What is Rad Studio?

Rad Studio is Rad Magpie’s 11-week online summer incubator program for college students working towards careers in game development. This unique, intensive online program invites a group of students from different backgrounds to become a part of the next generation of game designers, developers, and entrepreneurs who wanted to make a positive change in the games industry. Teams are brought together and led through a structured studio development cycle to create an original game demo for a summer. Each team is paired with industry mentors and coaches who offer valuable feedback throughout their development cycle. In addition to this, we guide the cohort through our workshops that offer a chance for deeper introspection on topics surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion in the games industry.

Through our experiences in traditional game development degree programs, we found that these institutions generally only teach students the technical skills required to land a job in games. Students completing these programs often graduate without an adequate understanding of how collaboration in teams of people from different backgrounds/ages/experience levels works.

For 2022 we’re aiming to post all of our recorded remote workshops and lectures from Rad Studios’ past as blog posts and youtube videos. This blog post is actually kicking off that effort! We believe this information should be readily available online, and that more programs like Rad Studio should exist to support collegiate game developers - this lack of support is a serious gap in game industry advocacy work. If you are working on a program like this, please feel free to utilize these resources or reach out! There is so much more where these blog posts came from. Megan (megan@radmagpie.org) is happy to set up a time with you to chat.

Rad Studio Supplements a University Education by…

Equipping the cohort with tools to enter the industry successfully and thrive once they got there.
Connecting the cohort with a network of industry mentors.
Creating a structured space for the cohort to experiment and grow in a remote studio environment.
Providing a heavy-hitting extracurricular experience for individuals’ resumés.
Fostering connection and compassion in a community of mutual support.
Radically empowering cohort members: whether voices like theirs were underrepresented in this industry, or they were someone who would be able to use their privilege to amplify the voices of those who are.

This program started in 2018 as a simple, free co-working project where a few students from Champlain College worked on summer game development projects together in a safe space, with equipment and mentorship provided by Rad Magpie.

Over four years, we grew the program into a 30-student online incubator that pulled from multiple game development schools, providing invaluable perspective, feedback, and collaboration for students from different backgrounds.

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“Rad studio was…

… fantastically geared towards helping the cohort build a portfolio piece, helping us sample each part of the production cycle. From my time at Rad Studio, I have a great example of my work that I'm proud to show to my friends, family, and future employers!”
A - 2020 Rad Studio cohort

…was a blend of co-working time on custom games designed by the cohort teams, visits from industry mentors, a workshop or two, and meetings between teams and their coaches. Sometimes after-hours we had an event called the Roast, which brought in outside community members to provide feedback on the games from the cohort. Week layouts varied slightly throughout the program, but we expected an average of twenty hours of time commitment from each cohort member per week.

Throughout the summer the cohort learned:

Confidence and decision-making in a group setting.
About privilege, social justice, and the responsibility of the game dev (*slang for “developer”) in the context of the industry at large.
How to communicate effectively and with compassion in teams and how to handle tough conversations.
How to manage time and scope successfully to produce a full game demo in less than 10 weeks.
How to thrive in the workplace by contributing to a culture of mutual respect and empathy.
Advice on job hunting, what to expect as a salary, and how to negotiate.

And that’s a quick summary of Rad Magpie’s flagship program!

We learned so much during our four years of hosting Rad Studio, and are working now to share the educational resources that we created for this program. Keep an eye on this space as we roll out blog posts throughout the year!

Fat Bird Studios created Querent while participating in Rad Studio 2018 - the first iteration of Rad Magpie’s flagship program! Querent is a tabletop role-playing game that uses tarot cards to create a narrative-driven experience. Players use existing tarot cards within a new narrative framework to build characters, worlds, and host an entirely new kind of role-playing.

The Querent team hosted a wildly successful Kickstarter (funded within the first two hours of posting!), doubled in size, and sold 200+ books at the opening of their online store! This self-motivated team took it upon themselves to create out-of-this-world branding that really pushed their product to success.

We were happy to be able to help along the way!

Rules of Use:

Feel free to share this information with others! We ask that you cite Rad Magpie (and any relevant linked sources) if you use this for your class / workshop / etc.
If you find this useful and are financially able, consider making a donation to Rad Magpie. We’re a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and rely on the generosity of our community to continue producing resources like this one. Learn more about Rad Magpie here.

Megan McAvoyMay 27, 2022