Integration of Environmental Sustainability Issues into the “Game Design Theory and Practice” Design Course

International and Taiwanese research has suggested that education for sustainable development (ESD) requires interdisciplinary research and teaching. There is a lack of sustainable art and design courses in the field of humanities. We have learned that design students have neither a concern for the surrounding environment nor the ability to resolve social issues when teaching design. This study is intended to integrate sustainable development issues into design courses and apply design to resolve issues so that students can develop the ability to think creatively and solve environmental sustainability issues. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of integrating sustainable development issues into “Game Design Theory and Practice” design course and to construct a model of “design course on environmental sustainability.” This study applied the action research method and incorporated the PBL (problem-based learning) and ADDIE (analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation) modes. Ultimately, based on the results of course planning and implementation, we proposed the model of “design course on environmental sustainability,” with priorities given to: (1) The introduction of environmental sustainability issues; (2) the introduction of design methods by teachers; (3) the promotion of students’ participation in design thinking and discussion; (4) students’ adjustments to the design according to players’ feedback; and (5) interaction and communication between different characters. The results demonstrated that the integration of sustainable development issues into the planning and implementation of the “Game Design Theory and Practice” design course had positive effects. Game design could be used as a method and tool to encourage students and players to assume sustainable citizenship and to generate a concern for sustainable development in interesting game contexts. These findings can contribute to the future development of design education at colleges and universities.