Hi! I'm Chris DeLeon.

• HomeTeam GameDev (Main Work)
• 100+ Games I Worked On
• YouTube / Podcast / Books
• Speaking, Volunteering, Other Writing
• Free Coding Game for Kids/Teens
• As Seen On
• Consulting or Private Lessons
• My Beliefs About Education

• Main Site

Let's figure things out together!

My approach

Decide how often you'd like to meet

I strongly encourage weekly calls if it's in budget. From working with dozens of people the past 10 years weekly has always led to the best results, in less calendar time. Meeting weekly enables finer course correction, we can figure out details together, and keeps forward progress consistent.Twice per week isn't better in all situations. Unless we discussed that pace in our initial call it may be more often than I think is optimal in your case, but I'll help you get the most of whichever you pick.Calls are generally 30-60 minutes. It's phrased as a call count instead of per hour since there's no pressure to fill a whole hour. If your questions are answered, it's clear what to do next, you feel unblocked and ready to dive back into doing it, what matters is your project(s) moving forward.

Select your preferred frequency and monthly rate to start:

Terms

Testimonials

From general business consulting:
"I work with Chris to help me move forward in my business, and I've probably saved years of running off in unhelpful directions. His sharp and targeted questions (coming from a large and diverse amount of knowledge and experience) have yielded many helpful insights and given me a sense of momentum which was missing before I met him."
-Sid M.
Non-games business consulting clientFrom commercial game consulting, non-technical:
"Over the past few months Chris transformed my game development goals from vague fantasy to concrete reality with a timeline. Each session we review the current state and schedule, and his candid feedback uncovers hidden problems that would have caused wasted effort. Prioritization, scheduling strategy, being more efficient, and working with constraints are his specialty. Having easily saved me years of effort through tough decisions he surfaced, it's the best dollar-for-value I've spent on my game so far."
-Brice Morrison
Independent game developerFrom commercial game consulting, technical:
"Chris DeLeon could easily be working for a AAA studio, and he has in the past. He has a high degree of programming skill, plus the patience to explain my code problems."
-Charles Zammit
Independent game developerFrom youth game programming and general computing lessons:
"We truly appreciate what you have done for our son. This has certainly been such a wonderful experience for him and truly enjoys every minute he has had with you. You have made a tremendous lifelong impact. Thank you!!!"
-Albert and Donna V.
Parents of a youth coding client (weekly since 2019-present, started at age 9)

• Main Site

Let's figure things out together!

My approach

Decide how often you'd like to meet

I strongly encourage weekly calls if it's in budget. From working with dozens of people the past 10 years weekly has always led to the best results, in less calendar time. Meeting weekly enables finer course correction, we can figure out details together, and keeps forward progress consistent.Twice per week isn't better in all situations. Unless we discussed that pace in our initial call it may be more often than I think is optimal in your case, but I'll help you get the most of whichever you pick.Calls are generally 30-60 minutes. It's phrased as a call count instead of per hour since there's no pressure to fill a whole hour. If your questions are answered, it's clear what to do next, you feel unblocked and ready to dive back into doing it, what matters is your project(s) moving forward.

Select your preferred frequency and monthly rate to start:

Terms

Testimonials

From general business consulting:
"I work with Chris to help me move forward in my business, and I've probably saved years of running off in unhelpful directions. His sharp and targeted questions (coming from a large and diverse amount of knowledge and experience) have yielded many helpful insights and given me a sense of momentum which was missing before I met him."
-Sid M.
Non-games business consulting clientFrom commercial game consulting, non-technical:
"Over the past few months Chris transformed my game development goals from vague fantasy to concrete reality with a timeline. Each session we review the current state and schedule, and his candid feedback uncovers hidden problems that would have caused wasted effort. Prioritization, scheduling strategy, being more efficient, and working with constraints are his specialty. Having easily saved me years of effort through tough decisions he surfaced, it's the best dollar-for-value I've spent on my game so far."
-Brice Morrison
Independent game developerFrom commercial game consulting, technical:
"Chris DeLeon could easily be working for a AAA studio, and he has in the past. He has a high degree of programming skill, plus the patience to explain my code problems."
-Charles Zammit
Independent game developerFrom youth game programming and general computing lessons:
"We truly appreciate what you have done for our son. This has certainly been such a wonderful experience for him and truly enjoys every minute he has had with you. You have made a tremendous lifelong impact. Thank you!!!"
-Albert and Donna V.
Parents of a youth coding client (weekly since 2019-present, started at age 9)

• Back

My Beliefs About Education

Teaching and business philosophyMy unique approach as an independent educator originates from organizations I founded at Carnegie Mellon and Georgia Tech. Embracing this as my full-time profession in 2015 gave me the freedom to experiment with educational philosophies beyond traditional boundaries.Many people misunderstand our structure. It's not a class, meetup, or simulated job. Instead, participants collaborate on remote teams making freeware games, meeting with me periodically for personalized lessons tailored around the projects and tasks they choose. My training specializations are in gameplay programming, small team production (planning, scheduling, coordinating), and general gameplay design, although members can also schedule help sessions with our specialists in other domains (audio, 2D and 3D art, UI, UX, level design).Here are some excerpts that have influenced my unconventional training format:

Why instead of giving lectures I have students choose their projects and tasks, then meet with them up to every week or two"In the newer universities in England and America there is a regrettable tendency to insist upon attendance at innumerable lectures... When I was an undergraduate, my feeling, and that of most of my friends, was that lectures were a pure waste of time. No doubt we exaggerated, but not much. The real reason for lectures is that they are obvious work, and therefore businessmen are willing to pay for them. If university teachers adopted the best methods, businessmen would think them idle, and insist upon cutting down the staff. He should see the pupils individually when they have done their papers. About once a week or once a fortnight, he should see such as care to come in the evening, and have desultory conversation about matters more or less connected with their work. All this is not very different from the practice at the older universities. If a pupil chooses to set himself a paper, different from that of the teacher but equally difficult, he shall be at liberty to do so."-Bertrand Russell
Education and the Good LifeWhy instead of exercises or quizzes I emphasize solving problems in the context of real team projects"In a word, learning is decontextualized. We break ideas down into tiny pieces that bear no relation to the whole. We give students a brick of information, followed by another brick, followed by another brick, until they are graduated, at which point we assume they have a house. What they have is a pile of bricks, and they don't have it for long… More and more teachers are coming to recognize that excellence is most likely to result from well functioning teams, in which resources are shared, skills and knowledge are exchanged, and each participant is encouraged and helped to do their best."-Alfie Kohn
Two parts from Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise and Other BribesWhy my approach to education focuses on peer community and hands-on practical learning"...Expense of getting an education would in a great measure vanish... Those conveniences which the student requires at Cambridge or elsewhere cost him or somebody else ten times as great a sacrifice of life... Those things for which the most money is demanded are never the things which the student most wants. Tuition, for instance, is an important item in the term bill, while for the far more valuable education which he gets by associating with the most cultivated of his contemporaries no charge is made...""...Says one, 'you do not mean that the students should go to work with their hands instead of their heads?' I do not mean that exactly, but I mean something which he might think a good deal like that... Which would have advanced the most at the end of a month--the boy who had made his own jackknife from the ore which he had dug and smelted, reading as much as would be necessary for this--or the boy who had attended the lectures on metallurgy at the Institute in the meanwhile, and had received a Rodgers' penknife from his father? Which would be most likely to cut his fingers?"-Henry David Thoreau
WaldenWhy I structure training as sustainable weekly practice, rather than packing it into a shorter, high intensity full-time class"Learning is deeper and more durable when it’s effortful... Periodic practice arrests forgetting, strengthens retrieval routes, and is essential for hanging onto the knowledge you want to gain. When you space out practice at a task and get a little rusty between sessions, or you interleave the practice of two or more subjects, retrieval is harder and feels less productive, but the effort produces longer lasting learning and enables more versatile application of it in later settings."-Henry L. Roediger III and Mark A. McDaniel
Cognitive scientists, from Make It Stick, written with Peter BrownWhy I do not offer grading or contests, instead encouraging students to pursue what most interests and challenges them"To overcome the anxieties and depressions of contemporary life, individuals must become independent of the social environment to the degree that they no longer respond exclusively in terms of its rewards or punishments. To achieve such autonomy, a person has to learn to provide rewards to herself. She has to develop the ability to find enjoyment and purpose regardless of external circumstances… The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile… When we act freely, for the sake of the action rather than for ulterior motives, we learn to become more than what we were."-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal ExperienceWhy I use computer game development to teach people about programming, creativity, planning, teamwork, group speaking, etc."Not amusement nor distraction, but the desire to effect some cherished purpose is the strongest motive that can move the learner."-John William Adamson
In his introduction for The Educational Writings of John Locke

I see the purpose of my work as to use the skills, experience and connections I gained to help others who haven't had the head start and opportunities I did, especially people who found existing options (ex. jams, university, static online resources) didn't fit their needs well.I work on continually improving how well my business helps people in the following ways:

*Testimonials from my online membership training program, HomeTeam GameDev:
"...Programming in the context of a larger, shared codebase is something that my university courses just couldn't capture. Making decisions on a project to meet deadlines, learning to collaborate remotely- even getting comfortable in video meetings was invaluable, since every job interview I've had has started off with a video call. It has been genuinely life changing because it was a major factor in allowing me to get the job that I currently have (and I'm still really enjoying the job!)"
-Cooper Willis
Project lead on Coffee Kart in HomeTeam, contributor on 10+ teams"I completed 1 year as a professional/paid game developer a few days ago. I just wanted to reach out to you and let you know that you were key in helping build my confidence to apply for a game job. Thank you for that one mentorship session you had with me. It was life changing. Seriously haha. I am loving what I am doing right now, it is what I have always wanted to do. Interestingly tho... I have had a lot more fun while working in the HomeTeamGameDev games than any other game."
-Tiago Sommer Damasceno (tiago.dev)
Contributor on 3 released HomeTeam games, Assassin's Creed: Nexus VR Lead Programming TeamTestimonial from my audio/ebook program, Get Yourself to Do Things:
"A tough period for me interacted with my (undiagnosed, but in-the-family) ADHD/ASD like personality to really undermine my productivity.. I had an ever-growing personal TODO list, and was failing to fulfill my potential at work. These books give tools to rectify situations like this. Their advice is straightforward, demystifying, and immediately actionable... a quick and easy read, which is exactly what is needed. Five stars. Literally life changing."
-Jonathan Hartley
(excerpt from Amazon review)Testimonial from youth lessons:
"We truly appreciate what you have done for our son. This has certainly been such a wonderful experience for him and truly enjoys every minute he has had with you. You have made a tremendous lifelong impact. Thank you!!!"
-Albert and Donna V.
Parents of a youth coding client, 2019-present

I don’t see my work as fixing code, design, or project logistics issues. If people I work with hit a roadblock, I’m there looking for ways to help them get past it.I realized that a lot of people I worked with had the tools, knew the basics, and even had the time, but still weren’t using them to do what they wanted to do.Jobs and schools make people do things by paying them or grading them. I wanted to get people ready to do things on their own, without someone else managing, measuring, punishing, or rewarding them. This way, they'd be able to tackle projects beyond what someone else tells them to do.After thousands of hours in one-on-one calls, I spotted patterns and came up with solutions that helped many of our people figure out why they weren’t moving forward. Now, people who weren’t making games before joining us are releasing games, sticking to every project they start, and consistently meeting deadlines.This issue—knowing what we want to do and technically being able to, but not doing it—affects game developers a lot. But it’s a much wider problem. The same solutions helped me develop my video courses, ebooks, and grow my small business.Wanting to help more people outside my immediate area, I turned these ideas into two audiobooks and ebooks, Self-Command and Self-Doubt. They’ve now reached over 7,000 people. They're also part of my new video course, Complete Every Project, and available to all members of HomeTeamGameDev.

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Speaking, Volunteering, Other Writing

I speak with schools, volunteer with non-profits, and organize communities to help people new to the field both locally (Pittsburgh, Atlanta, LA, briefly Paris, currently Boston) and online (industry zoom events) get a stronger head start on building their professional networks.

Conference Speaking, School/Non-Profit Volunteering, Game Development Advocacy, Research, and Freelance Teaching

"Chris changed the game when he started volunteering at our school. He collaborated with our computer science teachers to ensure their curriculum met industry standards, shared his expertise with students on their game designs, and connected the school to professionals in the gaming industry via field trips and classroom visits. To prepare students for job interviews after graduation, he provided insightful feedback on their digital portfolios and engaged them in mock interviews. Chris has a passion for helping others achieve their goals and his partnership with our school created a transformative learning experience for students."-Matt Piwowarczyk
Former Instructional Coach at the Critical Design and Gaming School at Augustus F. Hawkins High School"Chris DeLeon is a phenomenal teacher and connected with my students encouraging them towards higher education and the game design industry. He makes learning fun and has in-depth knowledge which is engaging and inspirational to students."-Christopher McClung
Elementary Assistant Principal, Redlands Unified School District

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100+ Games I Worked On

Game making hobbyist since 1997, pro since 2005

Games where I was part of the core team (ex. lead, main programmer, only level designer) or made it alone (except the 2 EA games, where I did Technical Game Design and Level Design, respectively):

Though most games I help people make today are for practice, here are other highlights from my game development career:

I also developed a playable prototype nightly for 219 days to test online. Summary of findings:

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HomeTeam GameDev (Main Work)

20 years building communities for new game developers, together releasing more than 500 freeware team projects

HomeTeam GameDev developed 200 games, including the 4 seen below (Triune Legacy led by Tyler Funk, Flick Tactics led by Bilal A. Cheema, Spark led by Tylor Allison, and Bush League Hockey led by Patrick J Thompson):

My main work is as the founder and lead trainer of HomeTeam GameDev. HomeTeam is in an independent, member-led, remote learning community.HomeTeam is built on a non-traditional approach for practical, situated skills training. The core of what we do is project-based learning, giving each person flexibility to tailor their path around their unique strengths and goals, while providing support in applied context to address the gaps people surface through working on problems they're interested in learning how to solve.HomeTeam GameDev is the third organization of this kind that I established. The pattern started with the Game Creation Society at Carnegie Mellon in 2004. I further iterated on the methods to start VGDev at Georgia Tech in 2010. Both clubs are still active today. Game Creation Society released 200 games, and VGDev developed 150 games (note: at the time of this writing their current site doesn't display properly on mobile).

"I credit the Game Creation Society with cultivating my expertise in a broad range of disciplines as well as establishing my professional career in game development."
-John Nesky
Game Creation Society Alumni
Feel Engineer at thatgamecompany on Journey"VGDev is where I got some of the most impactful and relevant education of my college career. There's no substitute for rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty developing (and perhaps most importantly finishing) a real game. VGDev provided a welcoming environment where people of all skill levels can come together and learn from each other and it's a part of what shaped me into the game developer I am today."
-Kelly Snyder
VGDev Alumni
Engine Producer at Bungie"VGDev is where I first met and worked with the people who would form our indie game company. It was a great place to meet like-minded people and learn how well you work together as a team."
-Colton Spross
VGDev Alumni
Founder of indie studio developing Home Improvisation on Steam

These communities empower people to learn by creating the games that interest them, drawing from their motivation to gain the ability to do things they genuinely want to do.Members enjoy total autonomy, with complete freedom to choose their roles, tasks, or teams one week at a time, without commercial pressures, being graded, or having work assigned to them.Direct, one-on-one help is available from myself, our various industry trainers, and experienced peers in the community.We release every game, on time, as an important part of our practice process. This includes getting experience with navigating tough tradeoffs as part of getting real things done.Although our methods are not mainly focused on job preparation, participating in our approach has been used by a number of people over the years as part of starting, switching, or otherwise advancing their careers.

"First and foremost, it gave me the confidence to stop saying the phrase, "I'm trying to learn JavaScript" or describing my background in an apologetic way. When asked about my interest in coding, I was able to talk about making games collaboratively through this group, how fun it was to work with others, and the joy of figuring something out you had no idea how to do."
-Jenna Johnson
Member in HomeTeam, part of 13 person Clash Tracks team"Initially, I didn't have any plans to program, or even touch coding at all. But after joining HomeTeam GameDev, I was able to learn how to code. Everyone is here to learn and develop games together in a super positive environment. Nobody is held responsible for making mistakes, because everyone in the team will try to fix it together and find out what went wrong as a team... That is part of the process of learning."
-Charlene A.
HomeTeam Member, contributor on 17 released team games

• Find out more or join us

Alumni from the game development communities I've established and operated (at Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, now independently online as HomeTeam GameDev) went on to work in industry at Signal Studios, Schell Games, Disney, Microsoft Studios, Red 5, Activision, Double Fine, Bungie, Demiurge, Ready at Dawn, Pandemic, Electronic Arts, thatgamecompany, Zynga, Maxis, Sledgehammer Games, PopCap, Hi-Rez, Thrust Interactive, Turbo Button, Lumosity, Stork Burnt Down, Adult Swim Games, Side Effects Software, Oculus, 343 Industries, Golden Glitch Studios, Finite Reflections, Outof, Standing Stone Games, Ubisoft (multiple locations), Ripple Effect Studios, Adroit Studios, Tencent LA, Standing Stone Games, and multiple startups.Game Creation Society alumni have gone to successfully crowdfund new games together, including the IGF winner Elsinore. In 2023, a VGDev member project won the Student IGF Award (Slider, led by Daniel Carr).HomeTeam GameDev has many stories of helping move member's careers and skills forward. Anyone worldwide can apply to join us in HomeTeam. It's fully remote, and flexible to whatever timing or level of intensity each person needs.HomeTeam GameDev is fully independent. It's not affiliated with any university, sponsored by any outside company, and never accepted any outside investment.

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YouTube / Podcast / Books

Practical content to help people everywhere make games

10 million views :: 400,000 video course students :: 170,000 podcast downloadsFor more than ten years I've consistently delivered free and accessible quality information at scale. This includes freely sharing career stories from hundreds of professional contacts in my network, some practical programming examples, and also discussing non-code sides of game development.

• GameDev interviews podcast (since 2015)
• YouTube - 100K subs Silver Playbutton
• Productivity audiobooks/ebooks bundle
• Best-selling video course on finishing side projects

I've organized around 85 talks and panels for other events and organizations, mostly IndieCade and IGDA. A complete list of talks I've given, including links to some posted on YouTube, is available elsewhere on this site. I occasionally put together free video panels, including:

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Free Coding Game for Kids/Teens

I made this educational game while working with children ages 5-12 for a school year in Malibu. I later improved its step-by-step help functionality so teachers or parents can replace me as the facilitator.Safe Code Trainer focuses on learning to read code, separate from learning how to write it. I took this approach after working with kids and realizing they could read above their writing level, and needing a better way to work around the youth challenge with the attention to detail required to type it.By practicing how to follow the non-linear structure and variables - jumping to and returning from functions, branching on conditional comparisons of currently stored values - students gain a foundation to better make sense of video tutorials or code examples they find elsewhere online.The game builds up gradually, starting with simple symbols, incrementally introducing programming-like features and syntax. It's themed on cracking safes that contain emojis as prizes for each level.

• Play Safe Code Trainer (free!)

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Encrypted shorthand / symbol tattoos

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As Seen On

These are mostly fun, just documenting them somewhere!

All logos are property of their owners. These are companies, schools, and events I've worked with, spoken at, or had work featured in. These do not indicate endorsement or ongoing relationship.

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I was a guest writer for several episodes of Extra Credits

Although I mostly post on my own channels, several years ago I guest wrote for a few episodes of Extra Credits. The first was about why I believe game development is worth doing even when entirely non-commercial). My other scripts were about de-gamification, stress, and teamwork.

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ESPN cameo (super brief!)

In 2011 I was working on Kinect full-body gesture recognition at Georgia Tech, on the software side of a team doing AI research based on the thinking process used by improv actors (video 1, video 2, video 3). ESPN was on campus to cover a football game, and the crew wanted to get a few clips they could run to show things happening off the field at GT. We had zero heads up or preparation time, and were told there was no promise that they'd use any given clip. I assume mine got used because I move like a muppet, which as research projects go shows well as a few second clip without sound.A friend from my hometown recognized me and messaged immediately when it aired ("I looked at my coworkers and said 'that's my friend...' they gave me guff saying that you were just a stranger, but I know the truth."), which is my main memory of it.

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An asteroid in the main belt was named after me in 2003

I've had a bizarre and fortunate life. In high school I placed 4th in an international science fair (ISEF, the same one AOC was in 4 years later), in the Computer Science division. I made a program that looked like The Sims, but worse since it was made by a teenager. Everyone ranked had our name assigned by NASA JPL to celestial objects that were previously designated only by numbers