Introducing the teacher | Game Design (and other) courses online

Autoplay
Autocomplete

Previous Lesson Complete and Continue

Learning Game Design: for a job or a hobby

How this course works

What you'll discover (5:39)
Introducing the teacher (2:33)
Interaction (2:52)
Assessment (8:19)
Game design is education, not rote learning (2:52)
Course length - depends on how long your game takes (2:06)
Student entry survey - voluntary
The Main Assignment (3:39)
Supplemental books and other materials (7:42)

What game design is - and isn't

Yes, there are fundamental things to know to be a game designer (2:05)
Definitions (5:22)
Six words about what a game designer does
Stay behind the curtain (2:22)
Is game design about "mind control?" (3:02)
Monopoly Exercise
The fundamental difference is NOT video versus tabletop (4:43)
Make Money? Maybe. Get Rich? Most unlikely. (11:37)
Dreamers
Typical illusions of aspiring game designers (14:12)
Reasons to design games (3:45)
Is it really work?! Fun as a hobby, work when it involves trying to make money (1:57)
"Meaningfulness?" (3:24)
My take on Monopoly's problems

The best ways to learn (other than this course!)

Your goal: complete games! (2:28)
The quickest way to learn game design (8:02)
Gamemaker and other game engines (7:32)
Creating levels and making mods (2:10)
Traditional games are NOT a good guide (10:58)
A Monopoly
Gamemaker Demo (10:48)
Formal education (a degree)? (6:26)
Play lots of games? Maybe (4:52)
When you first do any complicated thing, you won't be good at it (3:48)

Getting Started

An Exercise in Awareness (3:38)
The idea is NOT the game, part 1 (12:51)
The idea is NOT the game, part 2 (6:36)
Innovation is highly overrated (4:54)
Origins of games (10:08)
Making your first game (6:16)
Using someone else's intellectual property (IP)? Avoid it! (2:46)
Games, puzzles, and contests (6:39)
Atoms and game loops (2:03)
Games need simplicity, puzzles may benefit from complexity (3:26)
Quotations related to game design
Three kinds of games: math, people, story (7:59)
"Rules emergent" versus "progressive" (4:49)
Avoiding player elimination (12:47)
The system and the psychological (3:53)
Protecting your intellectual property (7:47)
Designer diary: Dragon Rage tabletop game
Example of additional voice notes for tabletop War of the Roses game
Example of initial voice notes for tabletop War in the Abyss game
Example of initial notes for fleet battle game resembling Spelljammer battles
Where are you with your game design? (1:18)

The Process of Design

Stratego Introduction (5:17)
Talent versus technique (2:21)
The artisan, engineer, and mimic (5:43)
Game design documents and problems (3:45)
Mind-mapping example (1:26)
Game concepts, treatments, and other marketing documents (2:42)
Sample video game concept: Fury of the Northmen
Sample video game high concept: Dragons Rage
Models, abstractions, simulations (4:54)
The Nine Structures of any game (9:58)
Some essential questions (13:50)
Systems analysis of the design process (7:11)
Other views of the process (2:07)
Research (5:26)
No room for perfectionism - a game is never really "done" (4:01)
Conceiving a new game (4:22)
Phases, three acts, or five, or nine, or Hero's journey (5:56)

What makes a game GOOD?

Stratego Good and Bad (9:11)
What is the player going to DO? (2:53)
The target audience (1:49)
Kinds of "fun" (7:38)
Varying aims of designers - not just "fun" (5:16)
The role of story (6:21)

Making a playable prototype

Theme and atmosphere (5:12)
Pacing (3:32)
World building and "realism" (5:59)
Evaluating game qualities (5:27)
Symmetry and asymmetry (4:25)
The evolution of video games, part 1 (9:59)
The evolution of video games, part 2 (11:47)
The evolution of tabletop games (8:08)
Evolution: How have things progressed/regressed in the past 14 months? (10:12)
21st century game characteristics (16:42)
All I needed to know about game design I learned from Dungeons & Dragons
Risk Exercise
Where are you with your game design (2) (0:42)
Making a tabletop prototype (6:05)
Making a software prototype (5:08)
Some examples of prototype construction (3:48)
Example of a mapping program - Campaign Cartographer (3:41)
My take on problems with Risk
Game interfaces (5:43)
Feedback to the player (3:08)
An example of interface improvement in a tabletop prototype
Some Risk exercise "solutions"
Are you ready to make your prototype?

Playtesting - the heart of game design

What playtesting is NOT! (6:07)
The process of playtesting and modification (4:50)
Stages of playtesting (5:44)
Have you playtested your prototype solo?
What to watch for in a playtest session - part 1 (9:34)
What to watch for in a playtest session - part 2 (9:41)
Kinds of playtesters (4:17)
What to do with the feedback (3:23)
Emergent Behavior and Playtesting (8:43)
Game balance (3:18)

Other considerations

How are level design and game design related? (3:16)
Marketing, Licensing. Agents, Consultants, Funding, Publishing (11:44)
Marketing Yourself (13:33)
Hits, virality, and (fan) toxicity (7:53)
Free-to-play games (6:29)
Six different goals for commercial games (5:47)
Discoverability (4:39)
Fallacies you won't want to fall into (7:27)
Legislating against behavior versus changing gameplay (5:04)

Conclusion

My Stratego "upgrades"
Organized practice (2:19)
Your game design portfolio (1:48)
Coping with destructive criticism (4:03)
One page "what's important in game design"
Maxims of game design
Where are you with your game design (3) (1:01)
Conclusion (1:46)
Monetization of F2P Games (8:15)
Platforms (10:33)
A trend in games: Avatars (9:04)
Mobile Games (6:03)
Gamification (really, "scorification") (3:09)
Why Roguelike games are making a comeback (5:47)
Nearly 500 slides used in the screencasts, downloadable
Log of major additions to the class
Student completion survey, voluntary, not anonymous

Bonus Materials

Why I wrote my book "Game Design" (8:24)
"A tax on people who are bad at math"
Results from a game designer survey from late 2012
Introduction to other bonus materials (2:48)
Origins 2007 Process of Designing a Game
Origins 2011 Business of Game Design
Origins 2011 slides: Business of Game Design
Origins 2011: Starting a Game Design
Origins 2011 slides: Starting a Game Design
Origins 2011 slides: Completing a Game Design
Origins 2011 Completing a Game Design
Origins 2011 slides: Of course you can design a game, but can you design a good one?
What makes my game design book unusual or unique (4:40)
World Boardgaming Championships annual game design talk 2013
Example of designer trying to help potential players (Britannia)
Origins 2008 talk about breaking into the tabletop game industry
Strategic Wargame Design, talk at PrezCon 2014, Charlottesville, VA
Are you a game designer or a fiction writer? (7:39)
Lew's Games, as of October 2014 (11:39)
UK Game Expo 2011: Of course you can design a game, but can you design a good one?
ECGC slides: What video game developers can learn . . .
East Coast Game Conference 2010: What video game developers can learn from 50 years of tabletop gms

Teach online with

Introducing the teacher

Complete and Continue