At Petricore, we recently celebrated 11 years of operations as a studio. Our brains are funny in the way that segments of 5 often feel major, while the others maybe less so. At 5 years, I remember feeling amazed we’d lasted so long, and 10 felt like such a herculean feat, running a game studio for a full decade. But eleven? Ehh, that’s just one more than ten! Just a baby step on the way to 15.

It isn’t though. After 11 years of running a studio, if I’ve learned anything, it’s that these years are not a given by any stretch of the imagination. They’re a hard-earned fight, and pushing forward despite an industry that seems more and more determined to crush studios. So I’m shaking off the feeling that 11 isn’t an important number, because it is important, and it’s something we all should be proud of.

Some of the Petricore Team in the office for our Learning & Development week this past week to celebrate 11 years. We’re playing the game Farkle to determine who picks where we go for lunch that day.

I’ve told this many times before, but if you’re just joining us, I’d like to briefly touch on the origin story of Petricore as we look back on the years behind us. We started as a group of 6 coming out of Becker College in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the game design program. For the vast majority of us, this was our first “real” game industry job.

Most of us had met through the MassDiGI Summer Innovation Program (SIP), where we worked on games in small teams that functioned similarly to startups or studios. It was that experience which helped lay the foundation for Petricore, along with the mentorship of Monty Sharma, the managing director at MassDiGI and a previous serial entrepreneur.

Monty was the one who encouraged me to try starting a studio with fellow graduates, and so during spring break of our final year of college, I called up the most talented people I knew and asked if they’d like to start a studio with me. They all said yes, and after break we got started on what became Petricore.

To his credit, Monty was our biggest champion and advocate, helping us find our first few projects, but he was also a realist who brought me back down to earth on many occasions. I still remember him telling me we likely wouldn’t last the first year. I don’t mention this as a “look, I proved him wrong!” moment (even though we did ;)) but because he was right. The odds of this working out for us were insanely low.

Some of the Petricore team bowling at our recent company outing this past week!

As the years went on, we continued to push forward and grow. There were moments of tremendous success, such as having our first 3 mobile games featured on the front page of the App Store and finally getting an original game funded by a major company. But there were also moments of failure, including times of work famine, layoffs, and losing projects we dreamed of winning.

Alongside all of the successes and challenges has been a team of people who continue to push forward and grow Petricore into the kind of place we can all be proud to work at. People who I’ve seen come together on so many occasions to figure out ways forward when faced with challenges or bad news, and who have also taken the time to celebrate our successes. I’m so incredibly proud of what we’ve built here, and the people who’ve made that possible year after year.

Happy 11th Birthday, Petricore!