In this course, you will be introduced to game development and prototyping for games. Courses 1-4 are highly recommended while Courses 5-7 create the foundational Unreal Engine project, assets and code used throughout this course. This course requires no previous experience and aimed at beginners.
Give your career the gift of Coursera Plus with $160 off, billed annually. Save today.
Game Development and Prototyping
This course is part of Epic Games Game Design Professional Certificate
Instructors: Christopher Main
Included with
Recommended experience
Skills you'll gain
Details to know
Add to your LinkedIn profile
November 2024
4 assignments
See how employees at top companies are mastering in-demand skills
Build your Software Development expertise
- Learn new concepts from industry experts
- Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
- Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
- Earn a shareable career certificate from Epic Games
Earn a career certificate
Add this credential to your LinkedIn profile, resume, or CV
Share it on social media and in your performance review
There are 4 modules in this course
This module is all about planning. Before a game begins, there are numerous decisions that you need to think about. It is important to seek out games that are similar in design, look for success and failure stories from developer interviews. Our industry loves to share knowledge through convention talks, dev logs on YouTube and through communities like Discord. During pre-production it is important to identify your early goals for development and work in phases. Don't try to FULLY build specific features, always focus on the core game loop. It is important to keep it in specific design targets where you can take a moment and play what you are making. From there you can adjust, iterate and further understand your project progression.
What's included
14 videos1 assignment
In this module we will implement all the game mechanics we need to start prototyping each game mode. We will create specific features that we can enable or disable for our game design needs. This module is built to give you a broad understanding on how to implement mechanics and systems in the future.
What's included
107 videos1 assignment
In this module it is time to put everything you've learned to the test. Everything from Course 1 all the way through to Course 8. You will be tasked to design one of each game mode: Stealth Survival, Platformer, Capture the Flag, Action Combat, Crafting and Story. Understanding game design for multiple genres is part of creating innovative new ideas. When two seemingly opposite genres get combined together, it sparks something new. Try to take a loose approach at what you create, think about the ambience for your level. Decide what game mechanics do you choose to keep, or improve, for each game mode.
What's included
8 videos1 assignment6 peer reviews6 discussion prompts
Your final project for Course 8 is to design a small game experience with complete creative freedom. Try to keep it simple, think about one, two or three core gameplay mechanics to focus on. Your designs should focus on supporting those features. Perhaps one of your previous game modes sparked your interest, and you can take it to the next level by expanding it further. You can try combining different game genres that you rarely see used together. Maybe there is a game type that wasn't discussed in this course that you are really interested in prototyping. Use Obsidian to plan your designs and scope accordingly. Look for references and complete research on similar genres. Your limits are only bound to your imagination!
What's included
2 videos1 assignment1 peer review1 discussion prompt
Offered by
Recommended if you're interested in Software Development
Michigan State University
University of Colorado System
California Institute of the Arts
Why people choose Coursera for their career
New to Software Development? Start here.
Open new doors with Coursera Plus
Unlimited access to 7,000+ world-class courses, hands-on projects, and job-ready certificate programs - all included in your subscription
Advance your career with an online degree
Earn a degree from world-class universities - 100% online
Join over 3,400 global companies that choose Coursera for Business
Upskill your employees to excel in the digital economy
Frequently asked questions
Access to lectures and assignments depends on your type of enrollment. If you take a course in audit mode, you will be able to see most course materials for free. To access graded assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience, during or after your audit. If you don't see the audit option:
The course may not offer an audit option. You can try a Free Trial instead, or apply for Financial Aid.
The course may offer 'Full Course, No Certificate' instead. This option lets you see all course materials, submit required assessments, and get a final grade. This also means that you will not be able to purchase a Certificate experience.
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Certificate, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile. If you only want to read and view the course content, you can audit the course for free.
If you subscribed, you get a 7-day free trial during which you can cancel at no penalty. After that, we don’t give refunds, but you can cancel your subscription at any time. See our full refund policy.