Microsoft is hosting several game development courses over the next few weeks at their Xbox Academy. These courses are exclusive to the Microsoft Store in Sydney, Australia. While this is great news for Australians, there have been no comments about events in other places around the world.

These courses are being held in collaboration with the Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE). There are three courses that anyone can sign up to for free.

Game Design: Design the Next Blockbuster

This course focuses on the conceptual stage of game development. It’s about giving attendees a better idea of the terms and tools used for analysing different game design aspects.

Game Programming: How to Build an Adventure Game

Anyone attending this course will be learning about the Unity game engine. Students will be taught the basics of using the platform including shapes, objects and how they interact with the world. Some basic coding will be taught to students in this course but no experience is needed to undertake it.

Develop Games on Xbox One S

The final course is dedicated to developing programming skills. for the Universal Windows Platform. The UWP is used for the PC, Xbox One, Hololens and also for mobile platforms. While this course introduces students to the platform, it also lets them look at the final product in action.

All of the courses above held by Microsoft are free for all attendees. There will also be light refreshments available during the events. Each of the events is around 3 hours long and take place at different points in the day. However, at the end of the event all students will be able to take their games home with them on the free USB’s that will be handed out.

Sadly it looks as though these events are limited to Australia but it’s possible that Microsoft will hold similar events around the world at a later time. Anyone interested in joining these events at Xbox Academy can find the full details here.