Game Design Concepts

I will be running through Game Design Concepts over the next 30 weeks, while creating my own notes here. This isn’t intended to serve as a companion or recreation of the course, merely my own note-taking and creations from the content. Feel free to follow along and provide feedback!
As per the course suggestion my pace will be one ‘Level’ (lesson) per week from 1–10 and then one every two weeks for 11–20. This makes for 30 weeks of lessons in total, however I will take a 1 week break after roughly every 10 weeks.
Each lesson will typically have ‘Homeplay’ (homework) which I will create as separate posts here, linked to at the bottom of each Level.
Course Outline
Week 01 — Level 1: Overview / What is a Game?
Week 02 — Level 2: Game Design / Iteration and Rapid Prototyping
Week 03 — Level 3: Formal Elements of Games
Week 04 — Level 4: The Early Stages of the Design Process
Week 05 — Level 5: Mechanics and Dynamics
Week 06 — Level 6: Games and Art
Week 07 — Level 7: Decision-Making and Flow Theory
Week 08 — Level 8: Kinds of Fun, Kinds of Players
Week 09 — Level 9: Stories and Games
Week 10 — Level 10: Nonlinear Storytelling
Week 11: Vacation from course
Week 12–13 — Level 11: Design Project Overview
Week 14–15 — Level 12: Solo Testing
Week 16–17 — Level 13: Playing With Designers
Week 18–19 Level 14: Playing With Non-Designers
Week 20: Vacation from course
Week 21–22 Level 15: Blind Testing
Week 23–24 — Level 16: Game Balance
Week 25–26 — Level 17: User Interfaces
Week 27–28 — Level 18: The Final Iteration
Week 29–30 — Level 19: Game Criticism and Analysis
Week 31–32 — Level 20: Course Summary and Next Steps