An introductory course on why and how people enjoy games, appreciate them as art, and how science and research findings can help in creating better games. Covers topics such as emergence, economics, balancing, psychology, perceptual-motor control.
Aalto MyCourses page: https://mycourses.aalto.fi/course/section.php?id=300920
This course replaces the old Game Analysis course. Some of the slides below are still from that course and will be updated.
Contents
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.
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
More to explore: Game Poems from the 2025 run of the course (the slides feature older ones)
https://feigege.itch.io/a-journey-to-mercury
https://reaktori.itch.io/pac-man