Game Development Bootcamps: The Definitive Guide

Table of Contents

• Bitmaker Labs
• DaVinci Coders
• Eleven Fifty Academy
• Game Art Institute
• Immersive Tech Lab
• Make School
• Playcrafting

The independent game development market has never been more alive marking this as an opportunistic time to press start learning the trade. As of March 2015, Epic’s Unreal Engine, Unity 5, and Valve’s Source 2 are all free for developers.  The rise of independent game titles being funded through Kickstarter campaigns has opened the door for small groups of aspiring developers to gain funding for their creative inspirations. These game development courses will provide you with the foundation to begin turning your game concepts into playable titles. So what are you waiting for?  

Bitmaker Labs

In Toronto, Canada Bitmaker Labs hosts a part-time introduction to game development course. The course is taught by industry professionals. Students learn to use C# along with the Unity game engine to design multi-platform titles. The course helps students get accustomed to all elements of game development including programming, rendering, animation, physics, audio, and deployment. The final project for the course is a dual analog style game. Bitmaker Labs also provides guidance on how to further develop projects and deepen skills after completion of the course.

• Tuition: $2,250
• Course Length: 12 Weeks
• Schedule: Tuesday 6:30pm-9:30pm
• Platforms: PC, Android, iPhone
• Technologies: C#, Unity

DaVinci Coders

Boulder, Colorado’s DaVinci Coders has put together this 11-week game development course for people interested in learning how to be a junior level software engineer. Students will focus on how to use C# in conjunction with Unity game engine to design and develop games. DaVinci coders has put together a robust game dev curriculum. The course provides techniques for both 2D and 3D design. Students will learn how to complete beginner to advanced game development tasks for calibrating game physics, terrain design, implementing sprite sheets, level design, and shaders.  Along with learning these pure game dev skills, students will become acquainted with advanced C# and Java. All participants attend community events and will be introduced to professionals in the game development field.

• Tuition: $6,000
• Course Length: 11 Weeks
• Schedule: Tue & Thur 6:30pm - 9:30pm, Sat 10am - 1:40pm
• Platforms: PC, Android, iPhone
• Technologies: C#, Unity

Eleven Fifty Academy

Eleven Fifty Academy of Indianapolis holds a two-day introduction to Unity course for game dev enthusiasts looking to attend an in person crash course on all essentials of Unity 5. Students are required to have a basic understanding of C# syntax. This is an excellent opportunity for those who played around with some online tutorials to really solidify coding techniques for 2D and 3D game design. The course covers all the basics of game development. The essential takeaway from this course will be getting comfortable with the Unity interface and understanding how to connect all the moving pieces such as game controllers, physics, scripts, and lighting.

“The Unity course at Eleven Fifty Academy is designed to accelerate your learning curve by months, while still allowing the students to be completely immersed in the worlds they create. All the major core Unity components are covered so students will have the knowledge to take on any challenges they are presented within real-world situations," said Matt Mershon, brand manager at Eleven Fifty Academy.

• Tuition: $500
• Course Length: 2 Days
• Schedule: Saturday & Sunday 9am- 5pm
• Platforms: PC, Android, iPhone
• Technologies: C#, Unity

Game Art Institute

Game Art Institute offers online courses in game art development and virtual reality development. The Game Art bootcamps encompass skills and the workflows needed to kickstart a career in game design and development. During the courses, Unity and C# programming are used to build movement, interaction, UIs, and avatars. 

• Tuition: $2,600
• Course Length: 12 weeks
• Schedule: Part-time
• Technologies: Unity, C#

Immersive Tech Lab

Immersive Technology Lab (ITL) offers The Creator's Program in Vancouver, BC where students grades 10-12 can learn the skills necessary for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality software development. Students will learn industry standard software development tools and practices including C# and Unity while also learning how to present and execute a product or service to clients.

• Tuition: $3,500
• Course Length: 4 Weeks
• Schedule: M-F, 3:30pm-9:30pm
• Platforms: Various Virtual Reality Platforms
• Technologies: C# and Unity

Make School

Make School of New York and San Francisco holds an eight week Summer Academy with the core goal of students building their own original iPhone game. Students will work with relevant technologies like Objective-C, Cocoa, and Xcode. The program features videos and lectures by industry experts. There will also be opportunities to learn the ins and outs of good game design by cloning games like Flappybird and Angry Birds. The course culminates with students designing and completing a game of their very own.

• Tuition: $6,000
• Course Length: 2 Weeks
• Schedule: Monday-Friday 9am-5pm
• Platforms: iOS
• Technologies: Swift, Xcode, Cocoa

Playcrafting

Playcrafting provides bootcamps that will take students from beginner to intermediate game developer thanks to their quality instructors. Students will build three small games with the class, and a fourth game independently. By the end of the course, students are able to build out their game idea and export it to the platform of their choice. 

• Tuition: $2,000
• Course Length: 8 Weeks
• Schedule: Monday and Wednesday
• Platforms: Various Platforms
• Technologies: Unity and C#

Did we miss a school? Let us know in the comments!