Serious games are games with purpose beyond just providing entertainment. Examples include, but are not limited to, games for learning, games for health, and games for policy and social change. Designing effective, engaging serious games requires theoretical understanding of learning, cognition, emotion, and play. Along with great game design, serious games need content and pedagogy expertise, design research, and impact research.

Our fully online graduate certificate and our MA graduate program are designed to help you gain the knowledge and experience you will need to create meaningful play and serious games.

Situated within the Telecommunication, Information Studies, & Media department at Michigan State University, the Serious Game Design and Development courses aim at the heart of serious game design, that magical region where theory and content intersect with game design. Game design for entertainment already requires diverse, multidisciplinary expertise. Serious game design calls upon vastly wider range of expertise and roles.