How to become a game design master

Machinarium game concept

You think you can design games? You think you know why is a game fun or not? Maybe not now but you will as soon as you read Game Design Concepts - An experiment in game design and teaching

Game Design Concepts was started as an experiment by Ian Schreiber - one of the authors of Challenges for Game Designers book. It is an online course in game design. Unlike most of the stuff out there that is mostly theoretical, this course is very practical.

So what will you find there?

By the end of this course, you will be familiar with the (relatively small) body of work that is accepted in the game industry as the theoretical foundation of game design. You will also be comfortable enough in processes to start designing your own games, as well as critically analyzing other people’s games.

Each lesson ends with a homeplay (a.k.a homework) and links to related articles or books. Those links alone are gems, believe me you'll find what to read there.

We found some nifty strategy ideas for Panzer Division there, I'm sure you'll find too as soon as you start designing a game.

In case you are hungry for more, in 2010, the experiment continued as Game Balance Concepts - A continued experiment in game design and teaching.