Our new MSC IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR GAMES is about the techniques needed to create artificial game playing agents and non-player characters. Students will learn advanced techniques in Artificial Intelligence (AI), and apply this knowledge in a "hands-on" environment by creating a range of game playing agents for a wide variety of games.
Artificial Intelligence is widely regarded in the computer games industry as the area where the largest strides in gameplay will be made in the coming decades, and students of this course will be at the forefront of this advance. Game theory is very important in industry (particularly in finance and economics) and students will also consider games and models from those domains. As well as equipping students for a career in the rapidly-growing computer games industry, good graduates will be prepared for jobs which apply AI techniques to business planning and engineering problems, and for further AI research through to PhD.
During the course students will create a large portfolio of AI agents to take forward on graduation. The games considered will range from traditional games, such as chess and go, through to complex first-person and real-time strategy games. A range of competitions will be run throughout the module to compare the effectiveness of student AI. As well as techniques well established in the computer games industry, such as pathfinding and state machine architectures, the course will cover advanced topics (see below) which are only just starting to be used in the games industry.
In order to provide careers information and to inform students of the techniques currently in use in the games industry, industrial speakers will present their insight to students of the course. The degree will culminate with a major project where students will build one or more AI players for a game of their choice.
The course should appeal to students with an enthusiasm for Artificial Intelligence who prefer a "hands-on" course where their ideas can be implemented in a range of game environments, and to those with an enthusiasm for computer games aiming to get into the major growth area of AI design and development. Graduates will have skills that will make them well suited to careers in the computer games industry, and to AI jobs in finance, management and engineering.
Students will be expected to have programming skills before starting the course, and an enthusiasm for games, but knowledge of AI topics is not required.
MSc
PLEASE NOTE: Many of our postgraduate taught courses are available for part-time study over 2 years. Flexible part-time study routes are negotiated with students on an individual basis Please contact our Recruitment Manager for information.
*Modules may change at short notice
We would normally require you to possess a good Honours degree (2:2 or above) or an equivalent overseas qualification, in an area relevant to their proposed programme of study and from an approved degree awarding body.
If you have lesser academic qualifications but have substantial (approx. 5 years) relevant work experience, your application may also be considered.
Candidates applying to the course with non-standard qualifications will be judged on an individual basis using the University's APEL procedures.
In addition, if your first language is not English, a test of written and spoken English normally needs to have been passed at grade 6.0 for IELTS (with no subtest below 5.5) or for TOEFL (87 for the Internet-based test).
If you would like to apply on-line, please see this page which includes information on University's on-line application system. We prefer you to apply on-line wherever possible. However, if you have difficulty applying on-line, or would prefer to apply by post, please complete this downloadable application form (MS Word) and send it to the address on the right.
