You Already Have One Valuable Resource for Learning Game Dev

It’s strangely hard to find comprehensive resources for learning game design. There are a few good books, but they tend to be university textbooks — expensive. Video courses can be helpful, but so many are focused on the development (i.e. the code), art creation, or how to build a specific type of game.

What if you want to learn about games in more universal terms? What makes a game fun? How do games flow? What makes players come back and play again? It’s hard to find learning materials that cover the theory of game design.

The good news is that you don’t have to learn from published or curated content. You might already have everything you need right in your Steam library.

If you want to learn game design, chances are that you’re already a game player. You have a valuable resource at your disposal: your own experience. Just like writers learn from reading, and filmmakers learn from watching films, you can learn about crafting games by playing them critically.

You don’t even have to stick to video games-you can learn game concepts from board games, card games, or even games invented in the moment, like the imagination-based games that children often play.

How can you do this? The key is in the word critically.