Three live Game Design Skills Bootcamps are about to begin, giving participants the opportunity to develop practical work, receive feedback from experienced developers and build skills they can demonstrate in a professional portfolio.
If you've been thinking about improving your Game Design skills, building something substantial for your portfolio or learning directly from people who've actually worked in the industry, you're running out of time.
Three upcoming Game Design Skills Bootcamps are about to get underway, covering Game Writing, Level Design and Game Mechanics.
These aren't simply a collection of videos to watch whenever you remember you bought the course.
Each programme combines live sessions with practical work, feedback and guidance from experienced developers, with the aim of helping participants develop skills they can actually demonstrate.
So, what can you sign up for?
Want to write for games rather than simply write stories?
The Game Writing Bootcamp is a 17-week programme led by veteran narrative designer and writer Kelly Bender, whose credits include Assassin's Creed Odyssey, The Walking Dead: Survivors and Age of Mythology.
Kelly Bender leads the 17-week Game Writing Bootcamp.
Participants create an in-depth narrative-focused project through eight deliverables, eight feedback sessions and 16 iterations, covering areas including worldbuilding, characters, dialogue and narrative design.
You'll then learn how to turn that work into a competitive portfolio piece capable of showing studios not just that you can write, but that you understand how writing works within game development.
The bootcamp begins September 26.
Explore the Game Writing Bootcamp
Good level design isn't just about making an environment look impressive. It's about understanding how players move, explore, make decisions and experience the game.
Led by veteran level designers Nathan Kellman and Mike Madden, this 13-week bootcamp takes participants through the process of creating an industry-quality 3D action-adventure level blockout in Unreal Engine 5.
The Level Design Blockout Bootcamp takes participants through the creation and iteration of a 3D action-adventure level.
Rather than creating something once and calling it finished, you'll develop the project through 16 iterations and six live playtests, using feedback to identify problems and improve your level.
The finished project is then transformed into a portfolio piece designed to communicate your process and decision-making to potential employers.
The bootcamp begins September 26.
Explore the Level Design Bootcamp
Why does jumping feel great in one game and strangely wrong in another?
Why can one seemingly simple mechanic keep players entertained for hundreds of hours?
The Mastering Game Mechanics Bootcamp digs into those questions.
It's led by Alexander Brazie, a designer with more than 25 years of experience whose credits include World of Warcraft, League of Legends and Ori and the Will of the Wisps.
Alexander Brazie brings more than 25 years of game design experience to the Mastering Game Mechanics Bootcamp.
Across 12 weeks and 24 live sessions, the programme explores frameworks, tools and techniques for analysing and creating deep, replayable gameplay mechanics.
There's also a strong career-focused element, including a feature pitch, design test and interview practice — helping participants learn not only how to design mechanics, but how to communicate their decisions in a professional environment.
The bootcamp begins September 29.
Explore the Mastering Game Mechanics Bootcamp
Perhaps the biggest appeal of these bootcamps is that they're built around doing the work.
Depending on the programme, that might mean building and repeatedly playtesting a level, creating and refining a narrative project or learning to analyse and communicate the thinking behind gameplay mechanics.
And you're doing that with guidance from people who've already spent years solving these problems professionally.
For anyone trying to break into the games industry, improve an existing portfolio or strengthen a particular design discipline, that practical experience could be far more useful than another line saying you completed a course.
The first bootcamps begin September 26. If you've been considering joining this cohort, your last chance to sign up is approaching.
But if you've been considering joining this cohort, the decision can't sit on your to-do list much longer.
The first bootcamps begin September 26.
Your last chance to sign up is approaching.
Keep Calm and waka waka...
