Petricore Games’ founder, Ryan Canuel, is a Swansea native who came to Becker College because “it was listed as one of the top game design programs in the world. I wanted to do game design and be close to home.”

He majored in Interactive Entertainment with a focus on game design and decided that now was the time to do what he wanted. As he said, “Life’s pretty short (until some other startup figures out how to fix that).”

Mr. Canuel started Petricore Games – of which he is co-founder with Aaron Lin and CEO – because he wanted to impress others with his skill and have creative control. “We want to build something to impress the mega-successful, huge game companies and people we respect at those companies. (Our) ability to build what we want is much greater with us running the company,” he said.

Petricore Games targets the $26 billion mobile gaming market. Its team includes six people with help from advisers Monty Sharma and Tim Loew of MassDiGI at Becker.

Mr. Canuel is proud of his team. Mr. Lin’s “dedication and willingness to go beyond what was required to make sure the company succeeded made it obvious that he was someone that I should be a partner with,” said Mr. Canuel.

Mr. Canuel refers to his other team members as “rock stars.”

“Artist Christina Andriano won the award for top artist at Becker College in 2015; programmer/designer Oliver Awat was Becker’s 2015 valedictorian; user interface programmer James Spavold has been a lead or sole programmer on several projects; and, programmer Chris Bruno was lead programmer with me on a project of about 30 people,” explained Mr. Canuel.

Petricore Games is financing itself by “doing contract work that involves building applications – including one for a Harvard vascular surgeon, games, graphic designs and websites.”

Petricore Games gives away a game called “Mind the Arrow,” though users can pay 99 cents for an advertising-free version. “If you’re a fan of puzzle games and want to show your friends and the world how good you are at them, Mind the Arrow is the game for you,” said Mr. Canuel.

I am thrilled that Mr. Canuel wants to stay in Worcester. As he said, “Becker College and WPI are both near the top of Princeton Review’s list of the world’s top game design schools, but most of the game jobs are found in the Boston area. Our goal is to change that and allow students who graduate and attend these schools to find quality work at (Worcester-area) companies that are known all over the world.”

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