September 24, 2026

RIT faculty, staff, and students come together to turn a Rochester teen’s Make-A-Wish dream into a playable game

Faculty, staff, and students from across RIT joined forces with local game developers this summer for a special cause: turning a Rochester teen’s Make-A-Wish dream into a reality. The volunteer team of developers, designers, and artists spent six months creating The MAW (short for Make-A-Wish), a first-person shooter roguelike about revenge and the consequences of immortality.

Caleb Pixley, a 19-year-old who lives with a nervous system disorder, already had a clear vision for this game when he reached out to Make-A-Wish of Metro New York and Western New York. Make-A-Wish then connected with RIT’s MAGIC Spell Studios for support. Pixley had previously made a mock-up of his game in Minecraft using mods, which he showed to Dennis McCorry, MAGIC’s digital games hub coordinator.

The two discussed Pixley’s ideas and inspiration to establish the game’s scope. From there, McCorry assembled an all-star team. “I got to pick anyone I wanted from the local community, and everyone said yes and was excited to be involved,” McCorry recalled.

Sam Magnolia ‘20, an RIT alum and cofounder of Aesthetician Labs, joined as the production director. They organized everyone on the development team and kept the project on track. David Sanchez, lecturer in RIT’s School of Interactive Games and Media, led a team of student artists and animators while overseeing the game’s visual direction. Developers from the ROC Game Dev community, a local organization made up of hobbyists and industry professionals, also joined to assist with programming, audio direction, and level design.

Sanchez recounts a conversation he had with Pixley, after Pixley explained his condition and why he needed everyone’s support on the game. "Dude, no explanation needed. We are honored to have been in your circle and to have made an amazing thing happen because of you. I can say I have made new friends and learned things I never would have on my own. You have made me better than I was 6 months ago, and for this I am grateful. You are an inspiration to me and to a lot of us."

IGM lecturer David Sanchez working on a level for The MAW.

Pixley was hands-on in every aspect of development. He served as the game’s creative director and participated in the team’s monthly game jam sessions. He also designed most of the game’s levels and regularly communicated on the group chat platform Discord, where the bulk of the development took place. The team did their best to ensure that Pixley could continue working on The MAW once full production wrapped. They shared their technical knowledge with him throughout development and made him a member of the ROC Game Dev group, providing Pixley with a supportive community to contact for feedback and technical questions.

The MAW officially launched in beta in early September. The team celebrated the release with a launch party covered by local news outlets, including Rochester First and WHEC News 10. The beta is available to download for free on teammaw.itch.io/the-maw.