Design Oriented (DO) is a learning community that focuses on game design and related skills. We teach design through communal learning and our proprietary curriculum. We also offer professional feedback for game projects. Our ultimate goal is to redesign our world to improve the quality of human interaction.

Our game design community discusses games on a deeper level than anywhere else. We keep the conversation focused by sticking to twelve "DO Topics." This atomic level of organization helps us focus on digestible chunks of information and present clear examples.

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DO Calendar

Visit our Calendar page to learn about our regular events (design topics, streams, play sessions, anime watch parties) and download our calendar so you don't miss out.

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Game Breakdown

Game Breakdown is a consulting service we offer developers. Each session is hosted in a virtual space where our team can play your game, breakdown its design, and equip you with the tools needed to improve. You'll get a mix of design consulting, business advice, play-testing, and brainstorming all from a collaborative, communal, and fun session.

DO TOPIC WHEEL

The DO Topic Wheel is a handy interactive tool for learning essential game design terms through constructive color-coded categories. Hover over each segment to reveal a definition. See link at the bottom of the page for a downloadable text version of the glossary.

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DO DISCORD

The DO Discord is a safe space to deep dive into game design. Topics come and go by the day, but our deepest conversations are maintained for months, even years. Many of us are actively working on game projects. We take advantage of the reliable, high quality feedback from the DO community.

DO TWITCH

The Design Oriented Twitch Channel regularly hosts live streams. DO LIVE is an opportunity for anyone to bring topics or ask questions in a live format. You can jump into our discord voice chat or twitch chat to participate. Vods are posted to our YouTube channel.

DO YouTube

The Design Oriented YouTube Channel contains all of our Twitch vods and other produced videos.

Twitter

Our twitter account will ask questions, feature polls, and post intriguing ideas targeting game designers. It's a great way to learn about our discussions without checking the discord channel.

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Drawn Together was a communal learning experiment. We use an online workshop format to explore how to draw and improve as a community. Whether we use digital drawing pads or traditional pen and paper, we found ways to share our art, learn from one another, play drawing games (we're game designers after all), and keep the inspiration flowing.

The Mario Maker Workshop (MMW) was a free, online game design school that operates like a community. We used Super Mario Maker 2 as a platform to rapidly test and share ideas. The workshop taught level design and game design lessons using a unique communal learning method. The workshop has concluded, but the members still do work weekly.

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Richard Terrell (@KirbyKid) is the founder of Design Oriented, creator of the Critical-Gaming blog, project lead of the Starseed Observatory, one of three designers of BaraBariBall of Sportsfriends, and creator of OneSmash.