Envato expands online education platform into game development

Australian company Envato has just expanded its online education platform Tuts+ with the addition of a hub for game development education.

Gamedevtuts+ launched overnight with four pre-published tutorials, including one on world design and a couple on developing platformers. It is edited by Michael James Williams, who also edited recently shuttered Activetuts+.

Envato is most famous for its marketplaces, which includes the largest premium WordPress theme retailer, ThemeForest. It is also known for Tuts+, an online education platform that provides creative and technical tuition for free on its blogs, or for a $19 per month subscription to Tuts+ Premium content.

Envato is one of Australia’s largest bootstrapped technology companies that, not long ago, was stilled labeled a startup. While it stays under the radar even compared to much smaller players in the country, it’s a beacon of optimism for other Australian founders who live in a typically risk-adverse culture.

Envato often pairs tutorial sites with its marketplaces, and one can imagine that marketplace data is useful in predicting the success or decline of related publications. Recently it closed Activetuts+, which focused on Flash and Silverlight tutorials, technologies that are becoming increasingly less relevant.

Given that game assets for Unity users and other related products are popular on Envato’s Marketplaces, Gamedevtuts+ was an obvious choice to take its place.