UT Game Development and Design Graduates Create Game Studio Based out of Austin, TX

This spring, two UT Game Development and Design (GDAD) program alumni celebrated the opening of Austin, Texas’s newest game studio: DoubledEgg Games. 

In August 2022, Jake Gollub and Dane Hildreth entered Professor Coleman’s “Intro to Mobile Games” course, wherein they learned how to create mobile experiences that work within the limitations and specifications of a mobile platform. After creating the iOS title Jetpack Goblin, the pair quickly realized their passion for game development, and participated in several professional development opportunities designed to prepare students for careers in the game industry. Notable experiences include the Austin Game Jam, wherein the pair placed 2nd out of 29 teams in 2024 with their title Go to Hole, developed in Dr. Toprac’s Godot class, while others include BAFTA Award nominee Prometheus Unbound (Gollub), and 2D title Tales of Kogi (Hildreth), developed as part of Dr. Toprac’s Game Development Capstone course. 

The two were incredibly successful and involved throughout their time in the GDAD Program, taking courses throughout several departments at the university. Upon their graduation in May 2025, the pair, inspired by another game studio founded by GDAD alumni (Merge Conflict), founded DoubledEgg Games. DoubledEgg Games was formed out of a passion for “pick-up-and-play” games, of which Gollub and Hildreth have released several titles. Currently, in addition to regular updates to titles Bubble Boy Brawlers, Down to Clown, and Go to Hole, the studio is working on a match 3 roguelike mobile game, where “Candy Crush meets Balatro,” according to Gollub. The project is currently in its second month of development. 

Although the process has been challenging – especially when it comes to LLC paperwork and filing taxes – the experience “has been incredibly rewarding,” Gollub remarked. The team cites the GDAD Program for helping them establish their structure, and found that the agile principles and in-person sprint review taught by Dr. Toprac were incredibly helpful in the studio environment. 

When asked about their advice for starting a game studio, the team stated that “friends are your best resource. We’re fortunate to know super cool people from UT, especially Merge Conflict… They’ve been really encouraging, and it was Melody [Geiger] who truly got us to get our studio started.” For more information on DoubledEgg Games, check out their website here.

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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.