The course content (videos, mini quizzes, assignments) were really great. Fran explained things in a really accessible way, and used useful examples. The course was in nice bitesize segments and the pace was nicely balanced to make steady progress each week while still challenging you and pushing you creatively.

The only disappointing thing was the community/peer feedback. Unfortunately many people just give a one word answer (presumably to just get their credit) and I feel this is unfair to those of us who take the time to actually review others' work properly. It takes a lot of work to "promote" your assignment in the forum to ask for more feedback so you can hope to get something useful. It also seems that Coursera just takes the first 2 reviews submitted on your assignment, and it's unclear if any more people can even submit feedback (or if they do, whether you'll see it), so I'm not even sure if trying to ask more people for feedback would even work. Across the 4 weeks I probably only got 2 real peer reviews, the rest were "Nice" or "Great" or non-specific. It's a shame because feedback is so important.

I completed this course on a free trial. I might consider paying to continue with the rest of the specialisation as I really got value from the content and assignments, and I would definitely consider paying for it if there was better guarantee around quality feedback. Perhaps pairing people (that way you can see how your buddy and their work evolves over the course), or having a way to request mentor feedback. I would even probably pay for mentor/staff feedback specifically.

This course inspire me a lot. It is not easy, but with tons of fun. I spent a long time to think out the idea and make it and improve it. I did progress in gaming making as a fresh man. Thank you!

Quite useless. I didnt feel that I learned anything at all. Assingments seem to be dessinged by someone very lazy. The limitations of the assingments do not allow the students to practice what its been tought, but it is asked in the peer assingment from the students to evaluate it!. I understand that when calling it "Introduction", it is supposed to be aimed for people totally starting from 0. But still, I cant see how this course is of any use. It is short and does not cover anything. I am very surpirsed that getting the certificate for this course costs the same (in $) than getting the certificate of the Introduction to Principles of Game Design. Principles of Game Design has more than double hours of classes and in the assingments you actually create a game and practice new stuff. This course was very dissappointing.

It was helpful as it showed me several tricks and tips on how to create a story and properly balance a game. While also showing me see how other people could complete something with different ideas.

I really enjoyed this course. It was a lot of fun designing and redesigning a game, as well as getting to play other people's games. I enjoyed the lectures and found the peer reviews very helpful.

Incredibly basic and lean. I was hoping to learn more and the whole 'The faster you go the more money you save' slogan is rubbish because you constantly need to wait for dates to submit assignments. Peers don't give feedback or the UX is bad because I can't find it, and I know I'm not alone. Slightly unimpressed with Coursera thus far, but I will persist and hopefully the rest of this specialization is better. There's also a mistake on the banner of the specialization, saying 'Create Imaginative Games. Design a video game for independent distribution in just four courses. ' - when it's actually five. Poor. Really poor. I feel I might have been better off learning for free on youtube and I know $50 p/m is not a lot for someone in the USA but for those of us from third world countries...it hurts a little, especially when we are held back by peer review systems and fixed dates. I've bought training off Udemy for MUCH cheaper (discount specials) and it is vastly superior at the moment, but I must confess this was my first Coursera course. I'm also doing the Gamification one and it seems much better.

Fran Krause is the best teacher. He really knows what are games, what we use them for and How make them fun!

In simply steps he tought me that game designing is what i want to do in my life

The teacher is wonderful, the course is very fun and wonderfully structured - I would highly recommend it! It is in itself like a multiplayer game that I enjoyed playing! :) The peer-reviewed assignments were really allowing me to learn by doing and to gradually learn from my and others' mistakes. All together, it was great!

The lecture videos from Professor Fran and his old friend were surprisingly entertaining. Kudos to the team because they were able to make it fun, informative, and engaging throughout the four weeks.

The course is great and I had a lot of fun experimenting with the assignments and trying to come up with different ideas. There's a big problem though, and it revolves around the fact that the course is now followed by a small number of students and the teaching staff is absent, emerging from the shadows just to drop a few answers on the forum every now and then. The course need more love, as the assignments aren't always clear and some support could be of help to students. Anyway, the content is great and it is tuned well to the beginners level.

The videos are excellent and the teacher demonstrate vast knowledge in the area. But, I miss a more professional feedback on our submissions, sometimes it doesn't help at all, we're basically doing it by our own all the time, I believe the results could be even better with a better guidance.

This course was my first footing on Game Design and it was truly interactive by actually giving its learners something to create in paper and post every week. I could have made some game designs myself but would have probably been somewhat stuck along the way wondering when to do what. Given that, perhaps this course linearly took things every step at a time. I hear this is the primary course of a five part series. Definitely looking forward to trying the rest whenever possible. The only thing that may have taken more time is waiting for your work to be reviewed which sometimes takes a couple of days longer. Rest assured this is one of those courses that really takes your time's worth and leaves you with some valuable contributions of your own. I rarely rate anything 5 stars so this one truly earned it.

It was an entertaining course which you can build things on paper. Which is nice if you are not friendly with computers. The only not-so-liked part was try to fit the assignments in a single side A4 page only. We had 4 assignments in each of the assignments except one, we are encouraged to build our assignments on previous assignments. So I needed more 2 papers in the last because I included graphics, a story, explanations on how to play, on multiplaying, etc. But it is fun, so it was worth trying it.

I was surprised at how difficult at first people made their simple games for the first few weeks. It was cool to see some really creative games that inspired and helped me with my ideas as well. The teaching videos were great and immersive that I laughed out loud at sometimes. Like "don't touch that there's a bomb" and then just touching the bomb and the puppet exploding. (2 ways to explain something in a game)

I loved the course and look forward to the second course! Thank you CALARTS!!!!

It's fun, the course members gave some good feedback (some members didn't review my assignments at all though, they just left a blank comment). The staff of the course isn't active, but there are some mentors (not lecturers, just some volunteers). If you want to find some advice for making a game design document, this course is for you. It's short, but it's consistent. And you'll also have some practice in making a game design document.

I really loved doing this course. Learnt how to make a simple game and make it really interesting! I loved how the easily the instructor was able to teach us and make us curious throughout the course.

My review is when i'm already in week 3 of this course. Really worthed to participate in this course, especially when you've finished your assignment and your classmate review your works! :)

The content is too general and the assignments are not challenging at all. It makes me feel like this course is for kids.

Feedback was very poor. Instruction is generally minimal and there is not a lot to learn from this course. The reason why this course works so poorly is the reliance on other enrolled individuals to provide important feedback. An alarming amount of student work I peer reviewed showed very little consideration for the project goals and one sentence descriptions. In addition, my work would sometimes receive one sentence feedback. There was absolutely no assurance that I would get constructive feedback. It's also possible to resubmit my work for a regrade, which can very easily be exploited. The worst students could complete this course in a single afternoon. This course needs an overhaul on evaluation.

The content of the course was great, but forcing people to wait for peers to grade (which in my case took a week per assignment) is ridiculous and clearly just drags out time to make you pay more for the monthly subscription. Remove this feature or require fewer peers.

I went in this course with high expectations. After I watched all of the videos for the first week and saw the hilarious homework I quickly checked what this is about.

LESS THAN 3 HOURS OF VIDEOS! Not to mention paying, you will be better off with Extra Credits...

This course starts off a bit degrading with the puppets and such, which can make you feel like you're being talked down to like a child, but if you stick with it, the course actually pans out nicely and has some decent topics to cover. I genuinely enjoy the instructor and actually went out to get a couple copies of his Deep Dark Fears anthologies; Fran's attention to detail and imagination is a joy to experience.

I found that the peers performing the reviews of my assignments were a bit too focused on the hard and fast requirement of the assignments, rather than keeping their eyes on the figurative prize, that being the "fun" factor; rather than focusing on the level of enjoyability, which I view as paramount, I found time and time again that my peers were steadfastly grasping the submission's guidelines until they got proverbial white knuckles.

The fact that not only the game board, but also the pieces and rules all on one sheet of paper must all fit to one single-sided sheet of paper is a catch 22 here, as whenever I crammed it all into one sheet, I got negative feedback that (nomater how much brevity was exercised) it felt cramped, whereas when I provided supplemental materials to address said issue, I was docked points for going beyond one single-sided sheet of paper.

I find this incredibly frustrating and in direct spite of the fundamental point being conveyed throughout this course. I very much expected to see the assignment allow for more sheets of paper as we progressed, so I found this incredibly limiting, and served as a distraction from the points I was meant to explore.

I really liked that course! You should think about it as an introduction class, otherwise you will be really disappointed with its content. Speaking for my academic experience, I already know how to program a game, but I never had the chance to study the Game Design field. This course forced me to use a creatively thinking process to focus on some important aspects, like rules, multiplayer, and more.

Do not take this class if: you are looking for academic resources, books references, lot of theory to study.

Take this class if: you are looking for some challenges, with motivational contents, that can push you to express yourself with your own force and skills!

Videos are also very fun to follow! I think that Frank is an awesome teacher, with great communication skills.

I enjoyed this course very much, it was insightful since it clarified some preconceptions I had about Game Design. I honestly did not know what to expect from this course, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well structured it is and how much it offered. The instructor did this course in such a way that it seemed uncomplicated even if he was dealing with some core concepts of Game Design, so it was easy to understand why certain things had to be done a certain way. I loved the peer review because it helped me understand what I could improve and what I did well. People were overall polite, very helpful and friendly.

This is an exceptionally really goods course. It's a nice, simple introduction to Board Game Design. It doesn't require you to use any software or animated drawing programs, you can achieve the course by using a Pen and A Piece of Paper. In this course, Fran uses simple language, and humour to aid the learning. I cannot draw at all, but found the content to learn, and the assignments easy to complete. I thoroughly recommend this course to anyone looking at Board Game Design, or those of you who are Concept Creators (Logos) etc, as it has helped me to develop my skills and knowledge. Robert Cooper (UK)