Animation Principles & Motion Graphics
The twelve classical principles and the design fundamentals behind them, ending in a finished motion-graphics short.
INTERMEDIATE DIPLOMA · ONLINE · STARTS LATE AUGUST 2026
Design games people want to play.
A 20-month online diploma from Al Baha University and the Centre for Entertainment Arts. Learn to think in systems, design for players, and ship playable work — from paper prototypes to a team-built capstone game.
- 20 months
- 5 nanos
- 25 courses
- 71 credit hours
- Online
THE PROGRAM
Design is a discipline. Learn it like one.
Game design is not one skill. It is systems thinking, player psychology, prototyping discipline, and the craft of turning an idea into something people can actually play. This program trains all of it — deliberately, in order, against real tools.
You will design on paper before you design in engines, because rules and feedback loops matter more than software. You will script in Unity and build visual logic in Unreal Blueprints, because studios use both. And you will work with AI-assisted production tools throughout — not as a shortcut, but as a professional literacy: knowing what to automate, what to keep by hand, and how to judge the difference.
THE INDUSTRY
The Kingdom is building a games industry. It needs designers.
- $38B
- committed by Savvy Games Group to building a world-class games and esports ecosystem
- 23.5M
- players in Saudi Arabia — the region's largest gaming audience
- Late August 2026
- when the first cohort starts
NANOS 1–2 · THE SHARED FOUNDATION
Try the work before you choose it.
Every BU × CEA diploma opens with the same two nanos — ten courses shared across all five programs. You animate, you design and playtest a game, you shoot a short film, you build scenes in a real-time 3D engine. Then you choose your specialization with ten courses of evidence about where your ability and your interest meet. Nothing is wasted: the foundation counts toward every one of them.
- 2 nanos
- 10 courses
- 26 credit hours
5 COURSES · 13 CREDIT HOURS
01
Creative Foundations
Principles, prototypes, and the first things you make.
Game Design & Interactive Media Fundamentals
Mechanics, feedback loops, and rules: deconstruct published games, then prototype, playtest, and iterate on your own.
AI Skills and Creative Practice
Work with generative tools as creative instruments, and build three AI-assisted artefacts where every decision is provably yours.
Creative Writing, Storyboarding and Storytelling
Character, want, obstacle: draft scripted scenes in industry format and translate them into storyboards that serve the story.
Portfolio Submission
A mentor guides you in curating the block's strongest work into a portfolio with a reflective narrative.
02
Production Foundations
Crews, engines, pipelines, and the pitch.
Foundations of Film Production
From logline to finished cut: plan, shoot, and edit a short film in a rotating peer crew.
3D Engines for Creative Industries
Scene graph to Sequencer: build, light, and deliver composed footage inside a real-time engine.
Introduction to VFX & Post-Production Coordination
The VFX pipeline and the coordination craft that keeps it on schedule, practised in simulated productions.
Effective Communication, Pitching & Presentation
Impact-first writing and live pitching, tailored to executive, creative, and client audiences under time pressure.
Portfolio Submission
Curate the block's work with your mentor and stitch it into a coherent account of your practice.
THE FORK · AFTER NANO 2
You choose here.
You choose your specialization after ten shared courses, and every credit you have earned counts toward the diploma you pick.
NANOS 3–5 · THE SPECIALIZATION
Then go deep.
Three nanos of game design proper. First full gameplay systems, then the design disciplines studios hire for, then a full production cycle that ends in a polished, playable game built by an interdisciplinary team.
- 3 nanos
- 15 courses
- 45 credit hours
5 COURSES · 15 CREDIT HOURS
03
Applied Production
Your first full gameplay systems.
Visual Scripting for Designers
Build interactive systems in Unreal Blueprints: state, feedback, and basic AI behaviours without writing code.
Game Mechanics and Scripting
Program character controllers, physics mechanics, and game state in Unity, with AI-assisted tools in the workflow.
3D Art for Game Design
Modelling, UV mapping, texturing, and the pipeline that moves assets from creation into the engine.
User Experience Design
Interfaces, onboarding, wireframes, and player research that turn design intent into documentation teams can use.
Portfolio Submission
Mentor-guided curation of the block's strongest work into your growing portfolio.
04
Design Specialisations
Prototype fast; specialise deliberately.
Rapid Prototyping
Game jams, tight scopes, and finished prototypes: learn what makes an idea work by building it.
Narrative Design
Branching stories, world building, and narrative documentation with meaningful player agency.
Systems Design
Economies, feedback loops, progression, and balance — designed, documented, and tested.
Level Design
Player flow, environmental storytelling, and complete levels from blockout to refined build.
Portfolio Submission
Mentor-guided curation of the block's strongest work into your growing portfolio.
05
Capstone Integration
Ship something real.
Capstone Development
An interdisciplinary team, a full production cycle, and a polished, playable game at the end of it.
Professional Workflows
The pipelines behind the capstone: production management, QA, telemetry, and data-driven iteration.
Procedural Design
Algorithmic content: noise-based terrain, rule-based layouts, and the balance of authored versus generated.
Game Feel and Polish
Juice, feedback clarity, and the finishing pass that takes the capstone from feature-complete to release-ready.
Portfolio Submission
The final curation: your strongest work across the diploma, stitched into the portfolio you graduate with.
PREVIOUS STUDENT WORK
Excellence from our graduates
OUTCOMES
What you leave with.
The credential
An Intermediate Diploma in Game Design from Al Baha University: five stackable nanos, 71 credit hours.
The portfolio
Curated five times with a mentor — analog prototypes, engine work, narrative and systems design, and a team-shipped capstone game.
The toolset
Unity and Unreal Blueprints, plus the AI-assisted production fluency to know what to automate and what to defend by hand.
The habits
Fifteen-week production rhythm, structured playtesting, documentation studios can use, and critique you can give and take.
Seven doors this diploma opens.
- Game Designer
- Level Designer
- Quest Designer
- Narrative Designer
- Combat and Systems Designer
- UI/UX Designer
- World and Open World Designer
Career progression into senior and directorial positions typically develops through several years of professional practice, building on the foundations established here.
THE DETAILS
The credential, in full.
- Credential
- Intermediate Diploma in Game Design
- Duration
- 20 months
- Structure
- 5 nanos · 25 courses
- Credit hours
- 71
- Delivery
- Online
- Starts
- Late August 2026
- Tuition
- To be announced
- Entry requirements
- To be announced
- Application deadline
- To be announced
Questions
When does the program start?
The first cohort starts late August 2026. The program is delivered fully online.
What if I'm not sure game design is the right choice?
The first two nanos are shared across all five BU × CEA diplomas. You choose your specialization after the foundation — with ten courses of experience behind the decision instead of a guess.
What will I graduate with?
An Intermediate Diploma in Game Design from Al Baha University — five stackable nanos totalling 71 credit hours — and a portfolio of playable work including a team-built capstone game.
What are the tuition fees and entry requirements?
Tuition, entry requirements, and the application deadline are being finalised and will be announced on this page.
COHORT ONE · LATE AUGUST 2026
You have played enough games to know a good one. Make the next one.
Twenty months, five nanos, one finished game with your name on it. The first cohort starts late August 2026.