Games Art and Design at Murdoch University

Course Description

Take your passion for video games to the next level and develop the creative thinking and production skills that you need for a career in the games industry.

In this course you’ll level up your knowledge of games art and design processes, production concepts and industry-standard tools and techniques. By creating games and mods you’ll learn about animation, 3D modelling, concept art, and designing for mobile and virtual reality platforms.

This major allows you to explore different areas of specialisation to suit your dream career path, so you’ll learn what’s involved working as a: concept artist, games designer or technical artist.

For roles in concept art, you’ll learn how to bring your ideas to life, building skills in 2D illustration and character design. For roles in games design, you’ll learn to construct virtual worlds, as well as techniques for level design and developing high-concept gameplay. And for roles in production art, you’ll learn to create characters, props and terrains, and will explore production art processes for 3D modelling, animation and texture painting.

Depending on the area you choose, you can learn how game designers create games and gamified systems around systems of play, how concept artists transform ideas into visuals, or how production artists create characters, props and terrains.  This allows you to gain the benefits of the fundamental concepts in digital art workflows and design, as well as the relevance and experience of working with industry best-practices.

11 reasons to study Games Art and Design at Murdoch

• Work with real organisations on real projects, and complete internships through our work integrated learning program. Our students have collaborated with Black Lab Games and the Water Corporation in the past.
• Learn to create innovative games and interactive media solutions, and project manage a Games Art and Design project from beginning to end.
• Study and have access to some of the latest technologies and facilities including a dedicated games computer lab, VR headsets, green screen studio and interactive audio suites to help you bring your games to life.
• Learn from academics who are international games production experts, including Simon Allen, who worked as an animator for Pixar, Jason Trevenen, who worked as a concept artist for Disney, and Brad Power, who was lead designer at the Perth studio of AAA developer Interzone Games.
• Get more real-world experience in our on-campus student creative consultancy MESH and work on real projects with real companies.
• You will have the opportunity to build a portfolio of creative works throughout your degree, which you can use to showcase your creative potential to future employers.
• At Murdoch, you’ll develop an entrepreneurial attitude, client consultation skills, critical thinking and the ability to adapt - so you can action your ideas.
• Showcase your creative work through local competitions like the Perth Games Festival. Our students have had their games publicly showcased and entered into national competitions giving them great exposure to potential employers.
• Study two majors in three years and graduate with two specialisations, further enhancing your career prospects.
• Study an Asian language alongside your degree and take your career global. We offer Japanese and Indonesian. The Japanese gaming industry is huge so this would be a definite advantage if you want to take your career global.
• Follow in the footsteps of some of our other Murdoch graduates who have gone on to work on Furious 7, Fantastic Four, The Hobbit and more.

What you’ll learn

Build the knowledge and skills you need to meet your career or study goals. Here are some of the things you’ll learn:

• advanced 3D character animation
• mobile app and interaction design
• VR, platforms and publishing
• critical games play and design
• digital painting.

Your future career

The games industry is experiencing substantial growth and the ubiquity of games means that there are not only more jobs than ever available in the entertainment games space, but that companies in other fields are looking to skilled games graduates to create digital experiences for their business needs, such as simulation, training, or education.

Careers could include:

• Concept or Technical Artist
• Animator
• Character or Environment Modeller
• Game or Level Designer
• Production or Lighting Artist.