There was never a better time to learn video game design? Here is our list of the best 7 game design online courses, classes, tutorials and certificates. We came to our result by looking at 24 courses. Our team chose these game design classes based on different factors including price (free vs paid), duration, instructor, difficulty level and the number of students. Check out the list below.
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Best Game Design Courses
- Learn Professional 2D Game Asset Graphic Design in Photoshop
- Learn Professional 2D Game Graphic Design in Photoshop
- Pixel Art Fundamentals: Create Pixel Art for Games
- Become a Game Designer & Developer: Coding to Design Series
- Unreal Engine 4: Intro to Game Design
- Game Design Foundations: 1 Ideas, Core Loops, and Goals
- Visual Effects for Games in Unity – Beginner To Intermediate
Learn Professional 2D Game Asset Graphic Design in Photoshop
If you have no prior knowledge in Game Design, this might be the course for you. Here are some of the concepts that will be discussed: fundamentals of asset creation, designing in photoshop, hand painting assets. Be sure to include the Game Design certification as part of your portfolio.
The Learn Professional 2D Game Asset Graphic Design in Photoshop course is available on Udemy and taught by Jaysen Batchelor an Illustrator and Designer. At the time of posting the article there were 64,660 students registered.
Skills you will learn- Learn to design and build game assets
- Understand the fundamentals of drawing
- Discover how to choose colors for your game
- Learn to digital paint
The class is great if you want to learn to create awesome game art. You should take this class if you want to learn game design in a few hours. Check out our compilation of Best Photoshop Online Courses.
Platform: Udemy
Duration: More than 7 hours
Learn Professional 2D Game Graphic Design in Photoshop
This highly rated Udemy online course is a good place to start for learning Game Design. Topics in this course include the design process, creating artwork, where to find jobs and more. You are able to get a certificate at the end of the course.
The Learn Professional 2D Game Graphic Design in Photoshop course is available on Udemy and taught by Jaysen Batchelor an Illustrator and Designer. Many students have already signed up so far there are close to 60,000 students.
Skills you will learn- Build professional backgrounds
- How to make money from your design skills
- Learn to create your own video game graphics
- How to work with Photoshop to create assets
The course is a great choice for students that want to learn to create 2g game graphics and backgrounds using Photoshop. You should take it if you are interested in digital art and want to improve your skills.
Platform: Udemy
Duration: More than 6 hours
Pixel Art Fundamentals: Create Pixel Art for Games | Matheus Dix
The Udemy Game Design course helps beginners become an expert in no time. This lecture series focuses on Pixel art design. The course helps beginners get comfortable with the basic setup, core concepts, light, color, spiriting and creating backgrounds. The certification can be embedded in your LinkedIn page. Also, take a look at our best Pixel Art Courses.
The Pixel Art Fundamentals: Create Pixel Art for Games course is available on Skillshare and taught by Matheus Dix a designer and pixel artist. More than 7,215 students have registered for this class.
Skills you will learn- Learn to setup your environment
- Learn the fundamentals
- How light and color work together
- Learn how to sprit a character
- How to create backgrounds
The team recommends the class to anyone who wants to get started with pixel art and video game design. You should take the class if you want to prototype your own game.
Platform: Skillshare
Duration: N/A
Become a Game Designer & Developer: Coding to Design Series
This class was designed to help students comprehend the fundamentals of Game Design using Unity. This class will be a deep dive into 2D and 3D game design, C# coding and animation. Don’t forget to download the certificate of completion for the course. You can also learn more in our Best Animation Courses.
The Become a Game Designer & Developer: Coding to Design Series course is available on Udemy and taught by School of Game Design. At the time of posting the article there were almost 50,000 students registered.
Skills you will learn- Learn to create advanced 2D and 3D games
- Discover how to create games for nintendo, xbox, ps4, pc, mac, iphone, android
- Develop a deep understanding of the Unity game engine
- Learn maya, 3ds max and mudbox
- Gain an understanding of digital painting in photoshop
- Publish your own video games and apps
The class is good for students of all skill levels, they should just be interested in working in the video game industry. You should take this course if you want to create your own video games.
Platform: Udemy
Duration: Almost 85 hours
Unreal Engine 4: Intro to Game Design | Greg Wondra
One of the most complete Game Design online courses on Udemy. During the class you will learn about project organization, player metrics, additive and subtractive brushes, geometry brush settings, level layout and more. Learn more in with the Best Unreal Engine 4 Courses.
The Unreal Engine 4: Intro to Game Design course is available on Skillshare and taught by Greg Wondra a video game design instructor. The number of students goes up weekly, at the moment there are 1,415 students signed up for the Skillshare course.
Skills you will learn- Learn game design basics
- All about player metrics
- Basics of geometry needed for game design
- Understand brush settings
- Create awesome level layouts
- How to create menus
This course is ideal for people who want to learn video game design without any programming knowledge. You should take this class if you want to create a project in Unreal Engine 4 step by step.
Platform: Skillshare
Duration: N/A
Game Design Foundations: 1 Ideas, Core Loops, and Goals
Taking this class helps students learn the fundamentals as well as more advanced concepts of Game Design. These are concepts that will be covered: drafting ideas, career advice and conceptualizing video games.
The Game Design Foundations: 1 Ideas, Core Loops, and Goals class is available on LinkedIn Learning and taught by Brenda Romero. Many students have already signed up so far there are close to 17000 students taking the class.
Skills you will learn- Learn the foundations of game design
- How to start a career in game design
- Learn to flash out concepts
The team recommends the class to anyone who wants to learn the basics of creating video games.
Platform: Linkedin Learning
Duration: More than 1 hour
Visual Effects for Games in Unity – Beginner To Intermediate
The class was developed to help students take their first steps with Game Design. You’ll delve into concepts like VFX fundamentals, pre-production, setting up unity and performance. All courses on Udemy also let you download a certification of completion.
The Visual Effects for Games in Unity – Beginner To Intermediate course is available on Udemy and taught by Gabriel Aguiar a VFX Artist. So far > 4,300 students found the course and registered.
Skills you will learn- Create amazing effects for games with Unity
- Explore pre-production concepts
- Learn to create textures
- Discover meshes and shaders
- Learn to manage game performance
We recommend the class for anyone who wants to learn about VFX, Unity and designing video games in general.
Platform: Udemy
Duration: Almost 6 hours
We hope you found the class you were looking for. How did you like our list of the best Game Design online courses and classes? There are other skills related to game design, checkout our Blender courses and C++ online courses. Which class did you pick? Let us know in the comments. We wish you happy studying!