Game Design & Development Tutorials

Free tutorials and online courses to help you learn game development from experienced industry instructors, for building and designing your own games. Join our community to learn new skills, theory, game dev software, and more. What would you like to learn?

Growing From (and Surviving) Mod Teams
Breaking into the game industry can be a long and rocky road -- where does one even begin? There are many avenues to take on the journey to making games, and...
Jeff Berry
16 Aug 2012
Business
Make a Splash With Dynamic 2D Water Effects
Sploosh! In this tutorial, I'll show you how you can use simple math, physics, and particle effects to simulate great looking 2D water waves and droplets.
Michael Hoffman
14 Aug 2012
Programming
Let's Prototype a Game: Trainpunk
Making quick, simple prototype games is a great way to test out new gameplay ideas quickly, without committing to creating a full-blown game. I like to use...
Olav Larsen
10 Aug 2012
Programming
Create Custom Binary File Formats for Your Game's Data
Your game has data - sprites, sound effects, music, text - and you need to store it somehow. Sometimes you can encapsulate everything into a single SWF,...
Si Robertson
8 Aug 2012
Programming
Collision Detection Using the Separating Axis Theorem
The Separating Axis Theorem is often used to check for collisions between two simple polygons, or between a polygon and a circle. As with all algorithms, it...
Kah Shiu Chong
6 Aug 2012
Collision Detection
How to Learn XNA
XNA is a game development platform from Microsoft that can be used to create games for Windows, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone. In this article, we'll share...
Michael James Williams
5 Aug 2012
How to Learn
Quick Tip: One Great Game Is Better Than Two Good Ones
Sid Meier. If you’re reading anything on this site, you probably already know who this man is. He's one of the biggest names in game development, has been...
Paul Suddaby
3 Aug 2012
Game Design
Tower of Greed - Post Mortem
I've always made games because it's a passion of mine, and the game that best represents this is Tower of Greed. No other game I've created has brought me so...
Porter
1 Aug 2012
Post Mortem
Build a Canabalt-Style Infinite Runner From Scratch
With this screencast tutorial, you'll create an infinitely scrolling, Canabalt-style platformer, from start to finish. The final game has randomly generated...
Matt Luard
31 Jul 2012
From Scratch
Tell Us What You Want on Gamedevtuts+
Gamedevtuts+ is a brand new site, meaning now is the best time to have your say on what you’d like to see here. Whether you’re dying to learn how to learn...
Michael James Williams
30 Jul 2012
News
Welcome to Gamedevtuts+!
Gamedevtuts+ joins Psdtuts+, Vectortuts+, Audiotuts+, Aetuts+, Activetuts+, Cgtuts+, Mobiletuts+, Phototuts+, Webdesigntuts+, Wptuts+, Mactuts+ and Nettuts+...
David Appleyard
29 Jul 2012
News
When Designing a World, Player Mobility Must Come First
Ever played a game that was packed with great set pieces, concepts, characters, and mechanics, but nevertheless felt boring? Perhaps the problem lay in how...
Paul Suddaby
28 Jul 2012
Game Design