Stuck in tutorial hell, then shipped 2 games in 3 months!

★★★★★

"I was stuck in tutorial hell for 5 years. I have attempted projects on countless languages, engines and frameworks, but after initial excitement I would give up... Dev Pods helped me develop the skills to tackle any project I want! Dev Pods also was a springboard for me to learn modeling, which has been very gratifying for me."

-Alex Joiner
Project Lead for Lunar Breaker and GateKeeper

No experience to finished games in portfolio quick!

★★★★★

"I didn't have any game development experience before joining. After only a few short months I already got a few games released to show on my portfolio."

-Reid Alford
Programmer on Sunbeam and Critical Alpha: Afterburner

Here's how you'll ship games

Pods are a combination of coders, artists, and designers that work on multiple games together at the same time. With our Pod Process you can do as much or as little as you want, and the games will still release on time.

#1 - Join a Pod (instant)

We place you in a Pod full of games and teammates based on your engine, role, and vibe. Our onboarding walks you through how to get started.

#2 - Pick a Small Task (1–3 hrs/wk)

Code, art, audio, design, etc - take only the tasks you want, and only work on the games that interest you. Do it the way you think is best.

#3 - Share Your Work (at your own pace)

Safely try your task locally. When you're ready, push it to the team repo. We'll show you the simple way we use Github if you're new to teams. 

#4 - The Game Ships (on time)

Project leads follow our Pod Process so every game ships on time. When you want to lead, our included video course teaches you how!

Every major game engine supported:

Day 0: join + introduction → Day 1: first task → Week 1: first push → Month 3-5: first shipped game!

From inspiration to 10 released games!

★★★★★

"Joining this community changed things drastically for me: I worked on released games! You can play them! In less than a year I participated on 10 games. One is my design, and it's released! The game I led was inspired by an old prototype, which I never had the energy to make something bigger from before. I'm not sure I would ever have made it."

-Klaim (A. Joël Lamotte)
Project Lead on The House and Hard Glitch

Solo dev to shipping 11 games!

★★★★★

"I came from a background of developing solo projects. The games I am making in Dev Pods push me to make larger scale projects I could never dream of doing on my own. I no longer have to do everything alone. After being in the group for over a year and a half, I have been involved with 11 projects doing a variety of skills (some of which I am terrible at, but I wanted to practice). Whatever role you want to practice on a project, you can."

-Dani (Cassidy) Noble
Project Lead for Dragon's Tavern and others

Meet the Pod Pros

Tim and Chris put their super powers together to help people finish bigger games together.

Over the years, we've worked with:

From project lead to dream job at Blizzard!

★★★★★

"Joining Dev Pods was a game changer for me. It gave me the chance to lead, collaborate, and build projects that I’m genuinely proud of. I got to meet and work alongside passionate developers from a variety of backgrounds...Those experiences helped shape not just my portfolio, but also my confidence as a developer. Alongside other efforts, like volunteering as a GDC Conference Associate, Dev Pods helped me level up and ultimately land my dream job as a gameplay engineer at Blizzard Entertainment."

-Patrick Moffett
Project Lead on Cleansing Roots and others

Dev Pods is Different.

There's really nothing else out there like it, but we've tried to find the best comparisons.

🎮Game Jams

❌ 48-hour panic mode with a big time commitment up front.
❌ Teams thrown together randomly (usually ends badly.)
❌ Everyone works on a *single* game together.
❌ Jam ends, team scatters, project dies.

Dev Pods

✅ Build games in 2-5 months at your own pace, no time pressure.
✅ Get to know your Pod, meet friends, choose what you work on.
✅ Multiple games in progress, work on as many as you want.
✅ Ongoing projects, updated every week until they’re done.

🗣️Game Dev Communities

❌ Everyone works on their own game individually.
❌ Lots of talk, not many shipped games.
❌ Distraction + noise in a lot of game dev directions.
❌ Varied help and spotty feedback means games take years to ship.

Dev Pods

✅ Everyone contributes to community games together!
✅ Structured teamwork that ships games on time, every time.
✅ Focus and momentum with your team towards launch.
✅ Every Pod game ships within 2-5 months.

🎓Traditional Education

❌ Long lessons, boring talks.
❌ Rigid schedules that don’t fit real life.
❌ Homework, deadlines, and artificial stress.
❌ Long-winded theory without development.

Dev Pods

✅ Learn by doing, not listening.
✅ Flexible, zero-pressure game dev, whenever you want .
✅ No homework - just the game tasks *you* choose to take on.
✅ Ship playable games, not unfinished projects.

👨‍🏫Game Dev Bootcamps

❌ 12-hour days that burn you out.
❌ Crunch culture marketed as “learning intensity”.
❌ Cookie-cutter projects, everyone building the same game.
❌ No space to explore or make weird, personal projects.

Dev Pods

✅ Work at your own pace.
✅ We make games because it’s fun. Crunch as little as you want.
✅ Members lead the games *THEY* want to build!
✅ Weird games are welcome. Pitch one today!

👨‍💻Online Video Courses

❌ 40 hours of videos you’ll never watch.
❌ Pre-recorded lessons that can’t answer your questions.
❌ No accountability, no feedback, no teammates.
❌ No community - just you, alone with a playlist.

Dev Pods

✅ Learn by doing - contribute to real games from day one.
✅ Real teammates that can help you build stuff!
✅ Get motivated and build with your Pod, not a comment section.
✅ Meet friends, and join a community that builds together.

The Bottom Line:

Dev Pods is an online community that builds freeware games together. Pick a game in progress (or lead one), develop your skills by contributing, and get to know other developers by having fun making games!

✓ Learn by building games with teams.    ✓ Do what you want, not what you don't.   ✓ No crunch, time pressure, or schedule.

★★★★★

"I really loved the contributions from the community; the art, code, and audio from others were things I never would have done on my own, but so perfectly fit what I wanted Branch Out to be that I can't imagine the game without them."
- Kelly Mark, Project Lead on Branch Out VR

★★★★★

"I tried to do game development for years without the skill to ship. By leading GateKeeper I learned how to finish games. The flexibility led me to discover modeling which is now a new passion of mine, so I pitched Lunar Breaker to focus on that. I am glad that I found Dev Pods!"
- Alex Joiner, Project Lead on Gatekeeper

★★★★★

“I was able to learn and practice fundamentals in Mesh Instancing with splines to create unique caves, logic to scatter grass and rocks around the environment dynamically. I had so much fun watching the tools I made get utilized toward building a final environment.”
- Christian Gabbianelli, Tools + Proc Gen Programming on Ascend

★★★★★

"Tangible progress in this craft is very new to me. I've been a lurker of game dev for the better part of 20 years so I am really excited and proud of my contributions to Artillery Rampage being my first real project." 
-Michael Avrie, Weapons +UI + VFX + Music on Artillery Rampage

★★★★★

“I was particularly interested in practicing how to make a UI that is understandable and supports the game narrative. Working on the health system for a sci-fi shooter like Lunar Breaker was the perfect opportunity, allowing me to take inspiration from games like Deus Ex to create a compelling HUD!”
-Ian Cherabier, UI Programming on Lunar Breaker

★★★★★

“Even though I have more experience programming, I created my first songs for Whiskers Wonderland (the jaunty intro and credits tunes) - my first go at arranging songs in a DAW. I got credit in the game for contributing and the lead liked it enough to place it in the release. I am proud and delighted to have been a part of such a fun and cute game!”

-Jason Timms, Music Composition on Whisker's Wonderland

★★★★★

"I was proud of finally putting my Unreal multiplayer course knowledge into practice by releasing a networked multiplayer supported game! I dove deep into the Unreal source code and was able to figure out how to support both LAN multiplayer and steam-based matchmaking for up to 4 players."
-Justin Montgomery, Project Lead on Paper Golf