A summer camp-style intro to video game studies, geared towards Zelda fans who want to learn to design and code games. Sign up to participate via the course page on Outschool.
From the start, The Legend of Zelda has helped to define excellence in video game design, blending storytelling, exploration, and technology. For anyone who loves video games and wants to develop their own someday, a close study of the series will provide an important foundation to build upon.
Slides from the course and recommended readings:
Week 1 – The Legend of Zelda (NES original and re-releases)
- A short article on “The Making of The Legend of Zelda”
- New Yorker Profile of Shigeru Miyamoto
- Legends of Localization Translation Comparison and instruction booklet
- “The Story of the Second Quest”
Week 2 – Zelda Series Overview
- Coding Tutorial based on Zelda (and see Khan Academy’s courses)
- Nanowrimo creative writing ideas
- tofugu guide for learning Japanese
- Game Over, by David Sheff, on the business side of Nintendo (multiple versions available on archive.org)
Week 3 – Breath of the Wild and Beyond
- Hyrule Historia and the official Zelda site timelines
- “Making of” video series, including the NES-style prototype for BotW
- Sequel Trailer
There’s more courses and resources out there, of course, but these should give you a good grounding for your Zelda-related studies!
Video Game Academy 