On 30 September 2026, the Department of Data Science and Digital Innovation welcomed mobile game developer Mr. Sam Adhikari for a Master Talk on rapid prototyping, shipping fast and validating game ideas.

Drawing on more than 20 shipped titles and nine self-published games on the Apple App Store, Sam traced his path from a university car-simulator side project to a role with the developers of Crossy Road, and shared how those early prototypes landed him his first job.

His core message was practical: keep a template project alongside every game so that menus, input systems, UI and packaging can be reused, allowing a new concept to be built in weeks rather than months; build one project that ships to multiple platforms and configurations to test what players actually prefer; and get games onto real devices through the App Store or Google Play as early as possible, because that is the only reliable way to learn whether an idea works. He also shared how free asset libraries, organic social media promotion and ad-based monetisation allowed him to publish and reach tens of thousands of players with no marketing budget. The talk closed with a lively Q&A on templating, freemium and subscription models, and how AI is enabling small teams and solo developers to handle programming, 3D and design at the same time.