A course on how science and research findings can help one create better games. Covers topics such as emergence, economics, balancing, psychology, perceptual-motor control.

Contents

Videos vs. slide notes

I update the lectures frequently and don’t have the resources to re-record videos every time.

Instead, the pdf slide notes include full narration. To view the notes, click“view original” or download the pdf. Notion’s embedded pdf viewer does not show the notes.

Introduction

What are games and game design? What interesting things lie at the fringes of the definitions? How can research and science help in creating games?

Lecture slides:

Intro to game analysis and research_2025.pdf

Emergence and game design

Lecture slides (my speech transcribed as notes which you can view by clicking “view original” or downloading the pdfs):

MDA_and_emergence_2025.pdf

Game design math, balancing, analytics

Part 1: Business & Economics

Lecture slides

gdmath_2025_part1.pdf