Build Your Own AI Game Studio: A Hands-On Game Development Workshop

Make the game you want to play.

Create a specialised AI development team—and start making your own game.

Build Your Own AI Game Studio is a hands-on Nelson workshop where you’ll develop an original game concept, create its visual direction and establish specialised AI workers to help bring it to life.

This is not one-click game generation. You’ll learn how to divide production into clear roles, brief AI effectively, test what it produces and remain the human creator responsible for the result.

Build a foundation for engineering with AI

Game development makes the experience exciting. The deeper lesson is how to approach complex creative and technical work with structure.

You’ll learn to:

• Shape a small, achievable game concept of your own

• Create concept imagery and a coherent visual target

• Build an AI team for artistic direction, assets and construction

• Break production into manageable, testable assignments

• Catch errors and improve results using evidence

• Take home a repeatable system for continuing your project

AI proposes and produces. The human creator directs, tests and decides.

Event details

Choose one workshop date:

Saturday 3 October 2026 OR Saturday 17 October 2026

10:00 am–2:00 pm
Elma Turner Library, Nelson Rūma Mānuka
NZ$120 per participant
Ages 14+ · Beginner-accessible

The session includes approximately three hours of guided activity followed by one hour of supported open-studio time.

No previous coding experience is required. Preparation and computer-readiness instructions will be supplied before the workshop.

What will I leave with?

You’ll leave with your own game concept, visual direction, specialised AI development team, first production work and a structured framework for continuing at home.

You may begin a playable prototype. A finished game is not promised during the workshop.

Explore Nelson AI Craft

Want to understand the teaching method, explore the Creator Loop or learn more about Richard’s work?

Visit the Nelson AI Craft website

Questions?

If you’re unsure about equipment, age suitability, accessibility or whether the workshop is right for you, please get in touch.

Email: customai.nz@gmail.com

You can also message Nelson AI Craft on Facebook.

Your idea. Your game. Your system.

Meet Richard

Richard Janutka is a qualified educator, AI developer and game creator with more than a decade of teaching experience across New Zealand and Japan.

His work includes a commercially released Steam game, a successfully crowdfunded original board game, practical AI software and educational publishing.

Your idea. Your game. Your system.