The Black Cat Academy

Learn to make.
Learn to finish.

Practical experience, honest feedback and sustainable ways to build games.

For independent developers

Your game.
Your next step.

Personal mentorship for developers who want to strengthen a project, build confidence in their decisions, or find a clearer path through production.

Bring your idea, prototype or work in progress. We’ll discuss the support that fits: design feedback, scope, production habits or regular review.

Enquire about mentorship
For companies & institutions

Build capability
across a team.

Commissioned game-development training and bootcamps shaped around your people, production context and learning objectives.

Practical briefs, specialist teaching and senior review help participants develop the judgement needed to work together and complete projects.

Explore corporate training
Learning through production

Make. Reflect. Improve.

Teaching connects to the work
and the decisions behind it.

  1. 01

    Start with a brief

    Define the player experience, the work involved and a scope you can manage.

  2. 02

    Build and review

    Put ideas into practice, get feedback and understand why something works.

  3. 03

    Bring it together

    Iterate, make sustainable decisions and learn what it takes to finish.

Experience behind the teaching

Guidance grounded
in making games.

Luke Richards designed and led the UK game-development bootcamp delivered through the Game Dev Group and Creative Alliance. He wrote the curriculum and brought together its industry mentors.

Our approach connects design, production and communication. It puts useful feedback and sustainable working practices at the heart of learning.

Mentorship and training are scoped individually. Format, schedule and specialist involvement are agreed around the needs of the engagement.

Explore our training track record

Meet Luke and the studio