The Student Room Group

Game art for uni

Hi all,
I am currently year 13 and I am very much into art. I am thinking of doing concept/game art for uni. But I am not sure as heard mixed opinions from people saying it's difficult to get a job in this Industry, very competitive, not enough salary etc.
My other question is which university is good for game art,
Have been looking into
UAL
Hertfordshire university
Plymouth
Bournmouth
Falmouth
Staffordshire
Norwich.

Can someone try and shed some light please.
Many thanks
Vasu
Reply 1
Hi, I'm a Game Art grad who is now in industry. You're absolutely right that it is difficult to get a job and very competitive. I would consider if that is enough to put you off or not.

The people that do best in these kinds of courses are highly self-motivated, willing to put in extra work and industry research outside of what their course might offer, job search early and often, and seek mentorship, advice and feedback from people in early career positions in industry. You need to be independent, organised, and expect particularly your 2nd and 3rd year to be extremely tough. You need to expect your course to teach you skills to make a good portfolio, but not to "get you a job".

As for salary, it is often compared against other tech roles - where yes, Games will be low by comparison. But if you were to compare against other art and design roles (e.g. illustration, curation and freelance) you'll find it's pretty damn good.

Bournemouth is good, Falmouth and Staffs are good. Heard consistently good things about all three. I applied to Falmouth and had a great exp. in their interview process. I didn't know about Staffs when I did UCAS but given my time again I would've applied there. I got put off from Bournemouth because they had a coding module but in hindsight I wish i'd coded more at Uni- again I would've applied if I had my time again.
Norwich I hear mixed things from - some people love it, some people less keen. I looked around Herts but I didn't apply in the end, the course content wasn't quite as much up my alley, but that was a personal preference- would def go to open day. UAL and Plymouth I can't speak on.
Also worth considering: DMU (where I went), Abertay (pro: cheap cost of living, con: 4 year course), Escape Studios (pro: highly specialist, con: expensive cost of living)

My actual UCAS list was DMU, Abertay, Falmouth, Norwich, UCA Farnham - if I had my time again i'd pick
Staffs, Bournemouth, DMU, Falmouth.... and either Escape or Abertay.

Some people will say to you "Why even bother going to university? You should get an apprenticeship/self teach/give up on your dreams." - they generally have absolutely no idea how competitive apprenticeships, work experience and internships within our industry are, or any idea that most of the industry-standard courses are expensive and often it's incredibly difficult to pick out the good stuff from opportunists selling out of date or useless information. Not to mention the upfront costs of getting independent software licenses for most of the specialist software you need to study a course like Game Art. Something like Zbrush Sculptor will run you over $300 a year.

Yes, there's a lot of risk in studying something niche and specialist like Game Art at University, I don't disagree. Yes, we have relatively high rates of unemployment. So be sure you are willing to commit to the work of getting your foot in industry, are willing to pivot and compromise on your dream job to get your foot in the door, and are willing to put in the extra work required to get through it. I don't think Uni's a bad way to do it. But you have to really want it.

Good luck. Reach out if you have any Qs, always happy to help.
Original post by Vasundhara16
Hi all,
I am currently year 13 and I am very much into art. I am thinking of doing concept/game art for uni. But I am not sure as heard mixed opinions from people saying it's difficult to get a job in this Industry, very competitive, not enough salary etc.
My other question is which university is good for game art,
Have been looking into
UAL
Hertfordshire university
Plymouth
Bournmouth
Falmouth
Staffordshire
Norwich.
Can someone try and shed some light please.
Many thanks
Vasu

Hiya, I hope that you're well. That's great to hear that you're considering an arts course at uni - very exciting. I'm a Graphic Design Student at Norwich University of Arts. Student Ambassadors from our courses are available to chat to via a platform called UniBuddy. This allows you to ask any questions that you may have about a specific course or campus. You can find our ambassadors here.

Attending open days is also a great way to get a feel for the universities and talk to staff and students there. A list of our upcoming events can be found here: Norwich Uni Arts Open Days. I personally found that attending as many of these as possible and also requesting prospectuses really helped me out. I actually collected quite a few of these before settling on a course/ uni. Our prospectus and information leaflets also provide an insight into where our courses can take us in the future after Uni!

I hope this helps and good luck on University hunting! I know it can be daunting, but I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have 🙂

Charlotte, Student Ambassador
Original post by Vasundhara16
Hi all,
I am currently year 13 and I am very much into art. I am thinking of doing concept/game art for uni. But I am not sure as heard mixed opinions from people saying it's difficult to get a job in this Industry, very competitive, not enough salary etc.
My other question is which university is good for game art,
Have been looking into
UAL
Hertfordshire university
Plymouth
Bournmouth
Falmouth
Staffordshire
Norwich.
Can someone try and shed some light please.
Many thanks
Vasu

Hi @Vasundhara16

Have you considered Kingston?

Kingston is 2nd in London for Animation and Game Design. And no.1 in London and top 5 in the UK for Graphic Design.

We have two courses here that may interest you. Firstly Game Development and then Illustration Animation.

From both of these courses students have gone on to work for brands like Sony, Netflix and Google. On the Game Development course Kingston is an educational partner of Sony through PlayStation First and you will be able to develop games for the PlayStation 5. This is potentially useful to look into what graduates do after studying these courses and if courses do live projects like this, as you want to make sure that the university will set you up for finding a career afterwards.

Another thing that is great about these courses is the equipment and facilities. There are lots of labs and studios that I would really recommend you coming and seeing for yourself, if you can, at an open day. Our next open day is Saturday 19th October, and there are more throughout the year just keep an eye on the website.

If you decide to study at university, I would recommend doing a placement/internship over the summer or doing a placement year as then you have more experience when applying for graduate jobs.

Here are the links to the website pages for the two courses:
Game Development BSc (Hons) - Undergraduate degree course - Kingston University London
Illustration Animation BA (Hons) - Undergraduate degree course - Kingston University London

I hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions :smile:
-Grace (Kingston Rep)
Good afternoon Vasu !!

I'm Jodie, a third year Game Art student here at the University of Staffordshire and I wanted to come in and give you some insight into what the course here entails!

Firstly, the staff here are really lovely and most, if not all of them, have some prior experience to working within the games industry so they are all super knowledgeable in their areas. Not just that, but I truly believe the course has the content you are looking for. Here at staffs, the concept art and games are split into their own individual courses, so the games art one is heavily focused on, well, just games! In the first year you dabble a bit into both character creation and environment creation and as the years advance you get to choose what area you want to specialise in. So if you didn't know if you wanted to work with characters or more of the environment or hard surface side of things, the first year is a really great trial period to get a feel for what you like :biggrin:

We also have an "£employability" module here in the third year which is to help set you for getting a job after you graduate! This includes help with a CV, mock interviews and more. We also have lots of opportunities from careers fairs and even a trip to the Let's Talk Games convention which are great for building up your social profiles and networking with industry professionals. Getting a job in this industry is hard, but Staffs wants to make it as easy as possible and help you get your work out there and they will do everything they can, as a University, to support you.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to reach out and I would be more than happy to help. Good luck in whatever you choose to do and wherever you choose to study, and thank you for taking our University into consideration!

Jodie - Games Artist and Student Content Creator
Reply 5
Original post by Vasundhara16
Hi all,
I am currently year 13 and I am very much into art. I am thinking of doing concept/game art for uni. But I am not sure as heard mixed opinions from people saying it's difficult to get a job in this Industry, very competitive, not enough salary etc.
My other question is which university is good for game art,
Have been looking into
UAL
Hertfordshire university
Plymouth
Bournmouth
Falmouth
Staffordshire
Norwich.
Can someone try and shed some light please.
Many thanks
Vasu

Concept Art is a tough area to get into - its what everyone wants to do at the moment, and so the amount of people wanting to get a job in concept art is far larger than the amount of work in the industry. This means you will have to be amazing! Games art is a much wider area and covers artists across a range of realtime skillsets like environment, prop and character artists, realtime FX, lighting artists, surface/shader/texture artists, animators and riggers / CFX, and can cross into level design and game design as well. It might be worth looking at courses that offer the possiblities to learn across these areas because it's difficult at your age being asked to make a decision that will affect the rest of your life without having much knowledge of the industry or the required skills and quality level to get a job in it.

If you pick a concept art course make sure it teaches a lot of 3D. The days of painting cool 2D pictures in Photoshop and doing nothing else are over, loads of concept art is done over base 3D meshes for speed and for variant creation.

I would say most of the universities you are considering are good in this area (and thanks for mentioning us - Hertfordshire). We do handle all the above skill areas, and we have an impressive reputation - this year we are ranked like this by the Rookies Awards (the most important animation/concept art/games art annual award show in the world for students)

Best 2D Animation School in Europe and Number Two in the World

Best 3D Animation School in the UK

Best Concept Art School in the UK

Best VFX School in the UK

Number Two in the World for VFX Production Excellence

https://www.herts.ac.uk/about-us/news-and-events/news/2024/university-of-hertfordshires-school-of-creative-arts-named-best-creative-school-in-the-2024-rookies-global-school-rankings

You should also look at the competition worldwide - you can see all the famous courses here:
https://www.therookies.co/schools/rankings/2024

and finally if you want to watch a showreel of our work look here https://vimeo.com/916632441
Reply 6
Original post by aspalax
Hi, I'm a Game Art grad who is now in industry. You're absolutely right that it is difficult to get a job and very competitive. I would consider if that is enough to put you off or not.
The people that do best in these kinds of courses are highly self-motivated, willing to put in extra work and industry research outside of what their course might offer, job search early and often, and seek mentorship, advice and feedback from people in early career positions in industry. You need to be independent, organised, and expect particularly your 2nd and 3rd year to be extremely tough. You need to expect your course to teach you skills to make a good portfolio, but not to "get you a job".
As for salary, it is often compared against other tech roles - where yes, Games will be low by comparison. But if you were to compare against other art and design roles (e.g. illustration, curation and freelance) you'll find it's pretty damn good.
Bournemouth is good, Falmouth and Staffs are good. Heard consistently good things about all three. I applied to Falmouth and had a great exp. in their interview process. I didn't know about Staffs when I did UCAS but given my time again I would've applied there. I got put off from Bournemouth because they had a coding module but in hindsight I wish i'd coded more at Uni- again I would've applied if I had my time again.
Norwich I hear mixed things from - some people love it, some people less keen. I looked around Herts but I didn't apply in the end, the course content wasn't quite as much up my alley, but that was a personal preference- would def go to open day. UAL and Plymouth I can't speak on.
Also worth considering: DMU (where I went), Abertay (pro: cheap cost of living, con: 4 year course), Escape Studios (pro: highly specialist, con: expensive cost of living)
My actual UCAS list was DMU, Abertay, Falmouth, Norwich, UCA Farnham - if I had my time again i'd pick
Staffs, Bournemouth, DMU, Falmouth.... and either Escape or Abertay.
Some people will say to you "Why even bother going to university? You should get an apprenticeship/self teach/give up on your dreams." - they generally have absolutely no idea how competitive apprenticeships, work experience and internships within our industry are, or any idea that most of the industry-standard courses are expensive and often it's incredibly difficult to pick out the good stuff from opportunists selling out of date or useless information. Not to mention the upfront costs of getting independent software licenses for most of the specialist software you need to study a course like Game Art. Something like Zbrush Sculptor will run you over $300 a year.
Yes, there's a lot of risk in studying something niche and specialist like Game Art at University, I don't disagree. Yes, we have relatively high rates of unemployment. So be sure you are willing to commit to the work of getting your foot in industry, are willing to pivot and compromise on your dream job to get your foot in the door, and are willing to put in the extra work required to get through it. I don't think Uni's a bad way to do it. But you have to really want it.
Good luck. Reach out if you have any Qs, always happy to help.

Hi!! I'm just curious since I also want to apply to falmouth, what was the interview process like? did you have to talk through your portfolio? also since I live in london do you think theres an option to do the interview virtually? sorry for the bombardment of questions ;;
Reply 7
Original post by RK.20
Hi!! I'm just curious since I also want to apply to falmouth, what was the interview process like? did you have to talk through your portfolio? also since I live in london do you think theres an option to do the interview virtually? sorry for the bombardment of questions ;;

Absolutely, no problem!

When I interviewed for Falmouth, they hosted regional interviews up north for people that couldn't travel to campus. I lived in Liverpool at the time and I went to one that was hosted inside a sixth form college in Manchester and they set up screens with virtual tours and flew out lecturers and student ambassadors to talk to prospective students. Everyone I spoke to was incredibly helpful and it was a really great thing for them to do - compared to doing an interview over a zoom call it was massively preferable.

It was one of only two interviews/portfolio reviews where I received constructive feedback and practical things I could go away and do in order to prepare for the course. The lecturer interviewing me suggested some websites full of 3D references and encouraged me to have a go at sculpting over summer.

I brought my portfolio and a sketchbook. Falmouth, for whatever reason, had a really limited # of pieces they wanted in portfolio - I think it was 3(?) Possible that's relaxed since. So we went through my "big" pieces quite quickly and then the lecturer went through my sketchbook for a while - I was really glad I had a polished sketchbook of personal work at that interview. (That really varied across the unis I interviewed at - some places were interested in my sketchbook, others flicked through it very fast) I talked through all my big pieces - that was important - but it was a little less formal going through my sketchbook. I gave a bit of context for some pieces but we did some other interview-type questions while he was doing that... He asked me what my favourite games were and what I enjoyed about them visually, a little about my experience at college, and about what i'd done to prepare for the course in my free time. I don't even know if that guy still teaches at Falmouth, though.

I'm sure doing regional interviews made a difference to other northern students who otherwise wouldn't have been able to consider Falmouth as an option too. I imagine post-covid they offer virtual interviews too. They would've been my insurance pick if I didn't get an uncon for DMU, which ended up being my firm. This was late 2019- early 2020, I started uni in September 2020 (....yeah).
(edited 1 month ago)
Reply 8
Original post by aspalax
Absolutely, no problem!
When I interviewed for Falmouth, they hosted regional interviews up north for people that couldn't travel to campus. I lived in Liverpool at the time and I went to one that was hosted inside a sixth form college in Manchester and they set up screens with virtual tours and flew out lecturers and student ambassadors to talk to prospective students. Everyone I spoke to was incredibly helpful and it was a really great thing for them to do - compared to doing an interview over a zoom call it was massively preferable.
It was one of only two interviews/portfolio reviews where I received constructive feedback and practical things I could go away and do in order to prepare for the course. The lecturer interviewing me suggested some websites full of 3D references and encouraged me to have a go at sculpting over summer.
I brought my portfolio and a sketchbook. Falmouth, for whatever reason, had a really limited # of pieces they wanted in portfolio - I think it was 3(?) Possible that's relaxed since. So we went through my "big" pieces quite quickly and then the lecturer went through my sketchbook for a while - I was really glad I had a polished sketchbook of personal work at that interview. (That really varied across the unis I interviewed at - some places were interested in my sketchbook, others flicked through it very fast) I talked through all my big pieces - that was important - but it was a little less formal going through my sketchbook. I gave a bit of context for some pieces but we did some other interview-type questions while he was doing that... He asked me what my favourite games were and what I enjoyed about them visually, a little about my experience at college, and about what i'd done to prepare for the course in my free time. I don't even know if that guy still teaches at Falmouth, though.
I'm sure doing regional interviews made a difference to other northern students who otherwise wouldn't have been able to consider Falmouth as an option too. I imagine post-covid they offer virtual interviews too. They would've been my insurance pick if I didn't get an uncon for DMU, which ended up being my firm. This was late 2019- early 2020, I started uni in September 2020 (....yeah).

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation!! It was really helpful!! I just really wanted to get an insight on their application process since the other unis I'm applying to (I think) dont have interviews and there wasn't much info about it on their website. But anyway thanks again!
Reply 9
Original post by RK.20
Thank you so much for the detailed explanation!! It was really helpful!! I just really wanted to get an insight on their application process since the other unis I'm applying to (I think) dont have interviews and there wasn't much info about it on their website. But anyway thanks again!

No worries, always happy to help. Best of luck at your interview ❤️

Quick Reply