Visual Track · See the system

FIRST
PLAYABLE

Game design from zero, taught in pictures. You will not read about games. You will look at how they actually work and build one this week.

No experience needed Built from MIT CMS.608 Free forever Tabletop · cards · schoolyard

How this course works (the Nordic way)

01

Make, then learn

You build first and read second. The hands teach the head.

02

Failure is data

A broken playtest is a free lesson. Nobody is graded on "fun."

03

Lagom pace

Small steps, no all-nighters. One change at a time, every time.

04

Open to all

Paper, pens, anyone. Talent is everywhere. Access usually isn't.

THE ENGINE

The loop you will live in

Every designer, from your bedroom to a studio in Copenhagen, runs the same four-beat cycle. Memorize this picture. The whole course is just doing it on purpose.

BUILD ugliest playable thing PLAY IT watch real humans LEARN what broke + why CHANGE 1 log it like patch notes
scroll to spawn in · tap a module to open it
THE 3 BUILDS

Boss fights

Three games. Each one teaches the next layer by forcing you to make it. Same rule every time: graded on your process and your written rules, never on whether it slaps.

BOSS 1 · after M3

Single Mechanic

Build a whole game around ONE rule. Strip everything else. See how much depth one good idea can hold.

2–4 players · learn + finish in 20 min · changelog required
BOSS 2 · after M6

Experience & Aesthetics

Pick a feeling first (dread, greed, joy). Reverse-engineer mechanics that make players feel it.

2–4 players · learn + finish in 30 min · feeling stated up front
BOSS 3 · after M8

Perspective

Put players inside one real person's view of a real system. Do the research. Make them feel it.

2–4 players · abstracted model, not full sim · cite your sources