Video Game Design

In this course, you will examine how storytelling acts as a vital mechanism for driving video gameplay forward. Looking at several historical and contemporary games, you will be asked to evaluate and interpret different story styles with the goal of identifying themes and procedures for your own game ideas. [...]

Start creating your world. A game world is not just a backdrop for your game—be it minimal or detailed, contained or part of a much bigger universe, it provides the context for your player. Ultimately, a game world should feel alive and wholly unique to any player who will [...]

Welcome! This course is an introduction to the primary concepts of gaming, and an exploration of how these basic concepts affect the way gamers interact with our games. In this course you will understand what defines a “game” and the mechanics and rules behind different types of games. Through [...]

How and why do video gamers identify with the characters they control? Find out with this introduction to character design. This online course shows you how to approach character design for video games, giving you important insights into how gamers identify with the characters they control and interact with [...]

Chart the evolution of the classic 8-bit sound and discover the role of musicians in game design and development. Chart the history of video game music, bit by bit. From early arcade games to modern open-world adventures, video game soundtracks have made an indelible mark on our culture. On [...]

Discover the essentials of video game programming and learn how you can start your own programming career. Learn the basics of game development to understand how great games are designed. Video games have become a multi-billion-dollar industry, even recently overshadowing cinema as the globe’s go-to entertainment medium of [...]

Learn about the video game design process and experiment with effective methods for balancing a game’s mechanics. In this course, you’ll enter the mind of a professional game designer.