// How we got here

A system
20+ years in the making.

Dev Pods didn't come from a business plan. It came from two people who watched too many talented developers quit — alone, burnt out, and convinced it was their fault.

2026

Still Going. Still Shipping.

230+ games shipped. It's got a new coat of paint, but the mission is the same: a place where game devs join teams with no pressure, and every game ships on-time.

230+ games shipped
✨
🔧
2025

Dev Pods Takes Shape

Dev Pods began as a pilot in May 2025 with GameDev.tv, where Tim was helping millions of people learn game development. It was conceived as a more affordable version of the HomeTeam model that can work for more people. Although it wasn't a right match at the time to continue as a business partnership, Tim and Chris believed in its potential, so with GameDev.tv's blessing teamed up to carry the concept forward independently.

The pieces come together
2023

100 Games — And Unreal Too

Game #100 ships on time. Members are getting hired at Blizzard, Sony, and other studios worldwide. In April 2023, the community ships its first Unreal 5 game, and Unreal becomes officially supported.

100+ shipped · Members in the industry
🏆
🌿
2021

Godot Joins the Roster

Godot joins Unity as an official engine. The community was never really about one tool — it was about shipping.

Unity · Godot · and more to come
2019

Origin of the "Pod"

Bigger isn't always better. When the community grew past a certain size, something got lost. Chris split it into smaller, tighter community groups and rebranded to HomeTeam GameDev. More accountable. More fun. That structure became the Pod Process. The Pod Process became Dev Pods.

Pod concept takes shape
🌍
⚙️
2017

Chris & Tim Meet

Chris ran a conference, hired Tim as a speaker, and they started having chats every month. Same topic, every time: why do so many talented devs quit, why do they leave the industry, and what would it actually take to fix that?

Founders connect
2016

The Club Goes Fully Online

It started as LAGameDevs in October of 2015, with weekly meetups at the Beverly Hills public library. By early 2016, it went fully online to include Chris's remote training clients. Suddenly developers anywhere in the world could join a project, ship a game, and build real portfolios. The door opened.

LAGameDevs Gamkedo Club (online)
🚀
🎓
2010

Second Club Founded @ Georgia Tech

At Georgia Tech for grad school, Chris founds VGDev — same idea, different campus. People from all sorts of majors and interest were having fun together. The proof kept stacking up: small, committed student teams could actually finish games.

Proof the model works
2004

First Club Starts @ Carnegie Mellon

Chris DeLeon co-founds the Game Creation Society at Carnegie Mellon: a club where members pitched, built, and released games together. The hunch was simple. Student developers could ship real games if they just had each other and the right process. It was scrappy and early, and it pre-dated modern game engines, but every game started got released.

The spark that started it all
🏠

// Behind Dev Pods

Hey there! We're passionate about game dev.

Between us: 230+ shipped games, 400K+ students taught, 20+ years of community building, and enough solo dev burnout to know exactly why it breaks people. Here's our story. Hover to dig in.

Tim Ruswick, Co-Founder of Dev Pods

Tim Ruswick

Co-Founder · Game Dev Underground

"The loneliest moment in game dev isn't when you're stuck. It's when you finish — and there's nobody there to see it."

Tim built 30+ solo games and knows exactly how bleak that silence gets.

The founder of Game Dev Underground (GDU) and former director at GameDev.tv, Tim spent years building communities to fight the isolation of solo dev — and shipping games to prove it was worth it. He knows every flavor of burnout, scope creep, and "I'll finish it next month" because he lived all of it. Dev Pods is his answer to the question he kept asking himself: what if you never had to do this alone?

30+ solo games GDU founder Millions of views on YouTube
Chris DeLeon, Co-Founder of Dev Pods

Chris DeLeon

Co-Founder · Pod Process Architect

"When I saw how much my college clubs helped people enjoy game development I made it my mission to adapt the system to be available for more people."

Chris developed our process. It ensures all games started in Dev Pods ship on-time, every time, now for 230 games and counting.

Chris has been making freeware games since 1997, and he's been building online game dev communities since 2004. He's taught game development classes at Georgia Tech and Northeastern, and been a speaker at GDC 4 times. He's a strong believer in community: chairing the IGDA LA Board, organizing IndieCade speakers for years, and regularly guest speaks for schools.

Building game dev clubs since 2004 4x GDC speaker Taught Game Development at Northeastern

// Ready to stop doing it alone?

Your team is already
building right now.

Games are in progress. Tasks are waiting. You can jump in the same day you sign up — no waiting, no cohort, no "we'll start next month." Just you, real teammates, and games that actually ship.

Join The Club — $39/month
Join today, contribute tonight 30-day money-back guarantee Cancel anytime You own everything you create