Scaling an Open-Source Community into the Global Top 1%

Game Creation
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Fox Hollow Games
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2023 – 2025
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Role: Founder, Project Manager & Design Lead
Domain: Community Mentorship, Event Production & Systems Design
Key Impact: Hosted quarterly sponsored game jams; established structured design critique sessions; grew live educational broadcast into the top 0.7% of Twitch streams worldwide.

The Mission

I founded Fox Hollow Games as an educational community to help people develop the practical skills needed to transition into the video game industry. Creating games on live broadcast served as an open workshop where aspiring developers could observe systems design in real time and discuss technical problem-solving.

To give creators hands-on experience shipping games under real deadlines, I organized and hosted quarterly community game jams.

As Project Manager for these events, I handled end-to-end event execution:

  • Asset & Marketing Production: Designed all promotional graphics, branding, stream overlays, and announcement materials.
  • Competition Rules & Operations: Formulated clear guidelines, theme constraints, and submission pipelines on itch.io.
  • Sponsor Outreach & Prizes: Contacted external industry sponsors to secure prizes and tooling licenses for participants.
  • Live Showcases: Broadcasted and reviewed every submission live to give constructive public feedback.

Design Critique Culture

Building high quality games requires learning how to handle feedback. I established regular design critique sessions where community members submitted in-progress games and interface designs for review.

We focused on building a strong, healthy critique culture:

  • Focus on the Work: Centered all evaluations on the player experience and design goals rather than personal opinion.
  • Actionable Feedback: Trained creators to give clear, specific suggestions that developers could implement immediately.
  • Feedback Filtering: Taught designers how to evaluate critique objectively, identifying which feedback to act upon and which feedback to set aside.

Rapid Systems Design: Nan0

To demonstrate rapid game production under tight constraints, I built and shipped Nan0 during the GMTK Game Jam 2024 (Theme: Built to Scale).

Nan0 Game Jam Cover Art
Nan0: Built with Godot for GMTK Game Jam 2024. Placed in the top 17% of 7,518 entries worldwide.

Developed in Godot, Nan0 challenges players to manage microscopic scaling and resource flow. The game placed in the top 17% of 7,518 entries worldwide (Play Nan0 on itch.io).

Key Results

  • Top 0.7% Global Audience: Grew the educational broadcast from zero into the top tier of streams worldwide.
  • Career Growth: Helped aspiring creators build portfolios and gain the confidence needed to break into the industry.
  • Repeatable Event Framework: Ran recurring sponsored competitions that gave dozens of creators their first shipped titles.
Do you want to see additional case studies?
Contact Joe at josephnewell90@gmail.com.