Game Development Foundations

April 7 - May 9, 2025

The Game Development Foundations Seminar (GDFS) is a 5-week seminar designed to equip Christians with the language and foundational understanding of game development, to be able to engage in that field in a holistic and biblical way.

What to Expect

Each week of the seminar will cover a different topic, in addition to other activities and assignments. The lessons are pre-recorded videos, and can be done at your own pace during each week. These are the topics we’ll be going over:

The Theology of Fun: Unpacking what the Bible may have to say on the subject, as well as learning more about what “fun” is, and how we experience it.
Game Design Basics: You will be introduced to some of the key components of what makes a quality game.
Love as the Foundation: Together we will explore how games can be used to love others, and even reach the Unreached.
Ethical AI Usage: Here we’ll be wrestling with some very challenging questions, and try to figure out if there are ways that we can use AI ethically, to further God’s Kingdom.
Skills and Tools: In this final week we will provide a high level overview of what it takes to make a game. We’ll talk about common tools, managing a project, launching, and marketing.

More Info

Participants will also read through a book on a Christian approach to Video Games, and will answer questions about it.

Every week there will also be a different video-game for participants to play, analyze, and discuss how it relates to the rest of the weeks’ content.

Finally, at the end of each week we will meet together in our community Discord server, to hear a few words from someone with experience in the weeks’ topic, have a Q&A time, and process the weeks’ learnings.

The expected time commitment is around 5hrs per week, though this could vary (and since this is a new course, may need to be adjusted). The end result would be 1 credit (25hrs) with the University of the Nations.

Equipment Requirement:

At minimum you will need a phone or computer with a reliable internet connection. Ideally you will also have a device powerful enough to play some of the weekly games (although research and analysis of others’ playthroughs is an option, it’s not the ideal).