Certificate in Applied Game Design

Central Michigan University's Center for Learning through Games and Simulations (CLGS) and Gen Con are partnering to bring you courses in applied tabletop game design – game design for your workspace and your playspace. Industry experts team with academic experts to create online synchronous courses where most of the time is spent engaged in active learning, interaction, and collaboration with your instructors and classmates. Courses use the Gather.town platform for meeting and playing. Our course offerings will vary based on the availability of our experts, and we’ll be constantly adding new classes. If you see something you want to take, don’t hesitate – it may be a once in a lifetime chance.

Take a single course for your own enrichment, professional development, or continuing education*, or take 3 courses and earn a Certificate in Applied Game Design from Central Michigan University and Gen Con. These courses will also count toward Continuing Education Units/Credits (CEU or CEC) for K-12 teachers. We are currently working with the various state institutions to make using these courses for units/credits seamless, but reach out to us if you are wondering about where we are at with the process for your state. Knowing that we have people interested from a specific state will help us prioritize which states we work through the process with first.

Upcoming courses

Registration

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The courses are professional development/non-credit courses which are non-transferable for CMU credit. For information to earn credit for professional development experiences for a CMU degree, visit the Credit for Prior Learning website.

Register for applied game design courses

Current and previous courses

Using Games to Teach: What You Can Convey Through Play
During this six-week synchronous online course, you will study how games convey information—intentionally or unintentionally—and then learn to harness these powers for yourself. You will gain experience breaking down games about history, science, and more so you can see what and how they teach. By the end of the course, you'll develop an idea for a game that can teach something you think others ought to learn!

• Industry Expert: Liz Davidson, Educator and Host, Beyond Solitaire podcast
• Academic Expert: Andrew D. Devenney, Associate Director of CLGS, Co-owner and Publisher of Superhero Necromancer Press
• Course ran: March 6 - April 17, 2023
• Open Syllabus for Using Games to Teach

Intermediate Role-Playing Game Design: From Alpha to Beta to Published Work
Do you already know the fundamentals of role-playing game (RPG) design and want to dive deeper? Is your RPG nearly there, but missing something? Already taken “The Art of Gamecrafting: For Your Classroom, Board Room, or Game Night”? Then this six-week synchronous online course will give you what you need to broaden your game and bring it to the masses. Using a combination of discussions with our Industry Expert, Eloy Lasanta, and hands-on activities, you will break down every aspect of your game and piece it back together bigger and better than before! We hope you’ll join us and get your game over the finish line!

• Industry Expert: Eloy Lasanta, Owner of  Third-Eye Games.
  
• Academic Expert: Andrew D. Devenney, Associate Director of CLGS, Co-owner and Publisher of Superhero Necromancer Press.
  Course ran: January 17 - February 23, 2023.
• Open the Intermediate RPG Design Syllabus (PDF).
  

The Art of Gamecrafting: For Your Classroom, Board Room, or Game Night
During this six-week synchronous online course you will learn how to design a role playing game tailored to your situation – at work or at home. You will gain hands on experience in world building and with connecting good game mechanics with what you want your players to take away from your game. In other words, you’ll learn to leverage the power of role-playing games outside game night (and maybe during game night, too)! We hope you’ll join us and Eloy Lasanta, owner Third-Eye Games, for our first course!

• Industry Expert: Eloy Lasanta, Owner of Third-Eye Games.
• Academic Expert: Andrew D. Devenney, Associate Director of CLGS, Co-owner and Publisher of Superhero Necromancer Press.
• Course ran: October 10 - November 16, 2022.
• Open the Art of Gamecrafting Syllabus (PDF).

Lightbulb to Meeples: Game Design from Ideation to Prototype
Lightbulb to Meeples is a six-and-a-half week synchronous online course focused on the overall progression of designing a tabletop board game from that first idea to a fully playable prototype. You'll be generating ideas, working the design process, and finishing with a prototype of your game that will be ready for external testing while having developed a process that you will be able to apply to any future game.

• Industry Expert: Damon Stone, game designer (Android: Netrunner; A Game of Thrones: LCG; Call of Cthulhu: LCG).
• Academic Expert: Andrew D. Devenney, Associate Director of CLGS, Co-owner and Publisher of Superhero Necromancer Press.
• Course ran: August 22 - October 3, 2022.
• Open the Lightbulb to Meeples Syllabus (PDF).

“The Art of Gamecrafting: For Your Classroom, Board Room, or Game Night”
During this six-week synchronous online course you will learn how to design a role playing game tailored to your situation – at work or at home. You will gain hands on experience in world building and with connecting good game mechanics with what you want your players to take away from your game. In other words, you’ll learn to leverage the power of role-playing games outside game night (and maybe during game night, too)! We hope you’ll join us and Eloy Lasanta, owner Third-Eye Games, for our first course!

• Industry Expert: Eloy Lasanta, Owner of Third-Eye Games.
• Academic Expert: Andrew D. Devenney, Associate Director of CLGS, Co-owner and Publisher of  Superhero Necromancer Press.
• Course ran: May 24 - June 30, 2022.
• Open the Art of Gamecrafting Syllabus (PDF).