Games have always been in trend whether it’s the 64-in-1 game in the 90s or Minecraft in 2022. Games can never go out of trend and in 2022, they are more in than ever.
Due to this increased popularity, the scope of people who have a good knowledge of game design skills has become very broad.
Game development is something that requires a lot of game design because truly it’s an art form. You need to have an understanding of the concepts and design a game from start to finish.
There are hundreds of courses available to excel in the field of game development and many of them are for beginners. So even if you have zero experience in that area, you learn game development and make a great career out of it.
Here are some of the top-notch online game development courses that you can do –
1. Virtual Reality App Development Professional Certificate
This is not just a single course. This is a certificate course from the University of California at San Diego and edX.
The course has three classes – computer graphics, how virtual reality works, and creating virtual reality apps.
The course equips you with knowledge of development tools. During the course, you get familiar with Unity 3D, and OpenGL. Many hardware components are also used.
By the end of the course, you will be able to create your own VR and AR apps. This course takes about 5 months to be completed if you are devoting 5 to 9 hours per day.
This course is highly flexible and allows you to take things at your own pace. Expert instructors guide you throughout the course and give you constructive feedback. The course is easily accessible as it is an online course.
2. 30-Minute Swift Crash Course
If you are looking for a course that introduces you to coding, then this course is for you. This is a beginner online game development course and takes about 30 minutes to complete. Udemy has filled this course with valuable information.
The focus of this course is on Swift. You’ll learn about the use of XCode labels in Swift specifically.
This course includes lessons like adding outlets and actions, adding constraints and functions, and scaling your concept. This course is very interactive and works through different projects. By the end of this program, you have real-world apps that can be used to display your portfolio. This game programming certificate has two requirements : you must know XCode and Mac.
This course is a self-paced learning course. The course involves graded assignments and peer feedback to enhance learning. The course offers videos, quizzes, and readings which help in solidifying the concepts.
3. Rapid Gameplay Prototyping
This is an advanced course designed by Unity and offered by Coursera on its platform. The focus is on preparing you for Unity’s expert gameplay programmer certification exam.
In this advanced course, you learn about core gameplay prototyping, UI coordinate systems, and UI scripting.
During the course, you learn about the conflicts and solutions during the prototype phase. In this lesson, you learn about prototyping and why is it such an important part of game design. You explore how to analyze gameplay and adjust the game as needed to create a better version of it.
At the end of this course, you will have a fully functioning prototype game that is fully playable.
4. CS50’s Introduction to Game Development
This is an intermediate-level course offered by Harvard and edX and takes you on a journey to help you learn about 2D and 3D games. To learn about games, you study famous games like Angry Birds, Pokemon, Super Mario Bros, etc.
This game programming certificate program isn’t just a review of popular games but also helps you in understanding topics like graphics, animation, sound, Unity, etc.
This course is based on the ‘learn as you do’ theory as it allows you to program multiple games based on the skills you learn in the course.
This is a lengthy course and takes about 12 weeks to be completed if you work for 6 to 9 hours a week.
5. More C# Programming and Unity
This is an intermediate-level course offered by Colorado-Boulder and Coursera and focuses on C# programming for game development. There is a strong focus on the Unity game engine.
This course requires you to have a good knowledge of C# and Unity. In this top course, you learn about things like how to store data in arrays and lists, abstraction and how it’s used to implement Unity classes, text output, sound effects, etc.
The class ends with a final project reviewed by all peers. This project allows you to put your learning to a test and get feedback on how you can improve the game.
6. Introduction To Game Design
This is a beginner-level online game development course from CalArts and Coursera. The focus of the class is mainly on basic concepts of game and game design.
You begin with learning about games, how gamers interact with games, what constitutes a game, and the rules of making different types of games. Other topics included in this course are – how to create a game concept, how to create an engaging game, and the conceptual basis of games.
The course is for beginners and doesn’t require you to have any prior experience in game design or coding or programming.
There are four units in the course and it takes about 10 hours to complete the entire course.
7. Will Wright
Want to learn from a master? Then Masterclass is made for you. This platform partners and collaborates with the masters of the field to provide the best learning experience to their customers.
In this course, SIMS creator Will Wright teaches the students to use their imagination and create powerful players. Students learn skills like pitching, prototyping, testing, and building an empowered community.
Wrapping Up
The above-mentioned were some of the courses that can help you build a future in game design.