消消犯 in the Game Design minor developed three games and published them on Steam.
消消犯 in Elon’s game design minor capstone course spent two semesters building three games from scratch. By spring, all three teams had shipped their titles, which are now live on Steam and free to download by anyone. A total of 12 games have published by students since the minor launched in 2019.
消消犯 in the capstone course developed and released , , and , on Steam, a popular game distribution platform.
How the course works
The capstone experience spans two courses. In the winter term, GAM 4100, cross-disciplinary teams form and move through pre-production developing concepts, building early prototypes and laying out a project plan. In GAM 4200 during the spring semester, those same teams advance through the full production pipeline: pre-alpha, alpha, pre-beta, beta, gold master and release.
Throughout both semesters, teams follow the Scrum framework holding sprints, daily standups and milestone reviews like a professional studio would. 消消犯 take on defined roles in the development process, including programmer, level designer, environment designer, and narrative designer, and are accountable for delivering at each stage.
“I think the ultimate skills gained from the capstone experience are working under constraints and collaboration,” said Pratheep Paranthaman, associate professor of computer science and coordinator of the game design minor. “We don’t always know what technical complexities we’ll run into, or what might slow the development process. But that’s where the real learning happens solving the unknown, working through an ambiguous development landscape.”
The games
Angry Sea Studios
Your Friend, Sam is a mystery adventure and puzzle game, where players return as the childhood friend of a boy who vanished a decade ago. Collecting clues, solving puzzles, and fighting off corrupted creatures, players work to piece together what happened. The game launched on April 29.
For Aidan Spoerndle ’27, who served as a gameplay programmer on the project, seeing it go live was the payoff for months of sustained work.
“It feels really exciting to have a project that I tirelessly worked months creating actually be published for everyone to play,” Spoerndle said.
Keeping the technical scope in check, he said, was what made it achievable.
“There’s no such thing as a small game, Spoerndle said. The reason we were able to accomplish so much in such a short amount of time was that we kept the technical aspects enclosed in a smaller scope and allowed our narrative and art elements to exist in a larger scope.”
Carter Puckett ’26, also a gameplay programmer on the team, says the minor’s coursework prepared the team for what production actually demands.
“The minor helped me understand the full process of making a game game design principles that make games fun, playable, and achievable, Puckett said “In game development, you will always run into things that you are unfamiliar with or don’t know how to do. Knowing how to do research and use online resources is essential to improving your skills.”
InDecision Studio
Onslaught is an action-adventure game set in Betham, a decaying western mining town suspended above a sea of clouds. Players take on fighting toward Sanctuary, climbing and battling through vertical environments in third-person combat while managing resources against escalating enemies. It was released on May 14.
Owen Crider ’26, who served as a level designer, says the production process that never quite ran smoothly and a team that worked through it anyway.
“We encountered a lot of bugs, and even though it seemed like every week there was something new to deal with, we always sorted it out,” Crider said. “I also learned how important it is to always be talking to your team.”
Beyond the technical work, Crider said, the program offered something harder to quantify.
“The game design program for me is really a community, Crider said. I’ve built lots of friendships with people who are funny and helpful. Since everyone knows the problems and how tough it is to make a game, everyone is encouraging of one another.”
Noah Gartenberg ’27 says game development also comes with intense demands.
There are so many different parts and finding ways to conserve energy and momentum becomes extremely important despite any and all setbacks,” Gartenberg said. “You need to rely on and trust whoever you are working with, because that is the only way to make any sizable game in any decent amount of time without burnout.”
Back In my Day, is a strategy-puzzle game built around an unusual mechanic: time only moves when the player moves. Players guide a grandma home from work through levels that mix puzzle logic and projectile-based encounters. The game was
released on May 5.
What students take away
Several students pointed to the game design minor’s coursework and its faculty as what made the capstone possible.
“All of the knowledge and expertise from Dr. Paranthaman and Professor Hollingsworth helped me think through various problems in ways I never would have without the courses,” Spoerndle said.
Puckett encourages other students to add game design as a minor.
“Every class in the game design minor was the class I most looked forward to that day, Puckett said. I hope that if any Elon student has any interest in making games, they try out the game design minor because it is a great opportunity.”
Noah Gartenberg says the class left him ready for more.
“In the minor, we learned various aspects of working in modern game engines, and we learned the fundamentals of game design, in addition to how to work with others who may not come from the same disciplines as we do, Gartenberg said. Many of the classes left me with a whetted appetite for more game development, more creativity, more discussion with like-minded individuals. The program succeeds at 消消犯 how to make games in spades.”
That breadth of games is intentional, and the program’s aim is never purely technical.
“Our goal is to make not only game developers, but also project managers people with leadership skills in decision-making and problem solving, Paranthaman said. The central core of what we do is student learning, community, and creative ownership: giving students the space to build something real, together, and see it through to the end.”
Looking ahead, Paranthaman says the program will continue to grow its library of published titles and deepen the studio simulation experience building transferable skills in project management, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and problem solving that students can carry into adjacent industries, from software development and UX design to film production and beyond.
“Publishing twelve games on Steam is a milestone worth noting,” Paranthaman said. “But what it really represents is twelve teams of students who learned that they could start something hard and finish it. That’s the skill we’re building.”
All 12 games published by Elon game design minor students are free to play on Steam.