Game Design Fundamentals

Todd Y.

Well spoken and very knowledgeable

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Mark T.

its a great course to start and learn about the fundamentals of games design

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Franco V. Z.

The videos can be edited better to remove some verbose sections that go on about simple topics. Also to make the instructor sound more prepared/professional. Some concepts weren't explained fully, such as "Refining the Game Idea" and "Refining Game Experience". Although an introductory course, these could have been made clearer.

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Emre A.

It mostly talks about 3d pc games making an average player-level analysis on the components of the game. I thought there is a bit of academics on how we should design games from theory to real-life examples. Few obvious drawbacks:
a) Audio - visuals are monotone, quite feels like listening an audio book
b) things that it teaches feels mostly common knowledge if you are an average game player. Like AI part, player expectations.
c) the things they explain mostly related with 3d big games, mostly not relevant for mobile 2d games for example.
d) overall if you are a game programmer you do not learn much on the game design fundamentals.

At least this is what I feel.

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Jill L.

Provided useful information and insight on the minds of game designers, gamers, and gamers who are also game designers.

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Rebecca W.

1. The sound quality is atrocious and very distracting. His voice is either too loud or too quite, and weird echo and static noises are heard.

2. I understand this is a course for people new into game design, so I would recommend adding future talks on exceptions to the rules he mentioned; to challenge new game designers how to think outside the box now that they have some core foundations and finding inspiration about the failures and success of other game titles.

3. An example to the above would be countering the point of not making games where players die near the beginning because they would be frustrated. Well designed games can do this correctly. For instance, the indie game Celeste. I died near the beginning, but it immediately trains the player how to use their mechanics without the need for a tutorial, especially since they are pretty intuitive.
Having the player die can be a way of teaching players how to improve. Another way to balance this is by having respawn mechanics (Super Meat Boy). Players can pick up where they started without the frustration losing progress.

The instructor doesn't cover one of the most crucial problems in the game industry, which is picking team players to join your team. Talent only goes along so far until team members cause stress and work against other members. Everyone should have a voice and should contribute feedback on the design for more perspectives. Issues should be addressed and worked on as a team.

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Mykyta D.

The course deals in general evasive terms, leaving nothing to specifics. The information provided is of little practical value giving only an overview impression of what game design is about.

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