15 Best Game Design Courses for Beginners
We compared 15 Game Design courses currently listed on Coursera, edX and Udemy, priced from $19.99 to $417.00. 3 come from a named university or institution, including California Institute of the Arts, University of Colorado System and LaSalle College. They are ordered by our CourseAsk score, which is built from how thoroughly each course describes what it teaches, whether it comes from a named institution, and how it compares on price — not from star ratings, which our course data does not include.
- Courses compared
- 15
- Price range
- $19.99 – $417.00
- Providers
- Coursera, edX, Udemy
- Last updated
- 18 Sep 2026
How these 15 courses were chosen
Every course below is a real, currently listed course from Coursera, edX, Udemy, 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 $19.99 to $417.00, as listed by the provider when we last updated the page.
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1
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 -
2
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 -
3
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 -
4
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 -
5
Introduction to C++ Programming and Unreal
Offered by University of Colorado System
This course is all about starting to learn how to develop video games using the C++ programming language and the Unreal Engine on Windows or Mac. This course assumes you have previous programming experience in some other...
$49.00listed price -
6
UE5: Beginner’s Guide to Building a 3D Environment
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 -
7
Unreal Engine 5 For Beginners: World Building Basics
Offered by Skillshare
Jumpstart your Unreal Engine 5 journey with Jordy Vandeput, and learn a strong foundation in world-building. In this hands-on beginner course, you’ll explore the core user interface of UE5 and learn how to design immersi...
$49.00listed price -
8
Introduction To Story Boarding
This course is about learning the craft of storyboarding for animation artists, filmmakers, game design artists, graphic designers and people interested in learning how the storyboarding process affects the film, game an...
$19.99listed price -
9
Full Lua Programming: Beginner to Pro in Roblox Studio
This guide is designed for everyone wanting to get into the realm of Roblox Game Development, Roblox Lua/Luau, and metaverse ventures! The videos are short, packed with knowledge and I like to show programming in a simpl...
$19.99listed price -
10
Unreal Engine 5 creating an ARPG Game from Scratch
Unlock Your Creative Potential with Game Design Workshop: UE5 Procedural Dungeon ARPG Creation!Have you ever wanted to design your dungeon-crawling adventure like Diablo?Imagine creating your very own epic raids, complet...
$199.99listed price -
11
Scratch 3.0 Coding Course: For Kids, Beginners, & Educators
"In this engaging course, discover the world of programming and coding through the exciting lens of Scratch. Developed by MIT, Scratch transforms programming into an enjoyable adventure, making it feel like a game.Our ph...
$29.99listed price -
12
Unreal Engine 5 for Beginners (2024) - The Complete Course
Unreal Engine for Beginners - Start Your JourneyUnreal Engine for Beginners is a complete course that teaches how to use Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) while developing games. You will learn UE5 in a fun, hands-on way by designin...
$84.99listed price -
13
Complete Beginners Guide to Pixel Game Art
I will constantly update this course based on your and your fellow students input. This is your course. Learning game art can be difficult. You not only have to draw but you have to learn software. This course demystifie...
$149.99listed price -
14
Introduction to Level Design
Offered by LaSalle College
This course offers an engaging introduction to the art and science of level design, crucial for creating immersive gaming experiences. You'll explore fundamental principles and techniques that guide the development of va...
$417.00listed price -
15
Master 2D Game Development in Unity (Beginner to pro)
Step into the world of 2D game development and learn how to build a complete, polished platformer game in Unity from scratch. In this beginner-friendly course, you’ll create a fully functional 2D game featuring smooth pl...
$29.99listed price
Best Game Design Courses for Beginners 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 15 priced courses on this page run from $19.99 to $417.00, with the middle of the range around $79.00 — a spread of $397.01. 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, edX and Udemy. 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. 3 of these are produced by a named university or institution, including California Institute of the Arts, University of Colorado System and LaSalle College — 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 18 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.