BB Bachelor of Games and Interactivity and Bachelor of Animation

4 Years On Campus Dual-bachelors Program

Swinburne University of Technology

Program Overview

The Bachelor of Games and Interactivity / Bachelor of Animation at Swinburne is a great fit for students who want to combine game design, interactive storytelling and animation in one creative degree. You’ll explore how games are designed and experienced while developing practical skills in 2D, 3D and stop-motion animation, game production, visual storytelling and interactive media.

Curriculum Structure

Year 1: Build your creative foundations through subjects such as Introduction to Game Studies, Principles of Game Design, and Sound Design and Acquisition. You’ll start exploring how games, storytelling, visuals and sound come together to create engaging experiences.

Year 2: Move into more hands-on production with subjects such as Introduction to Games Production, Pervasive Game Design Lab, and Digital Game Prototyping Lab. You’ll experiment with game concepts and prototypes while developing your animation and digital production skills.

Year 3: Take your skills further through subjects such as Writing for Interactive Narratives, Behaviour and Motivation in Games, and Games & Interactivity Project 1. You’ll focus more on storytelling, player experience and creating polished interactive projects.

Year 4: Bring your animation and game-design skills together through advanced creative work, including Games & Interactivity Project 2 and User-Centred Design & Evaluation, alongside advanced animation studies. This is where you can refine your creative direction and build a stronger body of work for the games, animation and digital media industries.

Focus areas: Game design, interactive storytelling, 2D and 3D animation, stop-motion animation, character and environment creation, game prototyping, user experience and digital media production.

Learning outcomes: Develop the ability to design engaging games and interactive experiences, create animation across different techniques, communicate stories visually, understand player behaviour and produce creative projects using practical and industry-relevant production methods.

Professional alignment (accreditation): This is an industry-focused creative degree rather than a course leading to mandatory professional registration. Its practical project work and Swinburne’s Work Integrated Learning approach are designed to help students build career-ready experience for the games, animation and digital media industries.

Reputation (employability): Swinburne is recognised for its strong focus on technology, design and industry-connected learning. Students benefit from a practical approach that combines creative skills with real-world project experience, helping them graduate with capabilities relevant to the fast-evolving games, animation and interactive media sectors.

Experiential Learning (Research, Projects, Internships etc.)

At Swinburne, this double degree is highly hands-on, giving you the chance to design games, create animations and turn your ideas into finished projects. You’ll work in a games lab environment and use specialist animation facilities to develop skills across 2D, 3D and stop-motion production, while collaborative projects help you experience how creative teams work in the real world. Practical opportunities include:

Animation facilities: Work with state-of-the-art workstations, a purpose-built animation studio, interactive pen displays, high-end cameras and render farms for 3D animation.
Games labs and prototyping: Design, develop and test analogue and digital games through practical units such as Pervasive Game Design Lab and Digital Game Prototyping Lab.
Industry-standard digital tools: Build practical digital production skills with games-industry software, alongside access to Adobe Creative Cloud, including Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and Premiere Pro.
Collaborative projects: Work in multidisciplinary teams on professionally focused projects, developing valuable experience in teamwork, production and creative problem-solving.
Major creative productions: Animation project units give students opportunities to pitch, develop and produce work as a team, with projects designed for potential exhibition at film or animation festivals, galleries or public broadcast.
Game development projects: Through advanced Games & Interactivity project work, students can collaborate to develop an original game, gaining experience in the complete process from concept and prototyping to playtesting and presentation.
Work Integrated Learning: Practical industry experience is built into Swinburne bachelor degrees through opportunities such as industry-linked projects, placements or internships, helping students build professional experience before graduating.

Progression & Future Opportunities

With skills across both games and animation, you’ll graduate ready for a wide range of creative and digital careers. Depending on your strengths, you could work as a Game Designer, Animator, Technical Artist, or Interactive Media Designer, with the flexibility to move between games, animation, VFX and digital content:

Career support: Swinburne’s SwinEmploy service helps students with career planning, job searching, applications and interview preparation, while also connecting students with employers and professional opportunities.
Industry experience: Swinburne’s Work Integrated Learning approach gives students opportunities to gain practical experience through industry-linked projects, placements and professional experiences as part of their studies.
Industry connections: Swinburne works closely with industry, giving students opportunities to build professional networks and apply their creative skills to projects that reflect real workplace practices.
Strong career potential: Graduates develop a valuable mix of game design, animation, storytelling, prototyping and digital production skills that can lead to opportunities across the growing games, animation, VFX and interactive media industries.
Professional value: While these creative fields do not require mandatory professional accreditation, the double degree provides a strong portfolio-based qualification backed by practical projects and industry-focused learning.
Graduate outcomes: You’ll leave with experience creating games and animated content, collaborating on creative projects and developing a professional portfolio that can help showcase your skills to studios and employers.

Further Academic Progression: After graduating, you can deepen your expertise through postgraduate study at Swinburne in areas such as animation, games, design or digital media. You may also progress into an Honours or research pathway, depending on your academic results and career goals, particularly if you want to specialise further or move into creative research and academia.