Alex Rushdy Didn’t Technically Choose a Career in Games, but He’s Having a Great One Anyway

The CEO and creative director behind Runbow and Dawn of the Monsters discusses the recent discomfort of running a Unity team, his Godzilla ’98 VHS collection, and more.

This story first ran at my game dev shop talk blog, CodeWritePlay.

What do you do after directing the most uniquely you project of your career?

This was my question for Alex Rushdy, CEO and creative director of 13AM Games, the Toronto, Ontario indie studio behind popular games including Runbow, Double Cross, and most recently, Dawn of the Monsters. We spoke remotely for the most recent episode of my game development podcast, GameDev Breakdown.

“I’m just gonna throw in the towel, actually,” Alex joked in reply. “Maybe become a farmer.”

As we sat down over Zoom, 13AM was in post-launch for Dawn of the Monsters, its third major release. The side-scrolling giant monster beat-em-up has the coveted Very Positive reviews label on Steam, just like both of their games before it. Alex has been along for the ride for all three titles, but Dawn is special to him. If you’ve seen his website, his blog, or his social media…