From idea to own game studio in 3 weeks

On July 30, the educational GameDev section for students ended in Novosibirsk. The organizers were Alawar Entertainment , a well-known publisher of casual games for PC & mobile platforms. For three weeks, students from different cities of Siberia developed their own video games and learned from practitioners how to make a successful product.
More than 100 applications were submitted to GameDev School, 37 people took part in the section. The competitive selection of the lucky ones listened to a series of lectures and master classes from Alawar employees on the creation of games for PCs, mobile platforms and social networks from exploring the idea to selling and distributing. In addition to the representatives of Alawar, the trainings were also conducted by the “guest star” - Dmitry Dolgov, 1C technical producer on external game projects.



The main part of the section was the team development of their own gaming applications. The guys united in teams, where there were programmers, artists, and composers. The entire educational program was divided into three blocks. The first block was devoted to the gaming market and game design, the output required to protect their concept before the producer jury. Next was a block dedicated to graphics. And only a few days were devoted to programming. This lesson plan has demonstrated that a variety of roles are important in game devs.
The result was seven toys: four for a PC, two for iOS, and one multiplatform application. The genres of games are mostly arcade games, but there were also logic games and a farm. Of course, three weeks is not enough to create a full-fledged product that can be put on the market, but those teams that have developed during the training will be able to continue working on their ideas. And Alawar will continue to accompany the team, providing the necessary assistance.
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If we talk about the prospects that the teams are waiting for, the two projects will continue to work with Alawar, as with the publisher, and the perspective of distributing the application by Alawar is discussed with the participants of another project. Such cooperation includes not only the marketing promotion of the game, but also assistance in finalizing the application. Well, three projects launched at the School will apply for places in the business incubator of the Technopark of the Novosibirsk Academgorodok, where they will take shape as development studios and receive benefits for renting an office, which is so necessary for start-ups.
Two students of the section, Alawar employees have already been invited to think about working in the company, and soon Alawar HR-department will start the selection for an internship, in which students will gain experience in commercial development in Alawar Friday's Games studios (Novosibirsk) or Alawar Stargaze (Barnaul) and see how arranged work in a large publishing house.



In general, there were much more people willing to participate than the section format could afford, so the training intensives will be repeated in one format or another.

GameDev section page.