The field of learning games is rapidly growing, with interest from academics, publishers, schools and startups. But what makes a good learning game? Where do ideas come from and how do you create them? These are the questions that this course tries to answer.

The premise of learning games from some perspectives seems like a perfect and easy solution - get people to learn things they don’t want to by motivating them through game play. To others it seems like an oxymoron - if learning is hard then it can’t possibly be fun at the same time. The key to designing good learning games is to reconcile these perspectives by creating games that focus on creating environments based on “hard fun.” This idea will be a central tenet of this course.