25 Best Game Design Courses Online
Choosing a game design course online involves weighing content focus, teaching style, and price. This page lists 25 courses from three major providers – Coursera, Udemy and edX – covering fundamentals such as 2D shooter and platformer development, broader topics like user experience, and specialised tracks that incorporate tools like Blender, Unity and AI. Prices range from $5.00 to $483.30, so you can find an option that fits a modest budget or a more comprehensive programme.
The courses are ordered according to our internal ranking, which reflects how well each offering matches typical learner needs for depth, practical projects and industry relevance. Review the brief descriptions to see which curriculum aligns with your current skill level and career goals, then compare pricing and provider reputation to decide which course best supports your path into game design.
- Courses compared
- 25
- Price range
- $5.00 – $483.30
- Providers
- Coursera, Udemy, edX
- Last updated
- 5 Sep 2026
How these 25 courses were chosen
Every course below is a real, currently listed course from Coursera, Udemy, edX, matched to "Game Design" by our catalog and ordered by our CourseAsk score. Courses whose own title names the topic rank above those only tagged with it.
The grade on each entry scores how much the provider publishes about the course before you pay — the length and detail of the description, whether it lists learning outcomes and objectives — and whether a named university or institution stands behind it. A is fully documented and institution-backed; E is little more than a title and a price. Courses with almost nothing published are left ungraded rather than marked down, because an unknown course and a poor one are not the same thing.
There are no star ratings on this page — the course feeds we license do not include them, and we would rather leave a column out than fill it with a number we cannot stand behind. What we do have is price: these range from $5.00 to $483.30, as listed by the provider when we last updated the page.
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1
Game Design and Development 5: Capstone Project
Offered by Michigan State University
In the game design and development capstone course, you will create an original game from initial concept up to the first playable version! Along the way, you will have the opportunity to put your game ideas in front of...
$49.00listed price -
2
Game Design and Development 1: 2D Shooter
Offered by Michigan State University
If you love games and want to learn how to make them, then this course will start you down that path. Making games is a creative and technical art form. In this course you will familiarize yourself with the tools and pra...
$49.00listed price -
3
Game Design and Development 2: 2D Platformer
Offered by Michigan State University
If you love games and want to learn how to make them, then this course is your second step down that path. In this course you will learn the fundamentals of game design, including an understanding of the game world, stor...
$49.00listed price -
4
Introduction to Game Design
Offered by California Institute of the Arts
Study the foundational mechanics, rules, and conceptual underpinnings of game design. Define what makes a game compelling through industry-standard documentation and structured conceptual frameworks. Develop and describe...
$79.00listed price -
5
Modern Game Design Mastery with AI
Offered by AI CERTs
Artificial intelligence is transforming how modern games are created, tested, and optimized across interactive entertainment environments. Gaming studios and creative teams are increasingly using AI-powered tools to acce...
$49.00listed price -
6
User Experience in Game Design
Offered by Epic Games
Elevate your game design skills with our immersive course on User Interface (UI) in Unreal Engine, where no prior experience is necessary, though completion of Courses 1-4 is recommended. This course stands out by blendi...
$49.00listed price -
7
Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design
Offered by John Wiley & Sons
This specialization provides a comprehensive journey through video game design, starting from foundational concepts to advanced mechanics and monetization strategies. Learners begin by exploring core principles such as i...
$49.00listed price -
8
Ultimate Guide to Blender & Unity® Game Design & Development
Let's learn game design and development with practical projects that take you from zero to hero in one ultimate course. In Part 1 digital artist Kevin Liao from Mammoth Interactive will teach you how to use Blender to ma...
$199.99listed price -
9
Evolution of Game Design
Offered by LCI Education
In the Evolution of Game Design course, you'll explore the transformation of game design practices over the years. The course examines the essential principles, methodologies, and technologies that have shaped modern gam...
$483.30listed price -
10
A Complete Guide to Game Design
Offered by HP
From crafting immersive game worlds and designing captivating gameplay mechanics to mastering storytelling and level creation, explore the intricacies of game design with this comprehensive course from HP. Receive a veri...
$5.00listed price -
11
edX MOOC / Non-creditEvolution of Game Design: 1990 to the late 2000s
Offered by LCI Education
Explore the technological breakthroughs, innovative gadgets and consoles that have revolutionized the gaming industry.
$179.00listed price -
12
edX MOOC / Non-creditEvolution of Game Design: 2010 to present
Offered by LCI Education
Discover the gaming landscape's evolution, from the surge in mobile gaming to the exciting future of the industry.
$179.00listed price -
13
edX MOOC / Non-creditIntroduction to Game Design: Game Systems and Balance
Offered by LCI Education
Learn the deep mechanics of good system design that is both fun and rewarding for the gamer.
$179.00listed price -
14
edX MOOC / Non-creditIntroduction to Psychological Aspects of Game Design
Offered by LCI Education
Learn the fundamental concepts and practice of game design and the theory connected to it.
$179.00listed price -
15
edX MOOC / Non-creditIntroduction to Game Design: Process and Creation
Offered by LCI Education
Learn the steps involved in the game design process—turning the vision into reality.
$179.00listed price -
16
edX MOOC / Non-creditEvolution of Game Design: Prehistory to the late 1980s
Offered by LCI Education
Discover how board and arcade games evolved into ground-breaking video game consoles.
$179.00listed price -
17
Low Poly Art For Video Games
Offered by Michigan State University
This course is aimed to give you the tools and knowledge you need to start creating simple 3D art for video games made in the Unity game engine. Through the aesthetic of pixel art we will explore artistic principals like...
$49.00listed price -
18
Game Theory
Offered by Stanford Online & The University of British Columbia
Popularized by movies such as "A Beautiful Mind," game theory is the mathematical modeling of strategic interaction among rational (and irrational) agents. Beyond what we call `games' in common language, such as chess, p...
$79.00listed price -
19
Digital Platforms in Performance
Offered by University of Cambridge
Advance your digital story-telling prowess and learn how to create interactive gameplay scripts for video games, radio drama scripts for radio and/or podcasting, as well as content for your YouTube channel. Learn to tran...
$299.00listed price -
20
Game Development with GameMaker
Offered by University of Colorado System
This specialization is intended for aspiring game developers who want to learn how to develop games using GameMaker. GameMaker lets us develop games using both a visual programming (drag and drop) approach and a scriptin...
$49.00listed price -
21
Advanced Modeling Techniques and Detailed Prop Creation
Offered by Packt
Updated in May 2025. This course now features Coursera Coach! A smarter way to learn with interactive, real-time conversations that help you test your knowledge, challenge assumptions, and deepen your understanding as yo...
$49.00listed price -
22
Intermediate 3D Modelling and Game Asset Creation
Offered by Packt
This course is designed to help you take your 3D modelling skills to the next level, focusing on the creation of game assets using Blender’s powerful toolset. Beginning with time-saving techniques, such as rapid geometry...
$49.00listed price -
23
Advanced Tower Defense Mechanics and Customization
Offered by Packt
This course features Coursera Coach! A smarter way to learn with interactive, real-time conversations that help you test your knowledge, challenge assumptions, and deepen your understanding as you progress through the co...
$49.00listed price -
24
Learn Unity Game Development - Build Six Games with Unity
Offered by Packt
Updated in May 2025. This course now features Coursera Coach! A smarter way to learn with interactive, real-time conversations that help you test your knowledge, challenge assumptions, and deepen your understanding as yo...
$49.00listed price -
25
Materials and Textures in Unreal Engine 5
Offered by Packt
Updated in May 2025. This course now features Coursera Coach! A smarter way to learn with interactive, real-time conversations that help you test your knowledge, challenge assumptions, and deepen your understanding as yo...
$49.00listed price
Best Game Design Courses Online compared
Prices shown are the provider's listed price when we last updated this page. Confirm on their site before enrolling.
What the prices here tell you
The 25 priced courses on this page run from $5.00 to $483.30, with the middle of the range around $49.00 — a spread of $478.30. That is a wide gap for one subject. A higher price on this page usually reflects who is behind the course rather than how much material it contains, so it is worth opening two or three at different price points and comparing their syllabus before deciding.
Who is behind these courses
These courses come from Coursera, Udemy and edX. The platforms differ in how they sell: some charge once per course, others expect a subscription, and the listed price is not always what you pay at checkout after a promotion. 5 of these are produced by a named university or institution, including Michigan State University, California Institute of the Arts and Stanford Online & The University of British Columbia — which usually means a fixed syllabus and a recognised certificate, rather than an individual instructor’s own course.
Before you enrol
Open the provider’s own page and check three things this comparison cannot tell you: when the course was last updated, what the syllabus actually covers in its later sections, and what recent learners say. Prices shown here are the provider’s listed price when we last rebuilt this page on 5 September 2026 — they change often, and a promotion can move them substantially. We earn a commission if you enrol through our links, which costs you nothing and never affects the order courses appear in.