Indie Game Development MA (Online)
Online
DURATION
2 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
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EARLIEST START DATE
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STUDY FORMAT
Distance Learning
Scholarships
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Introduction
Become a confident and daring indie game developer
On this online Indie Game Development MA, you'll produce vibrant and engaging experiences for gamers. Analyse the principles of the creative process, from ideation and design through to delivery and dissemination. Integrate design tools, programming languages, game engines, as well as specialist middleware and frameworks into your game development practice.
Explore business models used by indie games studios to see how you could start up your own. And, if you already have a business idea, get it off the ground with help from a mentor.
Program Outcome
You will:
- Apply the principles of design and creativity to generate fun and playful experiences.
- Learn to use industry-standard platforms for making games and adapt to their technical constraints.
- Use methods from business and analytics to better understand how people engage with indie games and game companies.
- Adopt both technical and arts perspectives as part of a design thinking process to deliver novel games.
- Collaborate across disciplinary boundaries, an increasingly important skill in the games industry.
- Practice digital and non-digital game design across a range of application domains, including gamification and serious games.
- Keep and control the Intellectual Property (IP) of any games you produce.
Gallery
Curriculum
Throughout this indie game development course, you'll learn how to produce original and creatively distinguished games based on your own intellectual property. You'll gain the ability to critically reflect upon and evaluate working methods and find the most effective ways to collaborate on projects. You'll also gain key professional skills in pitching your ideas; communicating concepts and presenting artefacts visually with clarity and enthusiasm.
Modules
This course is comprised of five modules, four 30-credit modules and one 60-credit project (180 credits in total). The modules have been specifically designed to be studied in a non-linear order, with the order in which you’ll study the modules depending on when you begin the course. All modules on the course are compulsory and must be passed in order to complete the award.
- Development Practice
- Game Development
- Co-creative Design and Development Practice
- Indie Game Start-Up
- Final Major Project (MA only)
The modules above are those being studied by our students or proposed new ones. Programme structures and modules can change as part of our curriculum enhancement and review processes. If a certain module is important to you, please discuss it with the Course Leader.
How you'll learn
You'll learn through a blend of lectures, webinars, guest talks, tasks and discussion forums, which you'll access via our dedicated virtual learning environment. This is also where you'll find all key documentation, get course announcements and access extensive learning resources.
You'll be supported academically by Online Tutors, who will also deliver weekly webinars and facilitate the online forums. If you need assistance with anything that isn't directly related to course material, a dedicated Student Advisor team will be on hand to help. You'll also have access to Falmouth University's excellent employability service, RealWORKs.
You'll refine dynamic development practices, spending 20-25 hours a week working on your craft. We incorporate optional face-to-face events for all our online students. There will be up to two per year and will typically run over weekends, to fit around your other commitments.
Study hours
A postgraduate student should dedicate at least 20-25 hours per week for study.
Assessment methods
The assessment provides the course team with a means of offering tailored guidance alongside advice on how to progress knowledge and skills in key areas that relate to the course Learning Outcomes. The course team will identify your strengths and weaknesses as an individual and discuss them with you throughout your time on the course.
Assessments are 100% coursework, submitted in an electronic format to the virtual learning environment, and designed to reflect professional practice. Assessment methods include:
- Projects
- Portfolios
- Pitches
- Papers
Admissions
Career Opportunities
Our game development graduates have worked as:
- Game developers at companies such as MediaTonic, Firesprite, Creative Assembly, Project Gamechanger and Rare
- Creative AI specialists at companies including Ultrahaptics, Solutionpath and Bewsign
- Researchers and developers at companies such as Facebook
- Further study at doctoral level in artificial intelligence and/or data science, sponsored by the likes of Google
Our graduates have a track record of producing successful indie games. Published titles include: Get Packed by Moonshine Studio, Soria by Polargryph, SAI by Studio Mutiny, RoBoats by Animal Puree, Kick Your Astronaut by SquirrelSoft and Karate Krab by Liquid Sapling.