👨‍🏫 DIY GAMES! Learn how to design games using stuff you already have at home

😷 Are you stuck at home, feeling overwhelmed by the state of the world these days? Tired of social distancing but cautious about venturing out?

😌 What if taking a break from this stressful moment in history could be creative and purposeful at the same time?

Hi, I’m Matteo and I make games. I’ve even been at the V&A, one of the biggest design museums in the world. But I don’t have a degree in game design.

When I was a kid, I spent many afternoons playing videogames. A few years later, I learned to code so that I could hack together a game about ancient Greek philosophy. Then went on to build digital toys for the BBC and the Science Museum, and teach game design at universities around the UK.

As a grown-up, I’m still obsessed with games, but not your typical kill-everyone-loot-everything type game. 

✊ Games are powerful

When I first played a few years ago, I had an aha moment. As we were strategising on how to save the world from deadly viruses, I realised that games can help us connect with our fellow humans and engage with complex questions, discussing ideas, weighing alternatives, and making decisions together.

Months later, I’ve seen this come to life at a primary school during a playtest of my first own game , when a group of amazing ladies, about 9 years old, managed to create a sustainable and avoid ! In other words, they discovered social democracy while playing a game.

Games are powerful , and that drives me to keep creating them.

💪 Making games is even more powerful

Now I want to teach you how to express your ideas by making your own games.

Making games can help us create something together with the people around us (as well as those we can reach on video-call), feel in control of the little worlds we have created, and maybe even make sense of what we are going through.

Give yourself permission to explore all your emotions and make them playable, which is a beautiful way to share them with other people!

DIY Games is a mini-course that will teach you how to:

1️⃣ Re-awaken your inner game designer by generating lots of game ideas.

2️⃣ Unpick (aka analyse) games and get inspired to make your own.

3️⃣ Turn an old game into your new one, using stuff you already have at home!

Inside this mini-course you will get:

✅ Step-by-step guides

✅ Printable worksheets for each step

✅ Fun hacktivities (yes, that’s not a typo)

⚠️ But I’m not going to teach you how to code, or how to use a game-making app. I’m going to teach you how to think like a game designer and how to make your ideas playable.

⏳ In more or less 2 hours you will go from zero to a personal game you can play with other humans!