- Blocks 4 and 5 (Years 10 and 11)
BAC Digital Game Design
The Bedales Assessed Course in Digital Game Design is a multidisciplinary course that combines creativity, technical skills and an understanding of gameplay mechanics to give learners a flavour of the skills needed for digital game development.
Students will develop a range of creative, technical and soft skills throughout the course. Assessment comprises a mixture of practical exercises, theoretical knowledge, and a range of core skills essential for digital game development.
The syllabus is broad, enabling students to gain an insight into the analytical, collaborative and problem-solving skills required to thrive in the digital games industry. They will develop proficient technical skills in industry-standard programming languages and applications.
The course has been designed to prepare students to work within A Level courses in the Sixth Form. In particular, the course structure and layout align with the non-examination assessment component of the A Level Computer Science course.
Specification at a glance
Block 4 (Year 10)
Unit 1: Programming Fundamentals (10%) - Learn to use Python to create a text-based adventure game.
Unit 2: The Theory of Game Design (5%) - Explore games of different genres to determine what makes a good game and successfully critique a game tutorial.
Unit 3: Website Development (15%) - Learn the basics of HTML and use Adobe Dreamweaver to create an attractive and fully functioning website.
Block 5 (Year 11)
Unit 4: Design Documentation and the Project Management Process (20%) - Develop a one-page overview design document and a ten-page detailed technical design document for their own game. They will also plan the development of the project, considering all stages of the software life cycle.
Unit 5: Game Creation (45%) - Students will use C# in the Unity platform to develop an original and playable digital game.
Unit 6: Presentation (5%) - Students will showcase their work in a formal presentation scenario, taking questions to demonstrate the skills and knowledge they have acquired.
Assessment
Each of the units is assessed, with tasks and projects ranging from applying practical skills to create digital games and websites, to producing essays and presentations to demonstrate the skills and knowledge developed throughout the course.