I've started to see more tabletop game design courses popping up, some more expensive than others. While it is great that these opportunities exist, my recommendation would be when starting out in game design, spend as little money as possible.

For one, there are amazing communities, podcasts, streams and free resources available online, such as the work of @CardboardEdison, @BGDesignLab, @stuffByBez, @idlemichael and many more.

Secondly, no time spent studying game design can really substitute for the real thing, sitting down and trying to design a game. It is in this moment, and the many moments of iterating, playtesting and reflecting afterwards, that you truly hone the craft of game designing.

And importantly, when you are starting out, you don't even know if this is something you will even enjoy (and its fine if you don't!). There is no point spending money on a course only to realise one or two lessons in that it isn't really for you.

Its one of the reasons that I love the Playtest UK network and the fundamental principle it was founded on - you should be able to come to a meet up and get their game played without a financial barrier, as long as they reciprocate and give back in kind (playtesting other games).

This advice also extends to prototyping, another area where it is easy to spend a lot of money early on in a design that won't necessarily help you get to the final destination of a finished game.