Leveling Up: Showcasing Student Works Through UT Game Development and Design’s Digital Demo Day – Game Development and Design Program

Three students smile and gather around a retro CRT computer monitor. One student is seated, wearing headphones and a green “Mexico” tank top, actively engaged with the screen, while the two others stand beside her, laughing and chatting in a bright, modern workspace. — Students laughing while playing Stomach, a game developed by Vertical Fish Studios.

On Thursday, May 1, 2025, UT Game Development and Design (GDAD) hosted its semesterly Digital Demo Day event, highlighting the work of dozens of students interested in pursuing careers in the digital media, game, and VR/AR industries. Through GDAD’s multidisciplinary curriculum, students showcased skills developed from studies in Arts and Entertainment Technologies (AET), Computer Science (CS), Radio-Television-Film (RTF), and the Texas Immersive Institute (TXI). Students had the opportunity to showcase their games, animations, and immersive works to their university peers, the general public, and industry professionals. The professionals in attendance represented Unity, EA Sports, T-Minus Zero Entertainment, Certain Affinity, SciPlay Entertainment, and more.

Digital Demo Day provided a platform for students to exhibit their work in every stage of their academic career from lower-division students just getting their start in games to seniors completing the culmination of the GDAD Program in the 3-D Game Development Capstone course. Student works ranged from Greco-Roman dystopias (Prisoner of Light) to hack-and-slash games featuring a vegetable protagonist (Vegetables of Mass Destruction) to a horror cooking simulation game (Stomach), in addition to futuristic puzzle adventures (Steamwell) and real-time strategy games featuring mind control elements (Zenith). The Capstone simulates the game studio experience, ensuring students are well-versed in collaborating to generate ready-to-play deliverables and become studio-ready through their work in Dr. Toprac’s course.

“This semester’s Digital Demo Day was a huge success, especially in conjunction with the Texas Power Hour,” Dr. Toprac, head of the GDAD program, commented. “I can’t wait to see what the students come up with next semester!”

Next semester’s Digital Demo Day will be held on Thursday, December 11, 2025. For interest in attending, please contact Dr. Paul Toprac at topcat@austin.utexas.edu.

The Game Development and Design (GDAD) Program at The University of Texas at Austin is an interdisciplinary undergraduate program between the departments of Arts and Entertainment Technologies, Computer Science, and Radio-Television-Film. The program produces graduates ready to design, develop, and provide leadership for the exploding growth in game, metaverse applications, and creative media agencies and studios in Texas and around the world.