Facilities and expertise in Games

Undergraduate

If you’re looking to break into the video games industry, you’re going to need the tools to build and showcase your talents - our TIGA accredited courses enable you to develop your knowledge and perfect your skills in outstanding facilities like our Epic Games Lab, as well as animation studios, competitive rigs and broadcasting equipment, plus much more.

Learn with the latest technology

You'll learn in facilities with the latest technology, just like you would find in industry. You'll have a dedicated motion capture studio, high-end computers and software specifically for games creation at your disposal. We also have PlayStation developer kits and virtual reality equipment, like the HTC Vive and Oculus available for you to use.

Industry-led facilities

Whatever you choose to study, you’ll be working in a state-of-the-art environment within our £11m Cadman Studios. Explore your artistic creativity on the latest games development software in our games labs, create, develop and test VR and AR solutions in our VR, AR and Mixed Reality Lab. If you choose to study esports you will access our Pro Gamer training facility in our dedicated Esports Lab, or immerse yourself in cutting edge low-level APIs such as DirectX and OpenGL, as well as hands-on experience with industry hardware such as the Sony PlayStation 4 in our Epic Games Design Centre.

I had the support of the lectures who offered advice and critique that really saw my potential.

I was given a lot of freedom to explore and develop my work on my own. Also being around other students from other computer technology based courses really helped me to realise the amount of opportunities in the future that my degree could help me to achieve.

Alan Herbert

CGI and Visual Effects 

Facilities

Epic Games Centre

Home to the Epic Games sponsored Design Centre. A fully equipped space designed to nurture future industry developers studying with us on our Games courses.

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Motion Capture Studio

Realistically capture multiple human movements simultaneously for the creation of high-quality games, animation and VFX sequences. Our industry standard facility features a 24-camera rig, Vicon hardware and Cara facial performance capture headset. Read more

The Motion Capture Stage is located in the Cadman Building, working alongside The Smart Zone. This facility hosts sessions that show students how to set up and prepare shoots at a high industry level. The sessions provided give in-depth information that covers each stage, from preparation to exporting data for use within a project.

Our MoCap Studio is used by students from a wide range of subjects, including Film and Media, Games Design, Animation, Drama, Sports Therapy and CGI and Visual Effects. 

Find out more about our Motion Capture Stage.
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VR, AR and Mixed Reality Lab

The VR, AR and Mixed Reality Lab is equipped with a number of HTC Vive Virtual Reality headsets and a dedicated development area to create, develop and test VR solutions.  Read more

VR and AR solutions can also be used in conjunction with the Motion Capture Studio to create mixed or hyper-reality experiences for a variety of industries and applications. Our VR, AR and Mixed Reality Labs can be used to create a range of experiences, including training, gaming, palliative care support and shopping experiences. Find out more about our Immersive Technology facilities. 
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Games and Concept Art Labs

Explore your artistic creativity on the latest games development software in our Games and Concept Art Labs. Our industry quality workstations come complete with Wacom Intuos Pro mediums or 13QHD Cintiq tablets.

Esports Hub

A customised Esports lab for showcase and learning with top of the range industry standard, featuring tournament level hardware and software. Read more

Find out more about our Esports Hub.
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Smart Zone

A bustling centre of invention, innovation and creation with two floors of dedicated workshop and collaboration spaces for engineering and creative students. Read more

The Smart Zone fuses state-of-the-art fabrication spaces with augmented and blended reality facilities, allowing you to bring your ideas to life using the latest digital and immersive technologies. Find out more about our Smart Zone.
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Animation Studios

Our well-equipped Animation studios house a number of resources allowing for a number of Animation methods. Read more

Including: Cintiq Suites for 2D and 3D Digital animation, 4K edit Suite, Sound Recording booth, access to Motion Capture technology and dual-screen PC digital suite with access to software including MAYA and TOON BOOM.

Join Course Leader Stuart Messinger for a tour around our Animation Studios.
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Global Games Jam

We host the UK's largest Global Games Jam site (Over 200 Jammers!) aimed at cultivating and fostering Innovation, Experimentation, Collaboration. Read more

Our students and members of the general public take part in a three day event developing digital or analogue games in their own teams using our Cadman Studios where our Games and VFX courses are run. It is a fantastic experience - the opportunity to meet new friends and make games based on a super-secret yearly theme from the Global Games Jam group!
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PlayStation Academic Development Programme

Our membership of this programme means you will have access to cutting edge professional PlayStation software (SDK) and development hardware, including PS4 dev kits.

Multiplatform Newsrooms

Our multi-platform newsrooms house 76 iMacs complete with all the software necessary for multi-platform journalism including Adobe Creative Suite.

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CGI Workshop

The centre of post production in the animation department, boasting a number of Apple edit suites and industry standard animation software.

Virtual Production Studio

The Virtual Production Studio allows the combination of real-time games graphics with traditional film and video production techniques. Read more

Students are able to utilise the Virtual Production studio which comes complete with a 10m x 2.75m curved LED volume made of DigiLED DigiThin XS 2600 panels, Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12k camera with 35mm, 50mm and 85mm lenses, Vanishing Point Vector and Viper camera tracking systems, full RGB lighting system including LED Cloud, 1x Celeb 850, 1x Diva-Lite 41, 5x Diva-Lite 31 and 5x Q5 Color all controllable through a ChamSys MagicQ lighting desk, VR Scouting system using a HTC Vive Pro and audio system with speakers around the screen. HP workstations allow the process to be facilitated end-to-end by Unreal Engine to use photorealistic environments.
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Expertise

As a games student at Staffordshire University, you’ll learn from expert academic staff that teach from their experiences from across the sector. We're the 15th best institution in the world for teaching Games Design and Development according to The Rookies World School Rankings 2021, so you can be confident in the quality of our course content and delivery, assessment, feedback and academic support.

TIGA accreditation

Our games courses are accredited by TIGA, so you can trust that our courses are credible and provide a quality education to teach you the skills required by the games industry. 

Our staff

Professor Christopher Headleand

Head Of Department - Sugi

Prof. Headleand is a Computing & Video Games academic with over 20 years' experience; internationally recognised as an expert in student engagement. He is head of Games Design & Technology & researches Virtual Reality, Visualisation & Serious Games.

Christopher's profile

David Edwards

Course Director

Dave is an experienced technical artist and academic. He teaches on many of the earlier levels of the Games Art degree, using his expertise in 3D character and environment art, 3D scripting, and level design in the Unreal Engine.

David's profile

Dr Ying-Ying Law

Course Director - Esports

Ying-Ying is a sociologist and an active researcher in digital cultures. Her main area of interest includes video gamer culture, communities, play, esports, research methods and gender studies from a sociological perspective.

Ying-Ying's profile

Craig Weightman

Senior Lecturer

Craig is a lecturer in Games Programming and has an active research interest in gamification and its uses in developing society.

Craig's profile

Daryl Marsh

Senior Lecturer

Course Leader for BA(Hons) Animation with long term professional animation experience in London, Manchester and Copenhagen. Specialisms include CGI, Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality. Researching immersive experiences and emerging technology.

Daryl's profile

James Vickers

Lecturer

Jay is the module leader for Game Engine Creation and lecturer for various other modules across programming and development. Jay has a background in computer science and quantum computing as well as graphical programming.

James's profile

Peter Cooper

Lecturer

Peter has taught software engineering, web development, games development and computer science. He is commencing a research MSc in Computer Science, developing areas of interest such as Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Gaming and Gamification.

Peter's profile

Robin Heap

Lecturer

Robin is an animation filmmaker who specialises in stop motion animation development and production.

Robin's profile
The staff have been wonderful - really understanding and supportive.

I’ve always had a love for games and film and the processes behind them. I’ve also always loved art, so combining the two was ideal for me.

The staff have been wonderful - really understanding and supportive. They were always willing to listen and explain things, and would give wonderful advice that really helped me envision both my projects at university and what career goals I had for the future. I learned a lot of useful skills from my lecturers and feel as though my art has greatly improved with their help!

Molly Swift

Graduate, BA (Hons) Concept Art for Games and Film

Got a question about Games?

Our friendly enquiries team are on hand to answer any questions you may have about your course, life at University of Staffordshire and much more.

for Career Prospects

Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023

for Facilities

Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023

for Social Inclusion

The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023

of Research Impact is ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Very Considerable’

Research Excellence Framework 2021

of Research is “Internationally Excellent” or “World Leading”

Research Excellence Framework 2021

Four Star Rating

QS Star Ratings 2021