This course won’t be running in September 2024, but you might be interested in one of these degrees:

Or, you can check out BA (Hons) Games Art which is delivered by NTU on their City Campus.

Duration:
3 years full-time for BA (Hons) Games Art
Direct entry into year 2 or 3 available with previous HND/FdA

Location:
Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies, Nottingham

UCAS course code:
P323

Institution code:
N91

Looking for a place in Clearing? We are accepting applications and would love to hear from you.

To discuss our entry requirements and see what we can offer you, call NTU’s Clearing hotline on +44 (0)115 848 6000.

If you've already got your results, you can also apply online.

  • We accept UCAS Tariff points from up to four qualifications.
  • GCSE English and Maths grade C / 4.

Contextual offers for UK applicants

A lower offer may be made based on a range of factors, including your background (such as where you live and the school or college you attended), your experiences and individual circumstances (you may have been in care, for example). This is called a contextual offer and we get data from UCAS to make these decisions. NTU and Confetti offer a student experience like no other and this approach helps us to find students who have the potential to succeed here but who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university. Find out how we assess your application.

International qualifications

We accept qualifications from all over the world – check yours here:

English language entry requirements

You can meet our language requirements by successfully completing our pre-sessional English course for an agreed length of time, or by submitting the required grade in one of our accepted English language tests, such as IELTS:

Would you like some advice on your study plans?

Our international teams are highly experienced in answering queries from students all over the world. We also have members of staff based in Vietnam, China, India and Nigeria and work with a worldwide network of education counsellors. Find out more about advisors in your country.

Fees and funding:

Visit our fees & funding page for more information.

Additional Costs

Your course fees cover the cost of studies, and include loads of great benefits, such as the use of our library, support from our expert Employability team, and free use of the IT equipment across our campuses.

We advise you to budget £60 - £250 (minimum) for an entry level graphics tablet. You are also recommended to obtain a personal computer to complete digital artwork on. Whilst there are free versions of software and open source art software available it would also advisable to budget for a student Creative Cloud license (starting at £9.88).

Library books
Most study modules will recommend one or more core text books, which most students choose to purchase. Book costs vary and further information is available in the University’s bookshop. Our libraries provide a good supply of essential text books, journals and materials (many of which you can access online) – meaning you may not need to purchase as many books as you might think! There may also be a supply of second-hand books available for purchase from previous year students.

Field trips
All essential field trip costs will be included in your course fees. There may be the opportunity to take part in optional field trips, which do incur additional costs.

Placements
If you're undertaking a placement year, you'll need to budget for accommodation and any travel costs you may incur whilst on placement. Many of our placement students do earn a salary whilst on placement which can help to cover these living costs.

Print and copy costs
The University allocates an annual printing and copying allowance of £20 depending on the course you are studying. For more details about costs for additional print and copying required over and above the annual allowance please see the Printing, photocopying and scanning information on the Library website.

The global games industry is a rapidly expanding technology driven industry with a growing demand for graduates with industry specific creative software skills combined with the ability to be innovative, adaptable, self-directed and demonstrate problem solving abilities within an artistic workflow. This BA (Hons) Games Art degree responds to those needs by giving you the opportunity to focus your study on establishing a career in a practical, industry relevant environment.

The course content is focused on specific software applications vital to games art, which is enhanced by student-focused investigation into industry specialisms. This enables you to develop an understanding of the core areas of games art production including; pre-production visualisation, production concept art, asset production and project management, alongside personal investigation of key artistic technologies such as 2D, 3D, VR and AR.

You'll enhance your academic and professional skills through the use of student-lead research and investigation. Development of your independent learning is essential to forming the qualities and attributes required to complete your studies. You'll learn how to apply your own creative, analytical and critical abilities to the creation of games art and assets for a global audience and to develop communication and problem solving skills to realise your intentions.

You'll research and investigate the global impact and economic value of a commercial games product. As such, you'll be encouraged to consider the importance of current and future legal and economic frameworks, ethical considerations, sustainability and moral choices required in the creation and distribution of games.

The course will also focus on career routes within the modules and help you define an area of focus or job role to enhance your strategy for employment within the global games industry e.g. Working for a games developer, publisher, self-employment or working in a freelance capacity.

This course is taught at Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies in Nottingham for September 2023 entry. If you are looking to join us in September 2024, the course will be taught at Nottingham School of Art & Design.

The global games industry is continuously evolving to meet consumer needs. New technological advancements in hardware mean that students should be versatile, digitally literate and adaptable in their approach to hardware and software. As such, this course is primarily ran within a specialist Games Art IT lab. Practice based lectures and workshops give you the opportunity to develop specific software and technology skills and evaluate them in regards to your career goals.

The teaching and learning methods used on the course reflect the need for you to develop a wide range of professional skills alongside your academic knowledge. The range of modules gives you the chance to advance your creative skills using the latest industry standard packages.

Alongside the practical hardware and software skills you develop, you will be taught  professional project management techniques and how that will influence your time management within your production

There is a key emphasis on self-directed study, with you being encouraged to investigate creative technology, its place within the games industry and how that in turn impacts your career progression.

93% of our degree students would recommend studying at Confetti to others. (National Student Survey 2020)

Trips

We arrange some fantastic trips for students throughout the year - recently, these experiences experiences have included a trip to EGX Eurogamer in Birmingham, the Warner Brothers Studio Tour plus many more.

What our current students think

"All the lab facilities at Confetti are up-to-date, offering you some amazing hardware to work on, with a motion capture studio!"

Saul Bookey

Advice from our alumni

“Always be writing and creating content – and streaming it, if possible. Keep building your brand. And take as many opportunities as you possibly can!”

Ibriz Daya

There are two different types of assessment on the course - ‘formative’ and ‘summative’. During all modules, you'll submit work at varying stages for your formative assessment. This will allow your tutors to make an accurate assessment of your artistic and academic development and provide you with feedback in order for you to plan for your final summative assessment deadlines and overall future development.

Your summative assessment deadline will take place at the conclusion of that module. Assessments will focus on your level of achievement against each of the module learning outcomes. Feedback for these assessment will primarily be in written form, but may also be verbally via digital recording and occurs at the end each module. Summative feedback provides you with an overarching review of your achievements set against the learning outcomes for a module.

You'll also receive significant amounts of informal feedback throughout the course. The feedback is to help you evaluate your progress as you work within sessions or independently. This type of feedback is typically verbal, through discussions with tutors or peer feedback but may also be as part of tutorials, seminars, lectures or workshops, and in response to project presentations.

A three year Bachelor degree is a great choice if you’re looking to gain a full Level 6 qualification. With a higher UCAS tariff – this type of degree is perfect for you if you prefer a more theoretical approach to your studies combined with significant elements of practice. After graduating you will be able to progress onto a postgraduate course or start your creative career.

Topping up your existing qualification

Each case will be considered individually, but if you have passed an FdA from Confetti and decided you want to continue your studies, you’re automatically entitled to enter into the 3rd year of the equivalent BA degree to ‘top up’ to a full honours degree.

What you'll study in year 1

This module will allow you to learn and develop the skills required to imagine and visualise imaginary worlds and the characters and assets within them, representing them with verisimilitude. You will develop concept art skills in order to explore ideas and produce client ready speculative art.

This module will teach you how to explore 2D and 3D solutions to environment design and apply technical knowledge to these tasks. You will develop your concept art skills in order to explore ideas and produce client ready speculative art. You will also enhance your 3D repertoire to develop your concept and ideas as fully realised 3D Levels. This module will also include written elements in the form of media reviews (prose and moving image) as well as artist reviews.

This module challenges students to pre-produce your first AWLE Project.  Taking a brief from client to final presentation encourages you to engage with an ambitious creative pipeline, creating and developing final designs for characters and assets for an existing IP.

This module challenges you to produce your first AWLE Project. Taking a brief from client to final presentation encourages you to engage with an ambitious creative pipeline. Building on the work completed in the Pre-Production module, you will now use industry-standard software to finalise your designs to present to clients.

This module comprises two elements – Life Drawing and 3D Software. Together, they enhance and expand upon core skillsets fundamental to the origination and execution of engaging computer-generated imagery. Drawing introduces approaches to studies in drawing central to the enterprise of visual expression with an emphasis on life drawing.

This module introduces you to theoretical frameworks through which to consider, contextualise and challenge your creative practice. Understanding the historical, cultural and theoretical context in which computer-generated imagery situates is crucial to broadening perspectives and enriching your abilities to discuss, develop and disseminate your ideas with confidence.

What you'll study in year 2

Experience of collaboration is a key expectation of students of Games Design. This unit challenges you to engage in teamwork in the pre-production, production and promotion of an Game Concept. You are required to identify your strengths as they align with specific studio roles; for example, concept artist, production designer, character designer, pre-visualiser, modeller, texture artist, sculptor etc.

This module challenges you to pre-produce and produce your second AWLE Project. Taking a brief from client to final presentation encourages you to engage with an ambitious creative pipeline.

This module comprises two elements – Character Design and 3D Software. Together, they enhance and expand upon core skillsets fundamental to the origination and execution of engaging computer-generated imagery.

During this module you will undertake an overarching, self-directed game development project, working both individually and collaboratively on creative work - allowing you to directly apply the research, knowledge and skills learnt throughout the programme in the context of the workplace.

This module aims to develop overall professionalism and provide the knowledge and resources to begin a career in the creative industries. This module aims to develop these skills and knowledge by challenging you to develop a range of self-directed projects along with analysis of the processes involved along the way.

What you'll study in your final year

This module requires you to demonstrate innovative, sophisticated and professional approaches to the production of ambitious games art imagery, supported by expert creative methodologies. Independent learning, reflective practice and pipelines commensurate with professional practice are now essential. This pathway will allow for development in either a 2D or 3D workflows or a combination of the two.

This module will explore new and emerging technologies in the field of Games Art. This module aims to look at sustained and rigorous research in the field of games asset creation and how the work carried out is shaping the industry.

This module will allow you to explore your own creative direction and development as you move towards a career in the creative arts. Through an appraisal system you will identify your strengths, working to implement skills that will develop these whilst mitigating any weaknesses. As part of this process, you will also develop a professional portfolio.

The module provides an opportunity to develop a research-based portfolio of work, through self-initiated creative investigation. The emphasis of this module is to create a dissertation based on your interests and personal study which is negotiated through consultations with tutors.

On this course you'll study in Confetti HQ - our brand new £9.1million digital media hub:

  • Industry Spec Workstation PC’s
  • Specialist software including Unreal Engine 4, Autodesk Suite (3DS Max, Maya, Mudbox), Adobe Creative Suite, Zbrush, Quixel 2.0
  • Wacom Cintiq 13HD Touch Tablets
  • Wacom Cintiq Pro 16: Creative Display Pen
  • Games Consoles

Degree Showcase

Every year we welcome family, friends and industry professionals to watch, listen, test and play the fantastic work of our degree students.

Online exhibition

Our Games Art degree students have put together this fantastic exhibition of industry-inspired artwork to raise awareness of SpecialEffect; a UK-based charity who use video games and other technologies to enhance the quality of life for people with disabilities.

ArtStation

At Confetti, we offer students the chance to ‘Do It For Real’ – get out into real industries and experience working in various roles that take their interest.

Our Talent Development team work closely with Course Leaders to link students with opportunities across the games industry. Have a read of one of our alumnus’ stories, and how studying at Confetti helped him land a job as a freelance Colour Commentator in the Esports Industry.

Guest speakers

Throughout the year, students are invited to attend various talks and events with visiting industry experts. Not long ago, the British Esports Association visited, along with Head of Education at Twitch, to deliver a fantastic talk for students about the growing industry of gaming.

The British Esports Association also held their 2019 Winter Championship Finals at Confetti’s very own Metronome – have a look through the gallery of images from the event.

Industry Week

Like no other, we go off timetable and invite some of the biggest names in the games industry to deliver talks, workshops and seminars for our students. It’s a great opportunity for our students to gain invaluable insights and industry connections.

Past guests include Sister Bliss, Jason Williamson (Sleaford Mods), Ken Scott (producer and engineer for the likes of the Beatles, Elton John and David Bowie), Chris Macchi (Strategic Partner Manager at Youtube), Rhianne Murphy (Square Enix), and many more.

Continue your education

Your time at Confetti doesn’t have to stop once you finish your undergraduate course. Choose to continue your studies on our postgraduate degrees that can help you further develop your skills and obtain the experience you need to get a head start in your career.

Future careers

You can also move straight into your career, in areas which might include:

  • Concept artist
  • 2D/3D artist
  • Environment artist
  • Weapon designer
  • UI designer
  • Technical artist

Previous games students are working at companies, such as:

  • Rockstar Games
  • Riot Games
  • Sumo Digital
  • Ubisoft Blue Byte
  • Quantic Dream
  • Splash Damage
  • Lockwood Publishing

Open Days

Saturday 14 October - Nottingham
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Saturday 21 October - London
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