"Free Game Design course online - worth taking" Topic

Just wanted to pass this on to fellow Game Designers on TMP…

A free online course on Game Design is being taught as an experiment by a guy named Ian Schreiber. It requires one book that's on Amazon for about $17 USD which I picked up last week when I registered for the class.

I've taken the first lesson which is posted in blog format with the ability for students to add comments. The first post was made June 29th. Posts are made Mondays and Thursdays and each includes a bit of homeplay (Ian's term for 'fun' homework).

After reading the content for the first post, and the first chapter in the book, "Challenges for Game Designers" (co-written by Brenda Brathwaite), I absolutely recommend that all game design hobbyists / professionals check out this course.

It's free, and it's intent is not so much as a 'how to' but more a class to hone your skills through exercises and get you thinking about all of the elements of game design that must work together to have something succeed. The book itself is geared for this quite well, and you can work at your own pace. After the first lesson, I'm even more excited about future lessons and discussions.

Here is a link to the blog where the course is run. As of this post, over 1400 people were registered. Click on the post about registration if you feel it's something for you:

link

Byron

Yeah, I looked over the syllabus. Brenda teaches over at my old Alma Mater (Savannah College of Art and Design)

To my way of thinking his curriculum and views tends to fall into a very typical US development paradigm.

His concentration on UI Iteration is toward the end of the course when, really it should be up front. (Really, a solid control scheme is what the game should flow from, as opposed to trying to cram the game you want to make on a controller)

A lot of it looks good, though.

(Disclaimer:I have been a professional Lead Game Designer for many, many years with a fair amount of success. i have never worked with Ian or Brenda professionally, although Ian keeps spamming my LinkedIn account to buy his book).

I think it would be interesting and fun. I missed the registration so no collaboration for me! Not that it would be all that helpful as there are 1400 people registered! I'll probably follow along and see what the professor has to say.

Thanks for the link!

So, its free if you buy the $17 USD book !?

…what did I miss ?

You don't have to have the book. The blog posts are all open to the public whether or not you register.

You need the book if you register and intend to follow through with some of the additional reading and exercises/challenges, but, it appears the deadline for registration was June 29th, so my apologies to post the OP a bit late.

Still, I think any game design hobbyist can benefit from the free information that will be up with each lesson.

I wish those who take the course good luck. But taking a course or lecture in game design will no more make a person a designer than attending an Art School will make you an artist – a technician perhaps but not an artist.

Good gaming.

Bob Coggins

But not going to Art school can certainly limit your ability to make art if you are artistically inclined.

Learning, while maintaining an open mind, can never be a bad thing.

taking a course or lecture in game design will no more make a person a designer than attending an Art School will make you an artist

I have to disagree with you, a fledgling game designer or artist would benefit from a course or school. It may not make them an artist or designer but it could make them a BETTER artist or designer.

In the renaissance there were no formal art schools, but all the great artists served as an apprentice under a master at one time or another.

Many students prove to be better then their teachers, but you can't say they did not learn anything from them.

I'll be following this intently, this could be incredibly helpful to me, thank you very much for the linkage.

I'm a Johnny Come Lately, but I will follow along and I'm going to get the book too, who knows.

I agree with you Inari7, they will be better then they were. Anytime someone takes it onto their own to improve themselves, will always come out better then they were. They are not going to be masters but in time and step by step they may end up teaching us something. the day the student becomes the master.

Thank You for the post and the link FG.