Five reasons to study games design at Surrey
What makes our games design degrees different from the rest? Our academics explain the reasons why you should put Surrey at the top of your UCAS form.
1. Tailor your degree to your interests
Our Games Design BSc degree is flexible so you can tailor your studies to your own passions, from animation, coding, visual arts, game design, technology, motion capture, prototyping, soundscapes, to textual analysis, machine learning, acting and writing for games.
NEW FOR 2027! We are delighted to announced that we are adding to our games portfolio with our Games Art BA (Hons) degree, to start from September 2027.
These are new and exciting courses, and you’ll be turning your ideas into reality from week one; working on making games with a mix of digital and paper prototyping and planning.
We also make sure you have a solid grounding in a wide range of areas, across game design game narratives, settings, infrastructures and effects, possibilities and scenarios. Students will work on gameplay, interaction and playability as well as designing levels within games, visual effects and soundscapes.
2. Location in top regional games cluster
The University of Surrey is based in Guildford, the heart of one of the UK’s largest video games clusters in the South. Our connections to the gaming industry go all the way back to the 1990s when Surrey’s Research Park was home to pioneering early game developers like Bullfrog.
Today, this legacy is thriving. The Park is still home to major gaming and CreaTech studios like Seven League Software (7SL), 22 Cans, Boris FX, as well as up and coming independent developers at Rocketdesk – a co-working hub for creating games, developing apps, editing video and building websites.
3. Employability
The multidisciplinary approach of the courses maximise options for employability both in your professional placement year and in your first job after graduation.
The programmes utilise cross-disciplinary learning with Music and Media, where we already have a huge network of placement industry connections in sound recording, digital animation and creative writing. Our award-winning Professional Training Placement scheme gives you the chance to spend a year in industry, either in the UK or abroad.
This course will equip you with the knowledge, skills and expertise which will open up opportunities not only within the games industry itself but also in an exciting set of existing and emerging areas. For example: virtual production, Realtime Animation and VFX, Gen-AI content creation and more. The core competencies you can develop in areas such as animation, 3D environment creation, digital and video game design and production.
4. Facilities
We’ve built of a brand new, purpose-built Games Development Lab equipped with industry-standard hardware and software
Our state-of-the-art Games Design Lab is built for the next generation of game creators. Equipped with high-spec gaming PCs featuring RTX 5090 graphics, dual screens, drawing tablets, and professional audio-monitoring, it’s designed to give you the ultimate development experience. Modelled on an industry-standard games studio, our lab isn’t just about work - it’s about creativity and collaboration.
You’ll also have access to a full suite of game design software, including Unreal Engine, Unity, Autodesk Maya and Z-Brush, plus you can spend time in our performance capture space and use the latest motion capture technologies.
When you’re not in class, you’ll also have access to our independent study lab which provides the same cutting-edge hardware and software for working on your game development projects.
5. Taught by experts
You’ll benefit from our industry connections and guest lectures with games developers from across the UK and overseas. You’ll gain practical experience through competitions and live projects, making industry connections and building a strong industry-relevant portfolio.
You'll get the experience to put the skills you've learnt on the course into practice and create your own games and immersive experiences.
