3.5-Term Pathway - Foundation Certificate in Science and Health - Continue to Bachelor of Science (Honours) - Computer Games (Placement Year)

Program Description For students who've finished high school but don’t meet the entry requirements for university, a Foundation Certificate can help them gain entry to an undergraduate degree. After completing this pathway option students qualify for progression to the 1st year of an undergraduate degree at the University of Essex.

A student’s course length is determined mainly by their English language level (UKVI IELTS score). Students on all course lengths take a set of common or similar modules to gain a solid base of skills for university. Students taking a course longer than 2 terms, will take additional modules designed to improve one or more of their English language level, academic skills, and basic knowledge of particular subjects.

Bachelor of Science (Honours) - Computer Games

This is a degree in world-making. Student craft stories, characters and plot in order to build imaginary worlds that a player can journey through. Their work is driven by creativity and imagination as well as technical excellence; at Essex students master both game design and computer programming, giving them total control over the worlds they want to create.

The course gives students the skills to design and specify complex, non-trivial games through focusing on the following areas:

• The mechanics of a game, including gameplay elements and the relationship with story • The concepts and techniques of computer game programming • Real and virtual worlds • Artificial intelligence behaviors for non-player characters • 2D and 3D graphic effects and game objects (e.g. weapon systems)

At the end of the course, students will be able to create the outline design specification for a computer game of their own design, and to implement a game using industry-standard techniques.

The School is a community of scholars leading the way in technological research and development. Today’s computer scientists are creative people who are focused and committed, yet restless and experimental. They are home to many of the world’s top scientists, and their work is driven by creativity and imagination as well as technical excellence.

More than two-thirds of their research rated “world-leading” or “internationally excellent” (REF 2014).