Thomas Oliver

Senior Lecturer

Digital, Tech, Innovation & Business

I am the Course Leader BSc (Hons) Computer Games Design and Programming. My past is filled with running an indie company, working with audio and a lot of maths. I pride myself on my ability to create anything within Unity and Unreal Engine at a base level from a mathematical perspective.

I came to academia from an industry background where I was the co-founder of a small indie games development company. This led to me dealing with business matters, PR and marketing at events across the UK as well as developing in all areas from engine programming and shader design to audio and texturing. This rounded approach to game development has allowed me to better identify the fun within an idea and bring it out in a way that plays and sells well as an experience.

I have always been a gamer in the truest sense, playing any game genre under the sun. From a young age I played Real-Time Strategies like Total Annihilation and Age of Empires 2 with my dad on our Windows 95 machine. Through my youth this continued with Call of Duty and Battlefield exercising my reactions and Minecraft filling the creative space. These days rhythm games like Clone Hero are guaranteed to pique my interest, combining my love of music production and performance with the competition of high score chasing.

Professional memberships and activities

  • HEA Fellow

Academic qualifications

  • PgC Higher and Professional Education, Staffordshire University
  • BSc (Hons) Computer Games Design and Programming, Staffordshire University

Expertise

  • Computer Games Programming
  • Unity & Unreal Engine Development
  • C++
  • C#
  • Maths
  • Audio Production
  • Marketing Games

Teaching

COSE50663 Game Engine Programming (Module Leader)

COSE50650 Further Mathematics and Algorithmics

GAME50652 Indie Games Programming (Module Leader)

COSE50631 Technical Games Production

COSE60591 Group Game Development and Work-Based Simulation

GAME60520 Game Mechanics Programming (Module Leader)

GAME60248 A.I. Scripting for Games

Publications

Butler, S. & Oliver, T. (2024) Game Development Patterns with Unreal Engine 5. ISBN: 978-1803243252 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Game-Development-Patterns-Unreal-Engine-ebook/dp/B0B7FLQSF2/

in the UK for Quality Education

Sustainable Development Goal 4, Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2024

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