Game On: UT Game Development and Design Hosts Fall “Digital Demo Day” Student Showcase – Game Development and Design Program

Every semester, the UT Game Development and Design Program hosts “Digital Demo Day,” an on-campus student showcase celebrating the works of dozens of students representing UT’s Radio-Television-Film, Texas Immersive Institute, Computer Science, and Arts and Entertainment Technologies departments. This semester was no different, celebrating student works developed in a number of courses, including Dr. Abraham’s Computer Graphics course, and Dr. Toprac’s 2D Game Development Capstone course, among others.

Three students gather around a laptop covered in playful stickers during Digital Demo Day. One student smiles brightly while wearing headphones and a cap that reads “THE MET.” The group is engaged and joyful, highlighting the collaborative and celebratory spirit of the event. — Students smiling while experiencing Studio Mori’s Final Generation.

Occurring in both the Jesse H. Jones and Gates-Dell Complex buildings, there were a variety of animations, games, and immersive experiences for event attendees to explore. Some of these works included Fabled Feast, a cooking and dating simulator, and Final Generation, a roguelike survival game, by Grimoire Games and Studio Mori, respectively. Both games were developed over the course of the fall semester by teams of 7 – 9 students, preparing students for the collaborative nature of full-time work in a modern game studio.

Digital Demo Day attendees represented several studios, including Zynga, Pocket Worlds, and Skeleton Key, in addition to others. “As the event that concludes our course, this initiative has always had a significant impact on our GDAD students,” Dr. Toprac, Head of the GDAD Program, commented.“ We are thankful to those who came out to support them, and are excited to see how Digital Demo Day will continue to grow in the future.”

The Game Development and Design program will conclude its academic year with our spring 2026 Digital Demo Day on Thursday, April 30, 2026. For more details on how to attend, please contact Dr. Paul Toprac at topcat@cs.utexas.edu. In addition, information will be shared on the Showcase page closer to the event date.

The Game Development and Design (GDAD) Program at the University of Texas at Austin is the #1 undergraduate game development program in the state, consisting of a collaboration 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. For more information on the GDAD Program, please visit http://gamedev.utexas.edu.