Discover how the core concepts of game design can help you to create fun and intuitive games!
Game design is a fundamental process needed when creating any game – from the smallest platformer to the largest MMORPG. Designing a game is not just about coming up with an idea, but also about making key decisions on how to structure a game, tailor it to an experience, and make it appealing to play. Not only is it a vast field of study, but also a career subfield found throughout the game development industry.
You’ll start mastering the foundations of game design by examining each core component and how they apply to real-world games. By the end, you’ll understand both why game design is important and, more crucially, how to apply the concepts to your own games and create a stunning portfolio.
You will learn how to:
- Plan a game around a core mechanic or experience
- Engage players by providing tangible goals
- Structure game actions
- Guide players through the game
- Understand game feel and its effects
- Show players how to play in different ways
… and more!
WHO CAN TAKE THESE COURSES?
We start with the absolute basics and go through everything step-by-step – so even if you have zero experience in programming, you’ll be able to easily follow along.
More experienced? Whether you’re wanting to brush up, expand your skills, or learn a new technology, our courses are structured in a way that makes it easy to skip ahead to the lessons that are relevant and interesting to you.
REINFORCE YOUR LEARNING
Zenva’s courses feature quick challenges that will speed up your learning.
Access live coding lessons where you can practice coding right in your browser, and instantly see the results of any changes you make to the code:

Reinforce key concepts with in-course quizzes, which appear throughout courses:

COURSES BY THE WORLD’S BEST
Our course instructors aren’t just fun to learn from – they’re also industry practitioners, and have been formally certified for their excellent programming and teaching skills. That way, you can be confident that you’re developing strong, modern skills that will set you up for success as a developer.

YOUR COURSES, YOUR WAY
Learn with project-based courses that are designed to be flexible – access them 24/7, fit them around your schedule, and choose the learning materials that suit you best.
With an online platform optimized for all modern devices, you can even learn on the go!
✅ Watch video lessons
✅ Download course printouts
✅ Explore interactive lessons
✅ Practice with source code
✅ Build real projects
✅ Earn completion certificates
ACHIEVE REAL RESULTS
Our community of 1,000,000+ learners and developers have used the skills learned with us to publish their own games and websites, land their dream jobs, and even start their own businesses – and you have the potential to do the same!
Check out what our learners think below:
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MIHIR PATEL
I love the lectures, concise course objectives, and how they not only teach you enough to get started, but prepare you for the advanced stuff later down the road.
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MONICA MANCUSI
With Zenva, I started learning a more accurate way to approach problems and develop solutions. It’s full of interesting topics that I love to learn in conjunction with my work.
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CRAIG BICKFORD
I chose Zenva because of the large selection of topics and the fact that I can choose what courses I want to take whenever I want to take them. That level of freedom is unique to Zenva.
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ANDREA CARDENAS-ROEDER
The Unity courses at Zenva helped me achieve a level of comfort with game development that I didn’t think was possible. They give you the confidence to expand your skills, and were so easy to understand.