The series has its roots in 2008 when co-creator Daniel Floyd created two video presentations for his respective art history and media theory classes at Savannah College of Art and Design. Theus, Floyd, and Portnow in the show's first iterative art style In addition, the episodes have been syndicated on many websites, including ScrewAttack.

Between September 7, 2011, and December 31, 2013, the show aired on PATV, a distribution channel hosted by Penny Arcade, whose downsizing of partner services after the latter date was cited as the reason for the show's subsequent 'move' to YouTube, where the show is currently aired. The series originally aired on The Escapist from July 28, 2010, to August 10, 2011, before being split off over a financial dispute. The series was developed directly from a series of lecture videos by animator Daniel Floyd, informally known as Video Games And., which ran sporadically from February 17, 2008, to April 16, 2010, with certain episodes written by Portnow.

The series of videos discusses topics pertinent to video game development and game studies, addressing the legitimacy of video games as art, and creating intellectual discourse on important issues in gaming culture. Throme and Jordan Martin and writers Robert Rath, R. Extra Credits is a video lesson series currently run by Matthew Krol and Geoffrey Zatkin, narrated by Matthew Krol, with artists Scott DeWitt, Nick DeWitt, David 'D' Hueso, and Ali R.

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