Harvard’s Free Computer Science Courses in 2024

4. Professional Certificate in Computer Science for Game Development

These courses will guide you through Harvard’s most popular undergraduate course, CS50: An Introduction to Computer Science. The first course will introduce you to common programming languages, providing a solid foundation for developing the skills required to create and build your own game.

The second course will teach you the principles of game development itself. To understand how video games are created, you will examine the design of classic games as well as recent titles such as Angry Birds and Portal.

What You’ll Learn:

The video games of the 1970s and 1980s are still popular today. Games like Pong, Super Mario Bros., and The Legend of Zelda defined a generation and paved the way for the billion-dollar video game industry of today. Even among the current blockbuster action-adventure titles, retro indie games remain important. But what does it take to become a game designer and create the next big hit?

These courses will take you through the most popular undergraduate course at Harvard, CS50, which is an Introduction to Computer Science. The first course will introduce you to common programming languages, providing a strong foundation to build the skills necessary to design and develop your own game. The second course will focus on the fundamentals of game programming.

You’ll study the design of classic games, as well as newer titles like Angry Birds and Portal, in order to understand how video games are built. Through lectures and hands-on projects, you’ll explore the principles of 2D and 3D computer graphics, animation, sound, and collision detection. You’ll learn how to use frameworks like Unity and LÖVE 2D, as well as programming languages like Lua and C#. By the end of the courses, you’ll be able to program your own games and have a thorough understanding of game design and development. Course link

After completing the Professional Certificate in
Computer Science for Game Development, learners will understand:

• A broad and robust understanding of computer science, programming, and software development
• Familiarity in a number of languages, including C, JavaScript, Python, SQL, CSS, and HTML
• Principles of 2D and 3D graphics, animation, sound, and collision detection
• Unity and LÖVE 2D, plus Lua and C#
• The fundamentals of game design and development
• Concepts like abstraction, algorithms, data structures, encapsulation, resource management, security, software engineering, and web development