Creative Media and Game Technologies
Immersive games, interactive narratives and virtual reality experiences share a lot of similarities. They are all created by teams that merge stunning visuals, state-of-the-art technology, and captivating designs. Creative Media and Game Technologies (CMGT) offers you precisely this combination of innovation and creativity.
As the name suggests, CMGT covers everything you need to know about creative media and game technologies. In the first year, you'll have the chance to explore various roles and find the one that fits you best. In the following years, you can specialize in your desired direction.
CMGT offers a comprehensive overview, allowing you to delve into the various facets of the industry. Our goal is to replicate the workflow of a professional studio, emphasizing collaborative roles that enhance each other in the industry pipeline. We're on the right track, as we've been officially recognized as a 'good' programme by both the National Student Survey and the “Elsevier Keuzegids”.
At CMGT, we focus on three main industry roles: artists, designers, and engineers. Before you begin, you'll choose one of these roles. Each offering two unique learning paths. Additionally, you'll pick an extra learning path from the other roles to broaden your expertise and expand your toolkit. You'll start by learning the industry's fundamentals. Before you know it, you'll be crafting digital, real-time interactive games and experiences by teaming up with peers from every role. After the first year, you'll continue on your chosen learning path, further developing in your role. You will build a portfolio showcasing your skills an prepare you for your minor or internship in your third year.
CMGT is structured around the three most important professional roles in the field. Each role has two learning paths:
Artist:
- Technical Environment Artist: Crafts and optimizes game environments using both artistic skills and technical knowledge.
- Game Artist: Creates visual assets for games, such as characters, scenes, and textures.
Designer:
- Narrative Designer: Crafts compelling stories and builds immersive worlds with visuals and sounds that drive plot and character development.
- Game Designer: Crafts the game's rules and mechanics, fine-tuning play to make it consistently fun and captivating.
Engineer:
- Game Engineer: Codes and implements game mechanics, ensuring the game runs smoothly and integrates all its elements.
- Graphical Engineer: Specializes in graphics programming to enhance and optimize visuals and effects.
The CMGT bachelor at Saxion has a mandatory intake for all applicants. The CMGT intake consists of 3 stages:
- Online questionnaire and pick interview date. Answer all questions in our online questionnaire as honestly as you can. The questions help us identify your motivation, skills, personal qualities and professional image. At the end of stage 1, you need to pick a date for the intake interview.
- Interview preparation (with 2 products). Product 1 - your portfolio. You must bring samples of previous portfolio items, work, explorations and adventures to the interview. Your samples give us insight into your creativity, motivation, and areas of interest. Product 2 - your SDG Game. You need to create a basic, functional game level and demo the game during your interview. Your game needs to meet the criteria.
- Interview. You must bring your products from stage 2 (your portfolio + your SDG Game) to the intake interview. We will
discuss these products with you during the interview. In addition, we discuss your answers to the
questionnaire of stage 1. Your products will provide us with starting points for a discussion. During the
interview, you discuss your preferences for CMGT, interests, and expectations. Your research before deciding
on studying CMGT and the industry you will ultimately work in also receives attention.
More informaion about CMGT mandatory intake you will find here.
You will enter an incredibly wide and globally oriented professional field. You can join one of the many prominent companies, an exciting smaller firm, or start your own business. Each role provides specialized skills and insights, opening doors to a variety of career options aligned with your interests and aspirations.
With your qualifications you can chose from a wide range of professions such as:
- 3D Environment Artist. As a 3D Environment Artist, you'll design the visual worlds in games. You'll use 3D modeling and texturing to craft everything from vibrant landscapes to detailed cityscapes, ensuring that each environment is both immersive and visually captivating.
- Technical Artist. Technical Artists bridge the gap between artists and programmers. Your focus will be on optimizing art workflows and integrating art assets into the game, addressing technical challenges in art production to ensure a smooth integration of functionality and aesthetics.
- UI Designer. As a UI Designer, you oversee the game's user interface. Your role involves designing menus, buttons, and other interactive elements, ensuring they are user-friendly and visually attractive to enhance the overall player experience.
- Level Designer. Create the stages or levels of a game as a Level Designer. Your role includes balancing gameplay elements such as layout and difficulty, creating engaging and challenging experiences that also advance the game's narrative.
- Game Developer. This is a more technical role in which you'll focus on the coding and programming aspects of game creation. You'll write and refine the code that brings game mechanics to life, handling everything from feature implementation to bug fixing, and ensuring the game operates smoothly.
- Engine Programmer. As an Engine Programmer, you'll develop and maintain the game engine itself. This role involves working on the core software that drives the game. You'll handle tasks such as graphics rendering and physics calculations, to ensure the game runs flawlessly.
