GDC Masterclass returns with new game developer classes from industry experts

It's time to become a leader in video game development. GDC Masterclass is back this fall with a new round of professional virtual courses, helping you build crucial skills to support your work in the studio or your next job hunt.

GDC Masterclass delivers high-level training with industry experts in several game development fields. One of the Game Developers Conference's unique professional offerings, Masterclass is comprised of small-group workshops that deliver in-depth, hands-on training from top professionals in video game development—addressing some of the most important challenges facing developers today. Advanced pricing is available for early registration! More information below.

Based on requests from the community, GDC Masterclass is reviving some of its most-popular classes. These include Kari Toyama and Anthony Price's course on building a strong Quality Assurance (QA) team, Celia Hodent's class on bringing human psychology into your game's User Experience (UX), and more. We're also thrilled to debut a new course from Stephanie Bayer on finding a job and growing your career in Community Management, and several courses from Clinton Keith offering Agile Leadership certification in various disciplines from the Scrum Alliance.

“We’re excited to bring back GDC Masterclass this fall with a selection of our top-performing virtual courses, revamped to reflect the needs of our community,” Stephenie Hawkins, Director of Event Production for Media & Entertainment at Informa Tech, said in a statement. “GDC Masterclass is a vital part of our mission to help game developers improve their craft through education, training, and networking.”

All of our courses will take place completely online via Zoom during PST working hours, although all timezones are welcome to register. Courses will be offered in November with a repeat offering in December (except for select Agile leadership courses). Please read each description carefully and choose the course dates that work best for you when registering.

Fall 2022 Masterclass Courses

Building Excellent Teams and Culture in Game QA

Kari Toyama and Anthony Price will cover hiring, growth, collaboration, and advocating for a QA team in any size studio or company.

November 3-4, 2022
Repeat: December 8-9, 2022

Engagement using Matchmaking and Ranking in Competitive Multiplayer Games

Josh Menke teaches fundmentals of matchmaking and ranking—showing how engaging players with matchmaking requires correctly balancing a player’s perception of playability, fairness, latency, wait time, and other variables for each activity a game provides.

November 3-4, 2022
Repeat: December 8-9, 2022

Community: From Manager to Director: The Evolution will be Internalized

Stephanie Bayer focuses on practical and tactical ways to take your Community Manager career to the next level with the goal of becoming a leader within the Community Management field.

November 3-4, 2022
Repeat: December 8-9, 2022

Psychology and Game UX

Celia Hodent, PhD delves into how the human brain works in terms of perception, attention, and memory (critical elements for usability), and offers insights on human motivation, emotion, and gameflow (critical elements for engaging games).

November 3-4, 2022
Repeat: December 8-9, 2022

The Many Faces of Level Design

Chris Totten coaches attendees in making a series of level design prototypes with small game-making tools, to hone their ability to make exciting experiences for players.

November 4, 2022
Repeat: December 9, 2022

Agile Leadership with Clinton Keith

Certified Agile Leadership for Game Development-Essentials

What issues traditional management approaches are facing in today's volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous (VUCA) world, and why a new leadership approach is needed to improve outcomes in these environments. Upon successful completion of the course, attendees will earn Certified Agile Leadership Essentials (CAL-E) certification from the Scrum Alliance.

November 3, 2022
Repeat: December 8, 2022

Certified Agile Leadership for Game Development-Organizations

The Certified Agile Leadership—Organizations (CAL-O) class will teach you how to shift your mindset about the culture and employees in your studio. Leading an entire organization to become Agile is challenging. Upon successful completion of the course, attendees will earn Certified Agile Leadership Organizations (CAL-O) certification from the Scrum Alliance.

November 4, 2022

Certified Agile Leadership for Game Development-Teams

This course shows how to create a safe-to-fail environment and foster a culture of transparency, inspection, and adaptation to allow for experimentation and continuous learning within your teams. Upon successful completion of the course, attendees will earn Certified Agile Leadership Teams (CAL-T) certification from the Scrum Alliance.

December 9, 2022

We're offering Advanced early bird pricing on most of our GDC Masterclass courses—$749 per course if you register by Tuesday, September 6 at 11:59pm PT. After that, prices will increase incrementally, up to $949 per course. Please note: Due to the nature of the Certified Agile Leadership courses, they run on a unique pricing tier and more information can be found here.

Join the hundreds of satisfied attendees who've thrived after taking a GDC Masterclass game developer course. Learn the latest tools and concepts to become a leader in your field (from the comfort of your home or office), discover networking opportunities with fellow attendees, and gain access to unique course materials to continue your education and training.

GDC returns to San Francisco in March 2023! For more information, be sure to visit our website.

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Game Developer and GDC are sibling organizations under Informa Tech.