Image courtesy of Brett Paci.

While MIT doesn’t have an official game design degree program, it’s consistently ranked as a top school for game design studies. There’s a vital gaming community centered around the renowned MIT Game Lab, and plenty of relevant coursework and research on topics such as:

• the design and history of games and how people play and learn with games
• solving the computational and technical challenges of developing digital games
• psychological games and behavioral change
• business practices required for creating your own game company

Inspired by the Game Lab’s recommendations for MIT students, here’s a selection of MIT’s best game-related courses available online from OCW and MITx.

Game Studies Introductions

• CMS.300 Introduction to Videogame Studies
• CMS.600 Videogame Theory and Analysis
• CMS.608 Game Design: Spring 2014 version (with audio lectures) | Fall 2010 version (with audio lectures)  |  Spring 2008 version
• CMS.611J Creating Video Games (with video lectures)

Other Recommended Background

• 6.00 Introduction to Computer Science and Programming (with video lectures)
• CMS.100 Introduction to Media Studies
• CMS.610 Media Industries and System
• CMS.405 Media and Methods: Seeing and Expression
• CMS.407 Media and Methods: Sound
• ES.268 The Mathematics in Toys and Games

Game Design

• 2.00B Toy Product Design
• 6.831 User Interface Design and Implementation
• MAS.110 Fundamentals of Computational Media Design
• 11.126x Introduction to Game Design (an archived MITx on edX course which ran during Fall 2014)
• 11.127x Design and Development of Games for Learning (an archived MITx on edX course which ran during April/May 2015).

Writing for Games

• 21M.604 Playwriting I
• 21W.765J Interactive & Non-Linear Narrative: Theory & Practice: Spring 2006 version | Spring 2004 version
• 21W.772 Digital Poetry

Educational Software & Games

• 11.127J Computer Games and Simulations for Investigation and Education
• 4.351 Introduction to Video and Related Media
• 9.85 Infant and Childhood Cognition
• MAS.111 Introduction to Doing Research in Media Arts & Sciences
• MAS.714J Technologies for Creative Learning
• MAS.771 Autism Theory and Technology

Management & Production

• 15.279 Management Communication for Undergraduates
• 15.358 The Software Business
• 15.390 New Enterprises

Programming & Software Engineering

• 6.005 Elements of Software Construction
• 6.006 Introduction to Algorithms (with video lectures)
• 6.034 Artificial Intelligence (with video lectures)
• 6.170 Software Studio
• 6.837 Computer Graphics
• 6.946J Classical Mechanics: A Computational Approach
• 21W.789 Communicating with Mobile Technology

Art Direction & Visual Design

• 4.110J Design Across Scales, Disciplines and Problem Contexts
• 4.301 Introduction to the Visual Arts
• 4.341 Introduction to Photography and Related Media
• 4.500 Introduction to Design Computing
• 4.580 Inquiry into Computation and Design
• 21M.732 Costume Design for the Theater
• 21M.734 Design for the Theater: Scenery
• 21M.734 Lighting Design for the Theater

Audio Design

• 6.551J Acoustics of Speech and Hearing
• 21A.360J/STS.065J The Anthropology of Sound
• 21M.065 Introduction to Musical Composition
• 21M.361 Composing with Computers (Electronic Music Composition)
• CMS.876 History of Media and Technology: Sound

Culture & Society

• 21A.350J Cultures of Computing
• 24.222 Decisions, Games and Rational Choice
• CMS.615 Games for Social Change
• CMS.616J Games and Culture
• STS.085 Ethics and the Law on the Electronic Frontier
• STS.360 Ethnography

[Last updated: 25 Jan 2016]