My recent 30 day LinkedIn Learning challenge kicked off with an appropriate course: Game Design Foundations 1. And honestly? I got more out of the course than I expected. So today, we’ll talk a little about what all is in this course, who I think should take it, what some of my favorite points were, and what I think can be improved. Let’s get started.
Fun fact: the course is taught by Brenda Romero, spouse of John Romero (creator of Doom).
Disclaimer
Small disclaimer before we get started. LinkedIn Learning is, technically, a paid service. However, our local library offers it for free to all library card holders. Check with your local library system to see if this service is available to you.
There is also a free one month trial available.
What Content is Here
The Game Design Foundations 1 course isn’t super long. It’s about an hour and a half long. In it is a top-down approach to game design that can be broken down into three main sections: game design, the core loop, and mechanics.
First, we start with a focus on the game designer. What does a game designer do? What types of game designers are there? How do game designers come up with ideas for games. At the end of the section, there is even a little sample exercise where you create your own small board game.
The second part covers the core loop. This is where game designers identify what a game is truly about. We decide what kind of experience the player will have, why, and how we’re going to achieve that. From those decisions, we can start crafting features that help realize that experience. (Again, there is a sample exercise to create some features from a given core.)
With our feature list, we move on to the last section: the mechanics, dynamics, systems, and goals. We know what we want the player to experience. What rules should be in place for that to happen? We work backwards starting with a particular goal and think about every step necessary to achieve that goal. With those steps, we can plan how to implement features within our game. (Also has an exercise. This time, turning a real world profession into game mechanics.)
Who Should Take It
I’m pretty sure anyone in game design or game development could find something to take away from Game Design Foundations 1. But there are two groups of people in particular that I really recommend take it.
First, anyone wanting to get into game design (or has just recently started). You need a solid understanding of the fundamental concepts of game design. Things like the core and pillars come up a lot in game design. But a good explanation of them is hard to find (at least, in my experience). This course is pretty good at establishing that basic understanding.
The other group I recommend this course to is game designers needing a more structured approach to their workflow. (I fall into this group.) The examples take a top-down approach. Start with the big picture of what the game is. Then slowly break down into smaller components that convey the right experience. And it does it in a fairly logical and structured way.
Of course, I always recommend learning as much as you possibly can. Even if you don’t fall into one of these two categories, take the course if you have free access to LinkedIn Learning. Worth it, in my opinion.
My Favorite Things
There were two main things that really stuck out to me when I took the course: defining the core/pillars and building game mechanics from a particular goal.
First up with the core/pillars. When I’ve researched game design in the past, I’ve come across words like core, core loop, or pillars. But I’ve never really found the explanations to be sufficient. Something always felt like it was missing. The Game Design Foundations 1 course did a really good job of clarifying that (for me, at least).
The other thing that stood out was building game mechanics from a particular goal. I consider myself a pretty logical person. Structure is important to my workflow. This course does a pretty good job laying out how you can go about creating a gameplay experience in a logical and structured way. This is done by starting with the end goal in mind and working backwards. I’ll likely adjust part of my own workflow because of it.
What Needs Improvement
Honestly, I think it’s a really good course all around. There’s really only two things that I’d like to see improved. And they are both very minor things.
The first is on the third section’s discussion on mechanics. In an example, we start with a goal of delivering pizza. We work backwards to get the dynamics of: get an order, pick up with pizza, deliver to customer, and repeat 10 times. Again, we work backwards to a the mechanic: how do we get orders?
And that’s where it stops. I know it’s because everything will be dependent on your game and the systems it uses. But compared to the rest of the content, I’d like to see that part expanded just a little.
The other thing would be a little more discussion on feature creep. It is mentioned once and not really discussed after that. I’d be curious to hear how strategies on dealing with feature creep.
Again, I think part of it is just dependent on your game and its core/pillars. When a certain mechanic or dynamic isn’t conveying the pillars in the right way, it gets cut. I’d like to see a little more example of something like this in practice though.
Conclusion
Overall, I think Game Design Foundations 1 is a really great course. It addresses concepts fundamental to game design and does it in a logical way. Personally, I think this is perfect for new game designers or those looking for a more structured approach (like me!).
Did you take the course? Have a course that really helped you as a game designer? I want to know! Drop us a line in the comments below.
