester 1 into practice, while getting to grips with industry-standard practices.
- GD (T2) Applied Game Design
- GD (T2) Games and Culture
3rd Trimester
- GD (T3) Creative Studio 1: Industry Workflows
4th Trimester
The second Creative Studio term focuses on collaborative game design. Building on your practical knowledge, you’ll work together in a group to create games designed to reach an intended audience.
- GD (T4) Creative Studio 2: Collaboration and Business
5th Trimester
As you near the end of your game development degree, you’ll start to specialise, advancing your skills across your chosen area of the game design industry.
- GD (T5) Advanced Specialised Production
- GP (T5) – Research and Professional Development in Creative Media
6th Trimester
The final module of this game design degree course lets you demonstrate the practical and academic skills you’ve developed across your 2 years at SAE via a large-scale advanced-level project.
- GD (T6) – BA/BSc Game Design Major Project
What you'll learn
At the end of your Game Design degree you will:
- Learn game development and master your craft in a collaborative studio-based environment.
- Confidently operate the latest industry software, including Unreal Engine 5, Autodesk’s Maya, Unity 3D, Visual Studio and Adobe Creative Suite.
- Blend hands-on immersive training with academic learning for well-rounded education from day one.
- Design and playtest games you love playing.
- Gain entrepreneurial and business skills to take into your game design career.
- Collaborate creatively on games projects with SAE students from other courses, such as animators, musicians, filmmakers and marketers.
- Develop a significant portfolio of work to present to industry.
- Build an impressive network of connections across the wider creative industries.
- Graduate career-ready with practical employment skills gained through strong industry links.
- Game design course start dates available in January and September.
What jobs will this course lead to?
- Game Designer
- Game Tester
- Game Developer
- Mobile Game Developer
- Narrative Designer
- Game Writer
- Level Designer
- Gaming Journalist
- UI Designer
- UX Designer
- Scrum Master
The BA/BSc (Hons) Game Design course is available as an accelerated 2-year degree, split over 6 trimesters, and a more traditional 3-year degree, divided over 6 semesters. It is arranged in 3 distinct stages – each formulated to help you uncover specific skills. Organising it this way makes sure you graduate as an accomplished game designer with a thorough understanding of the whole game development process from start to finish.
- Stage 1 (T1/S1 and T2/S2) provides a foundation of core technical knowledge.
- Stage 2 (T3/S3 and T4/S4) broadens your skills, and collaboration, exploring new areas of game design.
- Stage 3 (T5/S5 and T6/S6) is all-encompassing, covering every aspect of game development from conception to completion, including entrepreneurial aspects like project management, business planning and marketing.