Groundbreaking studies from Dr. Yoshiki Sasai’s laboratory have recently introduced novel methods to differentiate mouse and human Embryonic Stem Cells (mESCs and hESCs) into organ-like 3D structures aimed to recapitulate developmental organogenesis programs (Eiraku et al., 2011; Eiraku and Sasai, 2012; Nakano et al., 2012; Kamiya et al., 2011). We took advantage of this method to optimize a 3D protocol to efficiently generate retinal progenitor cells and subsequently retinal neurons in vitro. This culture system provides an invaluable platform both to study early developmental processes and to obtain retinal neurons for transplantation approaches. The protocol described here has been successfully applied to several mouse ESC (including the R1, WD44 and G4 cell lines) and mouse induced-Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPSCs) lines.