Game Design and Digital Art

Game design and digital art brings together two closely related creative disciplines that are essential to how modern games come to life. Game design is concerned with the systems, rules, mechanics and experiences that make games engaging: the decisions about player agency, progression, challenge and reward that determine whether a game is genuinely pleasurable to play. Digital art provides the visual language through which those systems are given form: the environments, characters, interfaces and effects that players actually see and respond to.

Practising both disciplines together means developing as a creator who can move between conceptual and visual thinking.

At Anglia Ruskin University, this three-year programme is built around providing essential skills in game design and development alongside competencies highly valued by employers, including multidisciplinary teamwork that mirrors real-world industry standards, as the university's own description notes. You will study game mechanics and systems design, concept art, character and environment design, user experience, digital art production, 3D modelling and game engine work, developing both the design thinking and the practical production skills that studio careers require. The programme develops your ability to work collaboratively on creative projects, an essential professional skill in an industry built entirely on team production.

You will build a portfolio throughout your studies, demonstrating your abilities across design and art to potential employers and collaborators. The games industry consistently values portfolio evidence over academic credentials alone, making the quality and breadth of the work you produce at university directly relevant to your career prospects.

Graduates go on to work as game designers, level designers, concept artists, environment and character artists, technical artists and UX designers in games studios, as well as in animation, virtual reality experience design and interactive media. Further study in games design, digital art or a specialist area is an option for those seeking additional expertise.