Join Xbox Academy at the Flagship Microsoft Store to Design and Create Your First Video Game

When you play video games enough to consider making one yourself, hands-on is the best way to learn.

At Microsoft, we’re about inspiring creators, and to empower the next new wave of gaming creativity, Microsoft Store is excited to announce Xbox Academy is back – this time class is in session at the New York and Sydney flagship stores! Xbox Academy is a series of FREE, hands-on game development classes that aims to foster creativity and STEM education outside of the classroom.

In partnership with the Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE) – an award-winning educator for the game development, 3D animation and visual effects industries – the flagship Microsoft Store are looking to prepare the next generation of developers and provide hands-on mentoring for how to design and code games on Xbox One and PC. You will be able to save the games you create at the flagship Microsoft Stores onto a complimentary USB flash drive, then continue to work on them in between classes and after the session has concluded.

The program will feature three unique courses, each covering a different aspect of the game development process to inspire new ways to build, create, play and transform ideas. Class will be in session at the flagship Microsoft Stores in New York and Sydney, where students aged 14 and over can take part in a series of creative workshops that are officially accredited by AIE. This means learnings carry over into full-time courses if students want to further pursue game design as a potential career path.

When and How to Join

Flagship Microsoft Store in New York: Sunday, Aug. 20 to Sunday, Sept. 3; visit here to register.

Flagship Microsoft Store in Sydney: Monday, Sept. 25 to Sunday, Oct. 1; visit here to register.

Game Development

The Game Development course covers how to make a game and run it on your own Xbox One, and you’ll learn to design games that can run on PC and Xbox One. In addition to developing a game yourself, you can use Visual Studio to deploy it to an Xbox One and play it.

Game Programming

The Game Programming course teaches you how to build an adventure game and how to use the cross-platform game engine Unity, which is behind great Xbox One games like Ori and the Blind Forest, and lets you introduce objects and properties into your game through its graphical interface.

Game Design

The Game Design course focuses on teaching you how to conceptualize designs for a game and pitch your idea for the next brilliant independent breakout. Participants will be using Adobe Photoshop to draw directly onto Surface Pro 4, and will get feedback on their ideas from experienced game designers.

Since every Xbox One can easily be turned into a development kit, you can also develop the skills you learn during Xbox Academy at home by tinkering around with the free Dev Mode Activation app on your retail Xbox One console. Additionally, you can take advantage of the Xbox Live Creators Program to directly publish your games to Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs with a simplified certification process and no concept approval required – get started with a Dev Center account here for as little as $20.

If you’re the creative mind behind the next Halo, Forza or Cuphead – or if you’re just looking to have some fun – we’d love for you to join us.

We’re excited to play what you create at the Xbox Academy at Microsoft Store!