Middletown College Student Wrote His Own Video Game, Now Playable Online

August 12, 2026 - 00:08

A sophomore at Middletown College has done what most gamers only dream of: he built his own video game from scratch, and now anyone with an internet connection can play it. The student, along with three classmates, formed a small studio called FunRug Studios LLC, and their first title went live this week.

The project started as a simple assignment for a computer science course. The student, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Jake, said he initially just wanted to pass the class. But the more he worked on the game's mechanics, the more he realized he had something worth sharing. He recruited three friends from his dorm floor, one who handled the art, another who composed the soundtrack, and a third who helped with testing and level design.

What began as a weekend hobby quickly turned into a full semester of late nights and pizza runs. The team built the game using a free engine, but they wrote all the code themselves. The result is a puzzle-platformer with a quirky sense of humor, featuring a character who can rewind time to solve environmental challenges. It is not a massive open world or a triple-A shooter, but it has a polished feel that surprises most players.

The game is now hosted on a popular indie game site, and it has already racked up a few hundred plays in its first 48 hours. Jake says the feedback has been mostly positive, with some players asking for a sequel. He and his team are already brainstorming ideas for a second level pack, though they are also trying to balance their coursework.

FunRug Studios is officially registered as an LLC, which means the four students are technically business owners now. They have no plans to drop out or pursue the venture full time yet, but they are not ruling it out. For now, they are just happy that people outside their friend group are enjoying something they built from nothing. The game is free to play, and the team says they will keep it that way, at least until they finish their degrees.