One of the most profound developments that the worldwide web (www) has engineered is that it has brought the visual aspect into our devices. We no longer consume content only in text form. Game development has improved on this and has taken it even farther.

It has brought interactive, exciting games into our lives, which is what makes it unique and is the starting point to getting an understanding of the top 20 game development courses, which is what this blog is about. Who could have imagined a few years ago that our own handheld devices would enable us to watch all-time favorites such as Candy Crush, Pokémon, PUBG, Clash of Clans, Subway Surfers, et al, from wherever we are?

That is game development for you. If these and other games ring a bell in your mind, and you are passionate about not just watching or playing them, but being part of their creation and development, it is time for you to take game development seriously. So again, welcome to the world of game development! Let us get started with our dissection of the top 20 game development courses.

But first, a little on the journey path that game development has taken. The development of games as a medium of entertainment content has been a logical and consistent outcome of the developments that took place in various areas of technology. Game development has come a long, long way from its rudimentary form of eight decades ago, although it took at least another four decades for it to reach its next stage of development. Although gaming may be said to have begun in 1940, it was only in the 1980s that we can say it really took off, when it became available to wider sections of the society.

Today, video game development is a huge market that is global and attracts the best talents from almost all corners of the world. Naturally, it is only when technology or innovation becomes popular that it attracts more and more talents and interests. Alright, if you want to think that the reverse of this claim is true, so be it. I will not argue. This makes pursuing a career in game development very tempting, which is why I want to explain my pick of the top 20 game development courses as we go on in our blog, which I believe is sure to put you right up thereby giving you sharp and deep insight and understanding of game development.

A word about the projections and forecasts for this industry would perhaps not be out of place when talking about an important topic like the top 20 game development courses. To start with, let us bear in mind a very fundamental truth about game development as a career. There are a few career lines that attract people to them solely because of the pay the jobs offer. I don’t want to name any, but isn’t it true that some of the best-paying jobs are dull from the creativity perspective? I have already stated the main reason people take such jobs or professions. The thinking behind why people take up these jobs is “who gives a hell to creativity? Let me make my bucks first and then worry about the world”.

The second reason for which people pursue a career is the sense of fulfillment they derive out of it. Many people think that talent and aptitude are innate, and they meet their purpose only when they take up a profession that satisfies their inner urge, or what people call their true calling. Game development tends to fall into the second of these categories. So, does this mean that your career in game development will give you a great kick during the day and send you to bed hungry?

Not quite. All I am saying is that game development is a paying profession, but not quite in the same league as hardcore programming or any other variety of software development. The pay is not something that will make you uncertain about when you are going to get your next meal. It is just that this is one of those professions in which passion takes precedence over the greenback. You are certainly not going to be earning pay that will make you feel sorry.

Having said this, quite a serious note needs to be made of a very vital perspective of game development: the trends about its future outlook. A huge recent development has given a fresh fillip to game development: the arrival of immersive technologies such as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. These two are more waves than technological innovations if you ask me. These two innovations, or waves, if you would not like me to retract my own assertion, impact a swathe of activities. Game development is one of them! AR and VR go so well with game development that it looks like they were created for each other. So, game development is in a sort of flux right now, with the advent of these novelties. It is sure to boost this activity and give it an impetus.

Another push

Along with VR and AR, another major force that has augmented the development of game development is the emergence of 5G. This technology, being the most intensive to date, is soon set to become reality, influencing a number of areas. Again, game development, being an activity that depends on the Net, could get enhanced drastically.

These developments have placed us in the midst of the peak of game development

The extent to which these developments have worked on game development can be gauged from the fact that these have pushed the whole discipline of game development to an all-time high. The time we are in is perhaps the golden phase for game development if we go by a few astonishing figures about this market. Catalyzed by these advancements, which may be termed the culmination of initial developments that happened over many decades, game development has picked up steam consistently and is now in its prime.

To give you some idea of the rate at which it has been growing, it touched a global revenue of $170 billion in 2018, from which it is expected to touch a whopping $235 billion by this year, 2022! Glassdoor puts the average base pay for a game developer at a little over $70,000. In the backdrop of all these facts, those who are passionate about pursuing a career in game development can perhaps give up their concern about the relatively low pay it purportedly pays. Why I say this is because a high or a low pay is a subjective thing that is dependent on many variables. And yes, things could look up further if this is the size the industry is reaching in such a quick time.

So, let us head to the top 20 game development courses.

1. Game Designing Using Scratch

With this course, you will learn how to create games with event-driven programming, something that Scratch facilitates. Scratch, a platform developed by the MIT Media Lab’s Lifelong Learning Group, stands out for its ability to blend mathematical and computational skills with creativity, reasoning, and collaborative working.

This course will give you in-depth knowledge of Scratch. Using Scratch, a user can make a number of multimedia applications such as animations, games, stories and art, simulations, and even program robots like Play I.

This course has this syllabus:

• What is Scratch
• Downloading Scratch
• Motions
• Looks
• Sensing
• Sounds
• Assigning Variables
• Operators
• Sprites & Resources
• Adding Mango
• Gun Sprite
• Hitting Mango
• Adding Few more Fruits Sprites
• Grapes
• Adding Scores
• Game Over Condition
• Game Over Sprite
• You Won Sprite
• Main Cover Sprite
• Fixing Gun Bug
• Adding Background Sound.

2. Learn How To Code Games In Roblox Studio

With more than four million active developers and creators producing their own games using it, Roblox Studio is one of the most popular entertainment platforms for players under the age of 18. More than 80 million Roblox players play over a billion hours of Roblox each month.

This course will teach you how to code games in Roblox Studio. Starting with learning how to create your first Roblox game by creating an account and downloading and installing Roblox Studio, you will get an understanding of the ways of moving, scaling, and rotating your Roblox parts. You will next get an understanding of how to create a script, make objects spawn, and how program your Humanoid Roblox Player, among lots more.

These are what this course covers:

• An understanding of Lua, the coding language used to create games using Roblox
• The basic concepts of computer programming
• How to get set up to create your first Roblox game by creating an account and downloading and installing Roblox Studio
• How to move, scale and rotate your Roblox parts
• How to create a script, make objects spawn and how to program your Humanoid Roblox Player, and much more
• How to Use Roblox Toolbox and create your own models, save them and import them into your projects
• How to code the Leader-board for multi-player games and save player data during the game
• Design, test, and play your own game from beginning to end
• Understand how to use all the concepts and coding you learned in this course to create your own interactive games on Roblox.

3. Unity Game Development Build 2D & 3D Games

This comprehensive course on Unity 3d is developed by avid game developers who were tired of the routine tasks of teaching students how to make 3D cubes without real-world game development. Determined to enable students to get a real-world experience in game development, these game developers came up with this course.

This course will put you on a guided learning path in which you will first learn to code in C# and then go on to build 2D & 3D games.

All the learning is aimed at making you a professional developer by letting you learn the approach that pros take. After the basic topics, this course will move on to the more advanced ones like lighting, cinematics, and multiplayer.

You will learn these and more from this course:

• Installation & setup
• Physics
• Pathfinding
• Tower Defense Game
• Sound FX & music
• Scripting
• Particle FX
• Lightning & lightmapping
• Character animations
• Camera animations & cutscenes
• Basic Artificial Intelligence
• Multiplayer over LAN & Internet
• Melee & ranged battle systems
• Materials & skyboxes
• Adventure Game
• Zombies

4. Android Game Development for Beginners

This course offers a hands-on introduction to the key elements of game programming. By making you create a small but complete game called “Plane Shooter”, this course will give you all the skills needed to be able to build a complete 2D game in less than 3 hours.

This practical method will give you a clear understanding of the core concepts behind a 2D game, help you brush up on your Java skills, and teach you how to monetize your app through Google Admob.

 The tutor will handhold you through the process of creating this game. This course will improve your problem-solving ability since the tutor will guide you into finding the solution yourself, which will give you the ability to think like a programmer.

With this course, you will be able to:

• Get a clear understanding of the core concepts behind a 2D game
• Brush up your Java skills
• Build a complete 2D game in less than 3 hours
• Monetize your app through Google Admob and start earning

5. Android Game Development – Create Your First Mobile Game

This course is taught by a developer who has published more than 10 android games in Google Play Store and is aimed at those who want to learn how to build Android Games in Java. Based on the belief that developing a program is the best way to learn to program, this course is very practical. It is for those who want to learn the core concepts behind a 2D game like creating an efficient Game Loop, handling the Touch Event, Collision Detection, playing sound effects, Score, saving personal best, designing XML Layout, and lots more.

It is ideal for those who want to learn the basic framework for games. Those who want to learn game development by writing code in Java will also enjoy this course. Learners will develop a Flappy Bird game using Android Studio and Java. This will give them the ability to create an efficient game loop, familiarize them with the basic framework for games, teach them everything they need to know to build their own games, and brush up on their Java skills.

6. Unity 3D Creating a 2D Side Scroller game

Through four parts, this course will teach you everything you need to learn about creating a 2D side scroller game in Unity 3D using C#.

Everything you need to learn about Unity 3D Animations, physics systems, and UI, will be taught in this course. It will teach you how to use the C# script to access and control animations and other components, Unity’s Collision matrix, game level building, controlling Objects through the script, delegates, co-routines, scene management, and object pooling and parallax techniques.

This course covers widely used techniques like object pooling and parallax, as well as a few intermediate Unity concepts like Collision matrix, Delegates, and co-routines. These concepts are very useful for both beginners and intermediate learners of Unity and game development.

You will learn the following in this course:

• Unity 3D Animations, physics system, UI
• Using C# script to access and control animations and other components
• Unity’s Collision matrix
• Game level building
• Controlling Objects through the script
• Delegates, co-routines, and scene management
• Object pooling and parallax techniques.

7. 3D Platformer Game Using Unity

In addition to teaching you Unity 3D, a high-quality 3D game engine used by many Indie developers and AAA game studios around the world, this course will solidify your understanding of the concepts behind this program with a few tips and tricks, which will give you the ability to solve problems in the manner of a game developer.

These are the takeaways from this course:

• Handling Player Movement with forwarding Crouch and Jump.
• Inverse Kinematics
• Basic Weapon System
• Basic enemy AI
• Health and Damage System
• UI Integration.

In addition to all these, the bonus from this course is the access it gives to the course forum, where you can discuss topics after completing this course.

8. Humanoid Characters in Unity

This course is for beginners who either want to start afresh on Unity or those who may have had a basic understanding of how to build humanoid characters. It is for those who want clarity on how aspects such as character creation, rigging, animation, finite state machines, character controller components, custom C# scripting, game controllers, Cinemachine, post-processing, and many others come together to make a playable game.

This course will offer you an understanding of how to create a simple puzzle/chase game employing a third-person player character that you control and an enemy non-player character that is controlled by Artificial Intelligence. Learners will learn how to create, rig, animate, control, and play with third-person and AI-driven characters in Unity.

This course covers these topics:

• Introduction
• Creating and Rigging Characters
• Setting the Scene
• Character Materials, Textures, and Normal Maps
• Third-Person Character Control
• Configuring Characters and Cameras
• Making Characters Easily Interchangeable
• Refining Look with Cinemachine Extensions
• Animating Stationary Characters
• Making Non-Player Characters Artificially Intelligent
• Converting the Simulation into a Game
• Building a User Interface
• Playing with Game Controllers.

9. Unreal Development Kit Game Programming with UnrealScript

Get a comprehensive introduction to UnrealScript.

This course will give you an understanding of the UnrealScript Development Kit (UDK) files and folders for working with UnrealScript, with which you will be able to build a game from the ground up.

Through a step-by-step approach, the tutor will help you graduate from the basics of configuring the UDK and its files to coding a feature-filled game complete with timed behavior and editor integration.

This course will teach you how to configure an IDE and the UDK Compiler to write and compile code. This will make debugging easier with custom console commands. You will grasp the basics of UnrealScript workflow for making games and learn how to use the UnrealScript class hierarchy to build new features.

It will offer you learning of the other features of UnrealScript, such as console commands for improving debugging, class states for dynamically changing actor behavior, custom Kismet nodes to control program flow visually, and the ability to tweak class settings through text-based configuration files, among lots more.

10. HTML5 Game Development

Guess the time needed to build two HTML5 games? Two hours flat! The fast-paced beginner-friendly videos offered in this course make this possible.

HTML5 Game Development will teach you all that you need to know to get started with creating your first game in HTML5 so you can start building captivating games from scratch.

With its set of easy and simple step-by-step instructions, you can build modular code, optimize your game for deployment, and easily modify and reuse game logic to extend your game. The learning will be taught by making you build two incrementally complex 2D games that run on both desktop and mobile browsers.

This course will teach you how to create interactive games with gravity and collisions. You will learn how to modularize game components and create easily maintainable code, convert and embed custom fonts into your game and web pages, develop sprite and sprite sheet animations, and do lots more.

During the course of this learning, you will become familiar with game programming best practices, simplified game logic, physics, and collision handling, as well as custom graphics and fonts.

You will be able to:

• Create interactive games with gravity and collisions
• Modularize game components and create easily maintainable code
• Convert and embed custom fonts into your game and web pages
• Develop sprite and sprite sheet animations
• Preload graphic files and optimize your startup performance
• Control scene transitions such as main menu and game over scenes
• Understand core concepts that can be applied to developing other rich media and interfaces for your websites
• Test and optimize your game’s performance.

11. Unity 3D Game Development by Example

This course will impart the basic skills needed to take your beginner-level programming skills and transform yourself into a full-fledged game developer capable of making games on the web, PC, Mac, iPhone, or Android, using Unity3D and the C# language.

This course will offer an understanding of the basic project structure and the other core elements of a Unity Game. You will get clarity on how to build a scene at the Unity3D game level. You will learn Unity Scripting, with which you can implement basic interactivity, discover the secrets of game audio (3D sounds and Music) in Unity3D, master the Unity3D GUI and GUISkin system to create your own UI, and do lots more.

With this course, you will be able to:

• Understand the basic project structure and the other core elements of a Unity Game
• Find out what it takes to build a “Scene” – a Unity3D game level
• Transform your PC or Mac game into an Android game using Unity3D’s multi-platform capabilities and Unity3D Pro for Android
• Master the Unity3D GUI and GUISkin system to create your own UI
• Jump into Unity Scripting as you learn to implement basic Interactivity
• Forge links between scenes to turn disparate levels into a cohesive game
• Discover the secrets of game audio (3D sounds and Music) in Unity3D
• Create High Score Lists and other user retention systems using Unity3D

12. Cinematics and Animations in Unity

With this course, you will learn how to work with cinematics and animations using Unity’s varied tools.

Starting with an introduction to animation and cinematics in Unity 3D, this course will move on to explaining the Unity 3D animation editor, Unity cutscenes, cameras, animation events, animation curves, camera management, and character cinematics in Unity.

This course teaches the basics of developing in Unity. It will explain the coroutine-driven rock obstacles which the zombie must avoid. By offering learners the opportunity to work with animations, 3D editors, cameras, and others, this course will put them on the path to learning how to develop a fully-functional game.

These are what is covered in this course:

• Introduction to Animation & Cinematics in Unity 3D
• Unity 3D animation editor
• Unity cutscenes, cameras, & animation events
• Animation curves, camera management, & character cinematics in Unity.

13. Enhancement with Unity UI Advanced

The User Interface System in Unity is loaded with a rich variety of features. By taking up this course, you will discover a few ways by which those features can be used to build more complex UI systems for your games.

The variety of topics that this course covers, which range from Animation to writing Editor scripts, will expand your knowledge of the UI system, with which you will be able to build your own reusable components and extend the UI system further.

Through the four sections into which its learning is taught, this course will cover the following areas:

• Animate the canvas in world space using in-game interactions, making floating damage indicators
• Craft reusable UI elements such as Modal Dialog windows and Character Dialogue windows
• Create responsive designs for multiple screen types
• Prepare UI for different resolutions and to target multiple platforms
• Use Unity 5.6’s new VideoPlayer component 
• Write Editor Scripts to automate master styles and extend the UI.

14. Android Game Development: Build a Math based Game

In less than one hour, you will learn how to build a complete game. This math-based game course teaches you XML layout designing with LinearLayout, working with CountDownTimer, getting or setting any view object, and developing a fairly complex game logic. You will also refresh your Java skills and learn Android game development step by step.

This course is completely hands-on, in which the tutor will walk you through the process of creating this game, from start to finish, step by step in a practical method. This will improve your programming skill.

By the time you complete this course, you will have acquired the skills needed to build this complete Math Games app which you can publish in Play Store.

With this course, you will learn:

• How to build a complete game in less than one hour
• XML layout designing with LinearLayout
• How to work with CountDownTimer
• How to get/set any view object
• How to develop a fairly complex game logic
• Java skills
• Android game development step by step.

15. 1 Up Game Development

Aimed at beginners and seasoned developers alike, the 1 Up Game Development course helps those who want to build games with Unity.

It will offer an understanding of the basics of developing games with Unity in a challenging and fun manner. With its detailed explanations for each function, this course gives you the confidence to create your own games with the Unity engine. Becoming a Unity Specialist will uniquely qualify you to help companies, brands, and development firms create maintainable and high-quality website code.

These are what you will learn from this course:

• Understand the Unity interface
• Work with menus and views
• Understand scripting basics
• Create scenes
• Develop Unity game objects
• Manage Unity assets

16. Graph Algorithms for AI in Games

Having algorithms on graphs is immensely useful in real-life situations, in helping people seek road networks that help them get to work in the fastest time, or finding the cheapest way to connect a set of computer networks or social networks.

This course introduces you to graphs and presents their increasingly complex algorithms that work on graphs. You will get an understanding of how graphs can be used in games to represent various states and how searching graphs can help us.

It will familiarize you with pathfinding, one of the most commonly solved problems in-game AI. You will then learn how to optimize pathfinding. At the end of the course, you will learn the concept of meta-heuristics which can be used to find general solutions in complex domains.

You will learn how to:

• Make graphs to represent your game state
• Use the breadth-first search on your regular graphs
• Implement the depth-first search with your usual graphs
• Use pathfinding in your grid and maze
• Work with optimizing the Heuristics in your game
• Implement A* Search for a more balanced Heuristics
• Create your very own Pac Mac like game

17. Using Cycles Render Engine in Blender 3D

This course will help you take control of the ultra-realistic Cycles Render engine. You will learn about realistic ray-traced rendering with the Cycles Render engine by creating a natural environment with a realistic environment whose final result will be an image rendering.

You will understand how to utilize ray-tracing efficiently. You will get a solid and clear understanding of curve modeling, materials and texturing, and of how to light scenes skillfully. You will be able to master the basics of the particle system and learn to use composting in the Blender environment.

With this course, you will:

• Utilize ray-tracing efficiently
• Understand curve modeling
• Understand materials and texturing
• Light scenes skillfully
• Master particle system basics
• Use Composting in the Blender environment.

18. 2 courses in one Create Your First (Android/Windows) Game

With this course, which packs two learnings into one, you will be able to use a basic4Android developing application. It will teach you how to build a flowchart of any application. design the application screens. publish your applications on the Google play store, and add advertising methods to earn money from your applications.

19. Learn Python By building Games in Python

This Python programming course offers a total understanding of Python for game development. It offers a full guide for Python programmers and Python coders in a simple and easy way. Through its myriad of examples, quizzes, resources, and as many as five Python games projects in Python games and Python OOP, this course will help you to master Python 3 and go from zero to hero.

This course will include learning the following:

• Python is an easy and simple way
• Coding in Python by examples
• How to use Jupyter notebook and Python for Python coding
• Python programming basics
• Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) in Python
• How to use Pygame Python Library to build and develop Python Games
• Python Games projects to master the Python powerful skills you will learn

20. Android Game Development: Endless Runner Game in Android

This course will show how to create and monetize a complete Endless Runner Game step-by-step from beginning to end. Knowledge of Java programming like using variables, loops, objects, etc. helps.

This course will teach the core concepts of 2D game development like making an infinite game loop, animation, detecting touch events, collision detection, playing sound effects, displaying scores and saving personal best, monetization with Google Admob, etc.

This course will be of great value if you are curious about building an android game from the beginning using only Android Studio and by writing code in Java (SurfaceView), without using any 3^rd party Game Engine.

It will equip you with the fundamentals of game development. All that you need is a strong passion for creating games.

The course curriculum consists of the following:

• Introduction to Android game development course
• Start creating the framework
• Design and develop GameOver activity
• Complete making the game full screen.

So, we come to the end of this session on the top 20 game development courses. It is our fond wish that this blog will add value to your career ahead in game development. Our aim is to put you in the right direction. We want to aid you in your choice of game development as a career, towards which, we hope, this blog on the top 20 game development courses will go some way!