This is not an employment role. It’s a fully funded scholarship seat in RealXP Lab’s cohort learning program, where you learn by contributing to a real commercial project in a production workflow.

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About the scholarship

RealXP Lab is partnering with Work With Indies to offer one fully funded scholarship seat for a Work With Indies member to join our upcoming cohort. This scholarship covers 100% of the program fee.

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Dates

This cohort runs Feb 23 – May 15, 2026, and applications are due by Feb 8, 2026.

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About the project: Gameplay Prototyping (Voids Within)

Platform/Engine: Unity (PC).

You’ll help shape the tense, cooperative core of a 4-player first-person game about surviving a nuclear reactor as systems fail and pressure escalates. You’ll build on early prototypes to refine teamwork-driven objectives, readable interactions, dynamic events, and a grounded, horror-leaning atmosphere powered by lighting and sound. The focus: clear roles, strong communication, and replayable runs where the environment—not monsters—is the threat. See full project detail here.

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About Voids Within

Voids Within is an independent studio led by developer Matt Marshall, focused on atmospheric, mood-driven games. Its standout release, Dystopika, is a “dark cozy” cyberpunk city-building sandbox that prioritizes creativity and ambience over goals or management.

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What you'll learn

Learn production-ready fundamentals in office hours led by real-world experts. Build the skills to be job-ready on a professional team and ship your indie project with confidence. On top of that—and what makes RealXP Lab different—you’ll learn by shipping inside a real commercial project and production pipeline. You'll level up through PR code review, feedback emails, performance reviews, and the organic learning that happens on real teams (conversations, self-directed exploration, and studying the codebase).

• Production-focused curriculum Learn a rigorous curriculum built for junior engineers and grounded in real production needs, covering everything from production workflow and code quality to optimization and Unity architecture.
• Multiplayer Networking Ship reliable 4-player co-op with synchronized interactions, shared objectives, role-based teamwork, and clear client-side feedback.
• Procedural Generation Build replayable runs using procedural variation and dynamic events that ramp tension and difficulty without feeling random or unfair.
• State Machines & Gameplay Systems Implement state-driven reactor systems: operations, failures, repairs, and progression, supported by lighting and sound that maintain a grounded, horror-leaning tone.

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What you'll deliver

Working alongside a Senior Unity Engineer lead, your project deliverables include:

• A playable core game loop with early “game feel,” focused on mechanics and iteration rather than visual polish.
• Working 4-player co-op multiplayer with a repeatable local testing setup (server/host + multiple clients) and the primary game loop running end-to-end in a shared session.
• Nice-to-haves: procedural generation to increase replayability, plus automated tests and lightweight testing infrastructure.

Additionally, as part of the scholarship, we ask that you write a short reflection article at the end of the cohort, sharing your honest experience and takeaways.

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Who is the scholarship for

To be eligible, you should be excited about the opportunity and ready to fully commit to the cohort. This scholarship is intended for:

• Students and new grads who want to build strong professional habits early and turn solid skills into credible, job-ready experience.
• Hobbyists and career switchers who want to break into the industry with proof beyond solo projects, or ship indie titles with confidence.

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Prerequisites

• You should already be comfortable working in Unity and C#, have participated in a few game jams, and have shipped at least one small project on itch.io or Steam.
• Come ready to be challenged and to push yourself. The real gap between a hobbyist and a pro isn’t just technical skill—it’s initiative taking, jumping into an existing codebase, and being willing to throw away work that doesn’t serve the game.

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What’s included

• Live sessions Learn directly from real-world experts through live, interactive sessions.
• Guest lectures 3 guest talks by industry veterans, each focused on their area of expertise.
• Lifetime access Rewatch recordings anytime and keep access to our internal resource library.
• Career support Get mock interviews plus portfolio and resume reviews focused on industry readiness.
• Industry network Join a lasting network of like-minded peers, mentors, and industry professionals.

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Curriculum

24 mentor office hours, 12 learning topics. See full curriculum here.

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Schedule

Team Sync is the only required session; everything else is optional. Times will be set based on cohort availability, and the schedule may be adjusted as needed.

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RealXP Lab is a game dev production knowledge school where students learn by shipping real studio projects, mentored by real-world experts. Go from hobbyist to pro.