Game design courses can help you learn level design, character development, storytelling techniques, and game mechanics. You can build skills in prototyping, user testing, and balancing gameplay to enhance player experience. Many courses introduce tools like Unity and Unreal Engine, that support creating interactive environments and implementing game logic. Additionally, you might explore programming languages such as C or C++ to bring your ideas to life, along with graphic design software for creating compelling visuals.

Michigan State University
Skills you'll gain: Game Design, Software Design Documents, Prototyping, Video Game Development, Software Documentation, Animation and Game Design, Conceptual Design, Ideation, Usability Testing, Peer Review, Creativity
Intermediate · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks

Skills you'll gain: Game Design, Video Game Development, Unreal Engine, User Interface (UI), Interactive Design, Animation and Game Design, User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX) Design, Data Persistence, Virtual Environment, Computer Graphics, 3D Assets, Visualization (Computer Graphics), Artificial Intelligence, No-Code Development, Data Structures, Debugging, Performance Tuning, Scripting, System Design and Implementation
Beginner · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months

Michigan State University
Skills you'll gain: Unity Engine, 3D Modeling, Color Theory, Animation and Game Design, Autodesk Maya, Video Game Development, Computer Graphics, Adobe Photoshop, Creativity
Intermediate · Course · 1 - 3 Months

Microsoft
Skills you'll gain: Storyboarding, User Research, Information Architecture, User Experience Design, Persona (User Experience), Design Research, Design Thinking, User Centered Design, Innovation, Creativity
Mixed · Course · 1 - 3 Months

University of Colorado Boulder
Skills you'll gain: Design Elements And Principles, Graphic Design, Design, Storytelling, Layout Design, Typography, Adobe InDesign, Design Research, Information Architecture, Color Theory, Adobe Photoshop
Beginner · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks

University of Colorado System
Skills you'll gain: Video Game Development, Game Design, Debugging, Animations, Programming Principles, Graphics Software, Scripting Languages, Object Oriented Programming (OOP), User Interface (UI), No-Code Development, Event-Driven Programming, Computational Logic, Data Structures, Computer Programming, Development Environment, Scripting
Beginner · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months

Skills you'll gain: Animation and Game Design, Video Game Development, Computer Graphics, 3D Assets, Animations, C# (Programming Language), Cross Platform Development, Development Environment, Software Installation, Content Management
Mixed · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks

Skills you'll gain: Peer Review, Adobe Firefly, Game Design, Generative AI, Adobe Creative Cloud, Graphic Design, Responsible AI, Adobe Photoshop, Design, Design Research, User Experience Design, Oral Expression, Prompt Engineering, Creativity
Beginner · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks

Skills you'll gain: Unreal Engine, Virtual Environment, Game Design, 3D Modeling, Video Game Development, Animation and Game Design, Prototyping
Mixed · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks

Skills you'll gain: Unity Engine, User Interface (UI), 3D Assets, Virtual Environment, Game Design, UI Components, Video Game Development, Debugging, Animation and Game Design, Object Oriented Programming (OOP), C# (Programming Language), Scripting
Mixed · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks

Skills you'll gain: Version Control, GitHub, Bitbucket, Git (Version Control System), Unity Engine, Game Design, Video Game Development, 3D Assets, Animation and Game Design, Computer Graphics, Animations, Graphical Tools
Intermediate · Course · 1 - 3 Months

Skills you'll gain: Unreal Engine, Animations, Animation and Game Design, 3D Assets, Video Game Development, Computer Graphics
Mixed · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks