Agenda

Drawing from five years running a student-led game studio, this Power Talk breaks down how to start making games in college and leave something that outlasts graduation. It focuses on the unglamorous mechanics: recruiting and onboarding across semesters, building a ship-first culture, scoping for part-time teams, and setting up lightweight production systems (docs, sprints, playtests, and decision logs). Attendees see how a small group turns into a reliable pipeline: from prototype to vertical slice to release, while protecting morale and creative ambition. The talk shares hard-earned failures, the specific rituals that fixed them, and the metrics that signal whether a student studio is growing into a sustainable community or just sprinting toward burnout.

Takeaway

Attendees leave with a concrete starter kit: a semester-based milestone map, a recruiting/onboarding funnel, a minimal documentation stack that survives turnover, and a playtest loop that converts campus curiosity into shipped builds and repeat contributors.

Intended Audience

Ideal for student developers, indie producers, and educators building campus programs. Helpful for anyone managing part-time, high-turnover teams who still want to ship.