The Future of Credentials: Why Game-Making Is Becoming a New Path to Employability

The Livestream Behind This Conversation

This article draws from a recent livestream conversation between Endless Access and the ASU Endless Games and Learning Lab, featuring Elena Ollila, Mark Ollila, and Heather. In the session, the speakers explored the future of microcredentials, the impact of AI on reskilling, and why game-making is uniquely suited to future learning.

In recent years, something fundamental has started to shift in how skills are recognized.

Scroll through LinkedIn and you will see fewer people celebrating diplomas, and more people sharing project portfolios, digital badges, and evidence of what they have actually built. Employers are increasingly looking beyond traditional degrees and asking a different question:

What can this person really do?

This shift is not anecdotal. According to the World Economic Forum, nearly 44% of workers will need reskilling by 2030 due to automation and AI. At the same time, companies like IBM, Google, and Tesla have removed formal degree requirements for many roles, signaling a broader move toward skills-based hiring.

In this new landscape, credentials themselves are being reimagined.

And one of the most unexpected, and powerful, learning environments driving this change is game-making.

From Degrees to Skills: The Rise of Microcredentials

Microcredentials are emerging as a new way to recognize learning in a world where traditional signals are starting to lose their meaning. For decades, degrees functioned as a kind of proxy for ability: if someone completed a program, employers assumed they had acquired a certain set of skills. But as industries evolve faster and roles change more frequently, that proxy has become increasingly unreliable.

Today, what matters is not where someone studied, but whether they can actually demonstrate what they know how to do. Microcredentials respond directly to this shift. Instead of representing years of generalized study, they focus on specific competencies, concrete outcomes, and real-world evidence. They are designed to be portable and verifiable, giving learners something they can carry across jobs, platforms, and professional contexts.

As Elena Ollila, Deputy Director at the ASU Endless Games and Learning Lab, explains:

“Microcredentials give learners the power to tell the story of what they’ve learned. They link directly to evidence of learning.”

In practice, this means learners are no longer limited to saying “I completed a course.” They can point to a project, a product, or a contribution and say: this is what I built, and this is what I’m capable of. Microcredentials transform credentials from abstract signals into narrative tools that help learners make their skills visible in a crowded job market.

At their best, microcredentials share a few defining characteristics:

• they are portable and owned by the learner
• they are linked to verifiable evidence
• they represent specific, applied skills

This is why microcredentials are gaining traction not just in education, but in hiring. Employers increasingly value portfolios and demonstrable work over transcripts and course descriptions. In that sense, microcredentials are not replacing degrees, they are adding a new, more granular layer to how learning is recognized.

Why Games Are Serious Learning Systems

Games are often dismissed as entertainment, but they have always been sophisticated learning environments. Anyone who has spent time inside a complex game knows that success requires problem-solving, strategic thinking, collaboration, experimentation, and persistence. Players learn systems by interacting with them, failing, adapting, and trying again. Exactly the kind of learning processes that modern education claims to value, but rarely operationalizes at scale.

The real shift happens when learners move from playing games to making them. Game-making turns learning into a production process. Instead of consuming content, learners design systems, create assets, build narratives, write code, and coordinate with others. They are no longer just users of technology — they become creators within it.

According to Mark Ollila, Founding Director of the ASU Endless Games and Learning Lab:

“Job skills typically expire in less than five years. The technical expertise you had five years ago doesn’t necessarily apply today.”

This is precisely why game-making is so powerful as a learning model. It mirrors the conditions of modern work: tools change, requirements shift, and teams must constantly adapt. When learners build games, they are not just acquiring technical skills, they are practicing how to learn in uncertain, evolving environments.

Game-making naturally integrates multiple domains into a single experience. A single project can involve design, storytelling, visual and audio production, programming, testing, and project management. These are not isolated competencies taught in separate silos; they are interdependent skills that must be coordinated in real time. The result is a form of learning that is inherently multidisciplinary and deeply applied.

At a high level, game-making cultivates:

• systems thinking and creative problem-solving
• collaboration and communication
• iterative design and production workflows

These are not “gaming skills.” They are future-of-work skills. And because games make these processes visible and tangible, they offer a rare opportunity to connect learning directly to evidence,  which is exactly what modern credentials need.

The Model: ASU, the ASU Endless Games and Learning Lab, and Endless Access

It is important to differentiate the roles in this collaboration.

Arizona State University (ASU) is one of the largest public universities in the US, serving hundreds of thousands of learners.

Within ASU sits the ASU Endless Games and Learning Lab, a research and innovation lab focused on exploring how games, game-making, and emerging technologies can enable scalable, alternative learning pathways.

Partnering with the lab is us, Endless Access, a nonprofit organization focused on providing equitable access to creative, open learning experiences, especially for learners who may not traditionally have access to technology or game development opportunities.

Together, we are building a model where:

• ASU provides academic infrastructure and scale
• The Lab drives credential innovation and research
• Endless Access designs the learner experience and pedagogy

The result is not just a program, but an emerging credentialing ecosystem.

What Does a Microcredential Look Like?

This is not an abstract idea. Learners earn a real, ASU-backed microcredential.

This credential is issued by the ASU Endless Games and Learning Lab in partnership with Endless Access. It represents verified achievement in community game-making, based on real project work.

From Learning to Evidence: Inside a StoryQuest

To earn the microcredential, learners must contribute to a real open-source game,  very cool and unique game called Threadbare. Their main task: build a StoryQuest, a playable mini-game inside Threadbare.

A StoryQuest requires learners to design a narrative experience, create art and sound assets, define game mechanics, collaborate in teams, and ultimately ship a playable artifact. In other words, they do what real creative teams do.

Heather, Director of Learning Programs at Endless Access, describes the philosophy behind this approach:

“It’s not about a grade. It’s about: I made a thing. It didn’t exist before. It exists now.”

This is what makes the credential meaningful: it is always tied to something concrete, public, and playable. You can see examples of these StoryQuests,  with student walkthroughs, in this related article:https://access.endlessstudios.com/blog/why-game-making-is-what-your-classroom-is-missing

Many of the StoryQuests featured there are the exact artifacts learners created to earn their microcredentials.

Why Evidence-Based Credentials Matter

Not all microcredentials are equal. In a world flooded with digital badges, credibility depends on evidence.

Heather summarizes Endless Access’s approach with three principles:

“We want microcredentials to be transparent, evidence-based, and relevant.”

This means that learners know exactly what they must achieve, every credential links to real work, and the skills reflect current industry realities. The ASU Endless Games and Learning Lab has adopted the same standard: every credential must include a tangible artifact,  not just assessment scores.

This turns credentials into something radically different. They are no longer symbols of completion. They become proof of contribution.