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LCIEducation: Introduction to Psychological Aspects of Game Design
Learn the fundamental concepts and practice of game design and the theory connected to it.

This Course Includes
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5 weeks at 4-8 hours per week
english
Online - Self Paced
course
LCIEducation
About LCIEducation: Introduction to Psychological Aspects of Game Design
This Beginner course is based on the Game Design & VFX School at LaSalle College’s Vancouver campus, crowned the #1 undergraduate school in Canada for video game design by the Princeton Review 10 years in a row.
Are you ready to take the first step from gamer to game designer? Then this course is for you!
This course is an introduction to the basic concepts of game development and design theory, and explores how these concepts affect the ways we design and interact with games.
What are games? What are their structures and rule systems? What are their mechanics and dynamics? How does behavioral psychology impact game design? This course answers all these questions and many more!
This course explores the tenets of game design, core game structure, the components of a game, and the different areas of specialization within game design. We look at theoretical design frameworks as conceptual models for approaching design and the fundamental concepts in game psychology, motivation and game experience. The course describes the models that explain the various player types and play styles (what types of people play games, and what motivates and interests them).
Finally, you will learn about core game mechanics and challenge dynamics, and how your designs can be improved by thinking about them from a psychological, player-centric perspective.
Throughout this course, we use classic video game examples such as Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Solitaire to see what they can teach us about games and game design.
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What You Will Learn?
- Understand fundamental elements of game design..
- Explore how game mechanics, core game loops and gameplay dynamics work together..
- Leverage theoretical design frameworks, target audience information, and game psychology to aid the game design process and help to create engagement and flow..
- Apply behavioural psychology, human impulses, player models and play styles to game design and to player engagement..
- Learn from game designers to take advantage of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation to design enjoyable games by using a variety of game mechanics and challenge dynamics..