Learning Game Design: Part 1

[Note: This course exists because my original course "Learning Game Design: as a job or a hobby" more than doubled in size over time, becoming much too large for Udemy's new structure. That massive course is no longer available, instead there is "Learning Game Design" parts 1 and 2. As with that original course, this one is not subject to massive discounts, which only serve to offend those who paid full or near-full price.]

This pair of "Learning Game Design" courses is designed for people who want to design games - video or tabletop - but lack information about what is really involved and how to go about it. It's not rocket science, but commercial design is a JOB - one that cannot be done by rote, there is no "Easy Button". I'm not here to encourage you, or entice you, or entertain you, I'm here to inform you. I assume you have the motivation to learn how to design games, you just need to know how. And that means you need to do it from start to finish, to complete games rather than merely start them.

We'll discuss the process of game design, the possible structures in games, the best way to start learning game design, what makes a game good (there's a great variety of opinion about this), ways to provide a framework for your design efforts, ways to keep records of your work, software to help you learn. Many aspiring game designers have crippling misconceptions (such as the notion that it's all about a great idea, or that everyone likes the same games they do), and I'll try to clear those out of your way.

This is not a "comprehensive" series because there's no such thing. It is a pair of courses about learning game design. Learning is a process that goes on throughout a game designer's career, and it starts here.

This class will never be offered for free or at very deep discounts. That is disrespectful to me and to the students who pay full price or near it.

Keep in mind, this course is not about game development, that is, not about programming, art, sound, and so forth. It is only about game design.Most so-called "game design" courses are actually about game development, with just a little game design involved.

Following are comments from people who took the original course "Learning Game Design: as a job or a hobby":

Great course! Good for the starter like myself :)

Currently I follow this course (at 75% so far) and its a great course for beginner game designers like myself. The course is not a 1 click button and after your a game designer no (please send message if you found that course btw) but it gives a good frame work, hand outs, ideas and background about both video games and tabletop games.

So if you wanted to start with game design this is a great first step.

The teacher is clear and good to follow ( I am a student from The Netherlands and got no problem following this course). Also the course got some assignment I strongly recommend doing them I finaly found out why I Hate Monopoly :)

Cheers all hope this was usefull,

Jimmy

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Mark Frazier

President

Designs In Creative Entertainment, LLC.

An ideal introduction to game design

Dr. Pulsipher distills the critical elements of designing games into manageable chunks. This is an ideal course to take if you are interested in designing games, regardless of whether you intend to pursue it as a career or not.

Much of the material covers the specifics of the process of game design, but there is alot of prime advice to be had in the lectures on creating the right conditions for quality feedback and on understanding the realities of the publishing business.

A must-have certification if you're serious about designing, and I'd say, even publishing games!

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Pull Back the Curtain on the Game Design Process

I know that in the past there's only been a couple of times that I managed to blunder into some sort of prototype, but I had no clue as to what I was doing that was different than usual. Well... the material in this course nails down precisely what to do to get over that initial hump. It can save you from countless false starts and dumb ideas. And unlike other commentary on the design process, Dr. Pulsipher provides a whole menu of things that you can do in each phase of development.

This material reveals more of the dials and knobs of gaming than I even knew existed. And being aware of these things was enough to shift me from having an occasional promising idea to having more ideas than I know what to do with. Even just playing new games now, I cannot help but see "behind the curtain" and into the dilemmas the designers were facing. If you care about game design and actually do the work that this course entails, you are in for a profoundly illuminating experience.