Course overview

MSc Computer Games Technology provides a new learning opportunity for those wishing to develop highly focused skills in the creative technologies. It is a project-based programme that allows you to define the work and the themes that you want to focus on, whilst we provide the expertise and support to help you realise your own potential.

School of Creative Technologies

The School of Creative Technologies was formed in 2002 as a focus for developing courses for industries where a wide range of innovative technologies have an increasing impact. The aim of the department is to promote critical awareness of the integration and application of these technologies to produce innovative digital products to a professional standard, using a wide range of industry-standard software.

The School is a vibrant community of artists, technologists and digital creatives, with many of the staff coming from an industrial background. We also have strong links with industry and have a record of consultancy within the visual industry.

Find out more

If you are interested in studying computer games technology at Portsmouth, you can meet us at one of our Postgraduate Information Days. We will be happy to answer any queries that you have and tell you even more about ourselves. Please contact us for an invitation. We look forward to meeting you.

Course content

The course itself consists of four units, spread over three phases:

• Professional, Academic and Research Development: a taught unit covering planning and managing development projects.
• Project Context and Definition: self-directed study that will help you specify your project's scope and plan.
• Project Design and Development: self-directed study covering a critical review of existing work.
• Project Evaluation and Resolution: self-directed study covering development and evaluation of your project artefact.

The taught core unit underpins the principles of conducting research and organising and managing projects, whilst you simultaneously negotiate with a supervisor to define your self-directed project plan and deliverables. This is followed by a project research and prototyping phase, in which you establish the viability of your approach before the final project resolution. In the latter phase, you complete your significant artefact and write a research or technical report to a publishable standard.

This challenging, stimulating and self-rewarding study environment will focus on your career potential by placing you at the cutting edge of technology, whilst developing your professional practice.

Teaching and assessment

You can choose to study this course on a full or part-time basis. The full-time programme is one calendar year in length – typically mid-September to early September. Taught units (where appropriate) are studied from September until December and the period January to early September is when you will undertake the final two phases of your project work.

Studying on the taught part-time mode will typically take two years. Attendance for the taught part of a programme in the first teaching block of the first year is required for at least one day per week. Attendance for the project-based units (year one, teaching block two onwards) will be less intensive and will be determined by yourself in conjunction with your project supervisor and project unit coordinator, who may specify other events that require attendance.

Attendance days will depend on the stage of study and access to other taught resources. However, it is not always possible to arrange assessments (e.g. presentations) on the normal attendance day and so you may also, on occasion, be required to attend at times other than your normal timetable.

You will individually negotiate your project programme with our highly knowledgeable and enthusiastic staff, who are drawn from both academia and industry. This grounds your Master's degree in the real world and emphasis is placed on implementation, evaluation and reflecting on subject-related issues, whilst building technological expertise.

Career prospects

The focused project approach will support a more directed and deep investigation of specific technologies or problems. The course will therefore give you the skills required to work in games design, programming, art production and project management, depending on the focus of your self-directed project. It will also prepare you for lifelong learning and rapid adaptation in technical industries that are constantly changing and evolving.

Facilities and features

By coming to Portsmouth you will experience a lively and modern learning environment with lectures, tutorials and web-based learning sessions. During your Master's degree you will participate in a range of technical and creative activities, whilst having access to a large-scale immersive 3D virtual reality system, games research laboratories, analogue and digital sound studios, a surround sound studio, as well as industry-standard multimedia, video editing and post-production hardware and software.

You will also have access to our newly extended library. Open from 8am until midnight every day during term-time, it provides a variety of information to help with study and research. It has also invested heavily in the purchase of electronic resources. There are thousands of electronic journals and ebooks, which can be accessed across campus, from home or wherever there is an internet connection.

Entry requirements

The entry requirements for MSc Computer Games Technology are shown above, for more detailed information please contact:

Department: School of Creative Technologies (CT)
Tel: +44 (0)23 9284 2421
Email: create.admissions@port.ac.uk