Gap Year graduate finds gaming success
RIT’s Gap Year Entrepreneurial Fellowship helps students and alumni build businesses
Giving back to the video game industry by mentoring young artists and hobbyists is a priority for Sam Magnolia ’20, whose AeLa studio has grown through connections.
The new genre-bending video game Australia Did It has an RIT connection to the Gap Year Entrepreneurial Fellowship program.
Independent game developer Rami Ismail hired former Gap Year fellow Sam Magnolia ’20 (individualized program) and their cofounders at Aesthetician Labs (AeLa)—Noah Magnolia ’20 (game design and development) and Aidan Markham ’19 (game design and development)—to lead the development and production team for Australia Did It.
“Noah and Aidan were the primary two programmers for the game, and I handled the wrangling of 12 contractors,” Magnolia said. “I interfaced with our publishing team on a daily to weekly basis. It was intense.”
Magnolia used their Gap Year Fellowship, from May to August 2019, to get their independent video game studio off the ground. The team started AeLa in 2018 following the success of a game they made during a 48-hour game jam at RIT. Crazy Platez won a New York state competition and grant money to incorporate the studio.
“The Gap Year Fellowship was a perfect fit for what I needed because the first two to three years of getting credibility for existing and finding financing for the business was really tough,” Magnolia said. “The fellowship had a lot of the resources I needed in order to learn how to do my job effectively in terms of a skill set. And being able to work for the business over that summer was integral to getting our feet under ourselves before we graduated.”
Magnolia had nearly quit college to focus on the company when a mentor at RIT’s MAGIC Spell Studios steered them toward the School of Individualized Study. They tailored an undergraduate degree around operations and project management for running a studio and found financial and professional support through the Gap Year Fellowship.
“I think the concept of the program serves to give students more opportunities to really use their minds and their hearts for good things,” Magnolia said.
They organized AeLa as a worker-owned video game collective with a focus on financial stability over individual profit. Their business approach has helped them choose interesting projects, pay themselves, donate to local charities, and weather a volatile industry.
Australia Did It paired the AeLa team with their mentor and popular game developer and has broadened their network in the industry.
“We haven’t scrambled for work in nearly two years because our network has grown so profusely that when we become available, people are coming to us with work opportunities,” Magnolia said.
Got big ideas? Gap Year fellows do
Since 2018, RIT’s Gap Year Entrepreneurial Fellowship has helped students in the School of Individualized Study who want to launch a business while working on their college degree. Keep reading to learn about where some of RIT’s first Gap Year fellows are today.
