William James

My Graduate Story

My name is William James. I studied a Bachelors of Music from 2014 to 2017, and then from 2017 to 2018, I carried on and studied a Masters of Arts at the University of Birmingham.

I’m currently the Principal Audio Designer at Blue Dot Games, which is a game development studio based in London. Prior to that, I was the Lead Audio Designer at Bulkhead, a game development studio based in Derby.

Having studied at the University of Birmingham and completed a music degree, I was able to develop skills that I’ve taken forward into my career.

My Journey to Blue Dot Games

The opportunities I was creating for myself independently were supported by the Music Department, so stepping into the professional world was a lot easier for me.

If I hadn’t studied the degree that I studied, I probably wouldn’t be in the career that I’m doing at the moment.

My Birmingham Experience

Studying Music, I thought it was really important to be in a city with lots of opportunities, not just within the University, but also within the city.

The department itself was able to offer a lot of opportunities, particularly for independent study, shaping the course to be what you want it to be and allowing you to develop the skills that were important to where you wanted to take your career.

The course at the University of Birmingham was open-ended, particularly with regards to the dissertation and modules in later years, you could shape it to what you wanted it to be. In my case, instead of writing essays, I focused on performance, composition, and a lot of technical audio skills, which I then carried into my career and which were probably the biggest reason that I was able to step into audio design within video games.

The department was always helping me to develop my portfolio.

Birmingham’s Impact

Studying at Birmingham helped develop my playing, in terms of the instrumental side of things. It developed my technical skills, in terms of professional audio because of what I was doing in my dissertation. I gained a really deep understanding of how music works, and I wouldn’t really have been able to do it if I hadn’t studied Music.

My Achievements

I have built a career as an audio designer in video games, becoming Principal Audio Designer at Blue Dot Games and previously Lead Audio Designer at Bulkhead.

Advice for Students

For prospective students considering the University of Birmingham, I’d advise them to heavily consider it because of the opportunities that are offered through the University, the career support that you get, and the chance to shape the degree to what you want it to be.

The best piece of advice I could give to current students would be: try lots of things and do lots of things, even if you don’t like them. Try a bunch of stuff, work out what you like, meet a bunch of people, and probably make some great friends.