Provisional Qualification: Level 3 Extended Certificate or Diploma

^{The proposed course content and exam board are provisional and may be subject to change before the start of the course.}

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Don't just play games. Design them. Build them. Test them.

What turns an idea into a game that somebody actually wants to play?

Digital Games Production takes you behind the screen and into the process of designing and developing interactive experiences. You'll explore how gameplay is constructed, how 3D assets and environments are created, how game engines bring everything together and how scripting gives a game its rules, behaviours and interactions.

At BOA Digital, this is a course built around making things. You'll develop ideas, experiment with game mechanics, work with digital assets, build playable experiences and test whether they actually work. Along the way, you'll discover that successful games combine creativity, coding, mathematics, art, storytelling, psychology, problem-solving and technology.

The question changes from “What games do you play?” to “What games could you create?”

What will I study?

The exact programme depends on whether you choose the Extended Certificate or the larger Diploma route. Our proposed units are designed to give you experience across the games production process – from the first concept through to a working, tested digital game.

Game Engine Scripting

This is where you begin controlling what happens inside your game. Game Engine Scripting introduces the logic and programming concepts that make interactive games work. You'll explore variables, data types, conditions, loops, functions, events and game logic, before using scripting within a game engine to create behaviours and interactions.

You'll also encounter concepts used in game AI, including pathfinding and navigation, alongside the physics behind digital games, such as collision detection, forces, speed, acceleration and momentum.

You'll plan your gameplay and scripting before developing it inside a game engine. Then comes an essential part of development: debugging. You'll test your scripts, identify what isn't working and refine your code until your game behaves as intended.

You're not simply placing objects on a screen. You're telling the game how to behave.

3D Modelling

The objects inside a 3D game have to come from somewhere. In 3D Modelling, you'll explore how game assets are constructed before designing and developing models of your own. You'll work with concepts including vertices, edges, polygons, textures, materials, UV mapping and collision, developing an understanding of how a digital model moves from an initial idea into a game engine.

You'll develop visual ideas, create reference material and construct 3D assets while considering the technical demands of real-time games. You'll then texture and prepare your models before importing them into a game engine and checking that materials, scale and collisions work correctly.

It's where digital art meets technical precision.

Games Testing

Creating a game is only part of the challenge. You also need to know whether it works.

Games Testing explores the processes used to identify faults, document issues and improve digital games. You'll approach games differently – looking for problems, investigating why they occur and considering whether gameplay functions as intended.

Testing develops the attention to detail needed to spot issues that others might miss. Rather than simply saying something is broken, you'll learn to test systematically, record what happens and communicate what needs to change.

Build it. Break it. Fix it. Improve it.

Digital Media Skills

Digital Media Skills gives you an opportunity to bring your learning together in response to a professional-style brief. You'll use your developing digital production skills to create a complete product, demonstrating your ability to understand requirements, create and manage assets, solve problems and make appropriate creative and technical decisions.

This unit culminates in an externally set practical task. Rather than simply writing about what you know, you'll be challenged to demonstrate what you can actually produce using the knowledge and technical skills you have developed.

Take it further with the Diploma

For students who want games production to form a much larger part of their Sixth Form programme, the proposed Digital Games Design and Development Diploma provides considerably more curriculum time to explore specialist areas and develop a more substantial portfolio of digital work.

The wider Diploma opens the door to additional specialist units, potentially including:

• Concept Art for Computer Games – Before a character, object or world can be built, somebody has to imagine it. You'll explore the visual development of games and learn how ideas for characters, objects and environments can be developed and communicated before production begins.

• 3D Environments – A great game needs more than individual objects – it needs a world. You'll explore the development of 3D environments for digital games, considering how assets, scale, layout and visual design combine to create spaces that players can navigate and experience.

• 2D and 3D Animation – Bring digital assets to life by exploring how movement is designed, created and refined. You'll develop an understanding of animation techniques and how they contribute to characters, environments and the wider player experience.

The Diploma therefore gives you the opportunity to move further into the different disciplines that make modern games possible, building a broader understanding of the art, design and technology behind interactive worlds.

How will I study?

Expect to spend significant time designing, building, scripting, modelling, testing and refining. You'll respond to briefs, develop practical projects and solve the inevitable technical and creative problems that appear when an idea moves from concept to screen.

Iteration is a fundamental part of games development. Your first idea might change. Your first build might not work. Your script might contain bugs. Your 3D model might need rebuilding. Your gameplay might need rebalancing. Learning how to test, troubleshoot, respond to feedback and improve is an important part of becoming a digital creator.

Where could Digital Games Production take me?

The games industry brings together an extraordinary range of specialisms. Your interests could eventually take you towards games design, gameplay programming, technical art, 3D modelling, environment design, animation, games testing, production or interactive development.

The skills developed also extend beyond games. Experience with game engines, 3D technologies, scripting, interactive environments and digital assets increasingly connects with virtual reality, simulation, immersive technology, software development and the wider creative technology sector.

Whichever route you choose, the focus is the same: moving from consuming digital experiences to creating them.

DESIGN. DEVELOP. TEST. PLAY.