Game Design Courses and Online Programs
Video game design courses are online education with live classes that teach industry-relevant skills through expert-led lectures. Choose, compare, and buy the right course to start learning practical skills and get into the gaming industry at a fraction of the time and cost of a traditional school.
Whether you’re a student, seasoned designer, or developer switching lanes, you’ll find everything from beginner-friendly intros to advanced certified courses ranging from a few hours to in-depth multi-month training. Filter by discipline, skill level, or career goals, then match the right course to your path and earn the skills and credentials to move your career forward.
Bootcamps | 2026
Browse All Courses
Filter By
- bootcamp
- Paid
- bootcamp
- Paid
- bootcamp
- Paid
- bootcamp
- Paid
- bootcamp
- Paid
- class
- Free
- class
- Free
- class
- Free
- class
- Free
- class
- Free
- class
- Free
- class
- Free
Testimonials From Some of Our Bootcamps
Who Should Buy a Game Design Course?
Successful industry professionals, college students, complete beginners, and other industry experts should all buy a game design course.
- Industry professionals take design courses to enhance their existing skills and gain new perspectives from other game design experts. Even highly experienced professionals can complement their process with insights from veterans who’ve overcome the unique design challenges behind some of the most popular and iconic games.
- College students should choose game design courses offering hands-on practical experience. The best courses for college students bridge the gap between academic theoretical concepts and practical game design skills.
- Beginner game designers benefit the most from structured step-by-step bootcamps. Completing GDS’s expert-led bootcamps provides beginners with industry-ready skills and their first portfolio project.
- Non-design professionals, such as programmers, artists, producers, and QA, take game design courses to understand designer workflows, processes, and challenges. This insight enhances cross-team communication, strengthens collaboration, and leads to more effective implementation. For career changers, it delivers the knowledge and frameworks needed to transition into design with confidence.
- Professionals in non-design roles use game design courses to understand the design side of the pipeline, and predict upcoming design challenges. Professionals looking to make a lateral move in the industry need to understand other design roles’ responsibilities and expectations.
Game design training strengthens every role on the team. Mastering the design fundamentals helps refine any designer’s skill set, giving them a competitive advantage and increasing their chances of landing a job.
What Game Design Courses Provide Certification?
Game Design Skills offers professional certificates that meet current industry needs. Each 12-week bootcamp provides certification built around practical design and development work. All GDS courses cover learning proven frameworks, solo or group workshops, and creating polished portfolio pieces.
GDS provides certificates that meet the employee reimbursement requirements for studios like Riot, Blizzard, and Epic for the training provided.
Certificates aren’t the main reason designers complete the courses, though. Students join to level up their skills and build a solid portfolio.
Mateusz Konrad Gorski’s portfolio for The Crystal City below is just one example of what GDS students can do.
Game design roles have more practical-based hiring processes than certificate-regulated industries like medicine or law. Studios vet for design process, hands-on experience, and portfolio quality over any certificate.
For complementary technical and artistic certifications that fall outside the scope of game design, the platforms below have many options.
- Coursera & Udemy – Provide hundreds of small beginner-to-intermediate certificates in courses like Unreal Engine 5 for Beginners and Complete C# Unity Developer.
- Unity & Unreal Engines – Official websites offer training as a Unity Certified 3D Artist and Unreal Engine Certified Professional, providing a deeper understanding of each engine.
- Autodesk – Certifies artists through programs like the 3ds Max Certified Professional Certification for 3D modeling with 3ds Max.
- Adobe – Manages Adobe Certified Expert ACE certifications for tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere via Certiport and Credly for digital art.
- Schoolism and Computer Graphics Master Academy issue certificates in creative areas like Storyboarding for Animation and a Professional Certificate in Storyboarding for film.
Game Design Skills awards every student a certificate upon course completion, but the skills learned and projects built are far more important than any certificate. Every GDS course graduate walks away with both the confidence to navigate the hiring process and the skills to deliver results on the job.
What Game Design Courses Are Recommended for Beginners?
Game design courses that offer a broad overview of the industry and teach fundamental design concepts are recommended for beginners.
Total beginners need a general introduction to the game industry. Platforms like Coursera and Udemy offer hundreds of short, entry-level video courses for beginners. Each course covers basic definitions and provides a high-level overview of the field.
The Build a Game Challenge Bootcamp is recommended for beginners who want hands-on practical experience. Build a Game Challenge shows students the progression from their first game idea all the way to a playable tabletop prototype. Ideation, prototyping, playtesting, collecting feedback, and iterating are all guided live by industry experts. Practical bootcamps like Build a Game let students make a full game without worrying about coding and create their first industry-quality portfolio piece.
Beginning designers should also take courses in at least one major game engine. Unity is widely used for 2D/3D games and supports visual scripting.
Unreal Engine features high-end visuals and the code-free Blueprints system.
Godot is lightweight, open-source, and easy to use. Free courses and paid options featuring hands-on guidance from expert designers are available, ranging from full, live bootcamps to 1- to 2-hour-long videos.
Game design courses give beginners the foundation needed to plan out an entire career path. Mastering the basics and trying out different engines helps beginners choose where to specialize. After learning the details of a specific engine, completing practical projects, and gaining experience working on a team, each student is well on the way to becoming an industry professional.
What Are the Best Game Development Courses for Professionals?
Game Design Skills bootcamps are ideal for professionals aiming to advance into senior design roles, transition to a new studio, or gain different perspectives . Each 12-week, expert-led, project-based program provides direct feedback from industry experts and opportunities to connect with over 7,000 game developers in the GDS community. The game design, game writing, and level design tracks teach the proven frameworks and processes used at leading studios such as Blizzard, Riot, Virtuos, Infinity Ward, and many more.
Professionals equipped with these skills stand out when pursuing new jobs or seeking promotions.
Bootcamp instructors and contributors are seasoned experts behind some of the most iconic games at the industry’s most respected studios.
