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. Thome and Jordan Martin and writers Robert Rath, R. Kevin Doyle and other staff members.

Since Floyd had started working at Pixar Canada at the time, Portnow also enlisted colleague Allison Theus to handle the art.

In May 2011, The Escapist and the show's creators hosted the Extra Credits Innovation Awards at LOGIN 2011, which was meant to praise developers who were willing to take risks and push the boundaries of video games as a medium.

[10] Alexander Macris, then-content director for The Escapist, led the claim and stated the money should have been used to create more episodes of Extra Credits and to compensate parent company Themis Media for donation incentives, such as premium memberships and T-shirts.

[11] As a result, Extra Credits broke ties with The Escapist,[12] and after a brief four-week stint posting directly to YouTube,[13] the show was picked up by Penny Arcade's PATV network.

[14] The indie fund would ultimately be created under Extra Credits LLC, which was started on November 18, 2011, and holds the show's unregistered IP rights.

Later, Theus departed from the series to work full-time at Retro Studios (though she still contributes to spin-off mini-series) and was replaced by webcomic artist Scott DeWitt.

In December 2013, Penny Arcade announced the downsizing of its services, including the detachment of Extra Credits and other partner shows from PATV.

On May 23, 2018, in the episode "Choice Paralysis - Too Much Of A Good Thing", Daniel Floyd announced that he and Carrie would be leaving Extra Credits, and that Matt Krol would take over as new narrator and showrunner.

"[20] On June 9, 2018, former media director Soraya Een Hajji went public on Twitter about leaving the show due to growing tensions with Portnow after their romantic relationship had ended.

[21] Extra Credits responded with a statement on their website in which they confirmed there had been a complaint but stated that an independent investigation "found no evidence of improprieties with regards to the claims of workplace harassment.

"[22] Soraya later clarified that James had never "physically or sexually harmed me and never stalked, intimidated, or acted violently toward [her]", continuing that her statements were "made in the context of a difficult breakup... At the time, Extra Credits did not have access to HR resources to navigate situations such as mine".

[23] The show is presented in the style of a lecture hall, and addresses the topic of the week with illustrations and random imagery from various sources on the internet, with a strong focus on visual puns.

The tone is generally light-hearted and often humorous, but always didactic, intended to educate the audience and encourage discussions on the presented subject.

[25] Extra Credits is also a big proponent of independent developers, although it has been frequently stated that they don't want to see only "art house" games either.

July 1, 2011 marked the creation of a fan-operated community surrounding Extra Credits with a Steam group indirectly started in response to Theus' injury, and which was supported by Portnow.

Meant for PAX East 2012, a tribute video to Extra Credits was also made featuring some fans and colleagues of the crew.

[28] The forum was independently spun off as Bonus Points, while a semi-official Discord server was established to fill the community gap and a new official website was launched in late 2017.

[34] After moving to YouTube, the team decided to make use of their space to expand their channel with new series running on different days of the week.

The show has its own dedicated staff, including art by David Hueso, Lilienne Chan, Heather McNabb and Nick DeWitt, and music by Deana and Sean Kiner.

Various gameplay and discussion streams have since been aired by Echo Diaz, David Hueso, James Portnow, and Matt Krol.

With the change, several podcast-style discussions began airing regularly each week; Design Club Live with Kunkel and Geoffrey Zatkin covers in-depth discussion on aspects of game design, sometimes expanding on the animated Extra Credits videos, Extra Breakfast with Kunkel and Krol covers industry and media news topics, and Extra Politics features Kunkel, Adi Blake, Ryan Dancey, and Luke Peterschmidt covers current events outside of the games industry.

The purpose of this channel is to provide a place for the team to post more casual, less-scripted videos that wouldn't fit on Extra Credits.