The gaming industry primarily bases itself in large markets such as New York City or Southern California, but for Kent State professor Turan Koptur, Northeast Ohio is the perfect place.

Koptur is a co-founder of Square Table Games, a game development and animation studio that is based right here in Northeast Ohio. Koptur founded the studio with former Kent State student Leslie Lundy.

“It was in fall of 2018 when the idea really sparked,” Lundy said. “We were doing something for Kent actually, showing off various Kent State projects for the game development group. While we were doing that, we thought, ‘Man, it would be pretty cool if we made this game.’ That’s how it all started.”

While the original idea for the studio was sparked by Lundy in 2018, it was not until early 2019 that Square Table Games started. The group was meeting regularly to discuss the idea when Lundy came up with the idea for the name.

“The idea was similar to The Knights of the Round Table,” Lundy said. “There were four of us originally, we would meet every Thursday at the same shop, at the same table. So finally, I just thought ‘Square Table Games.’”

Square Table Games began with some very big goals. The group had a vision of the game they wanted to create and worked hard toward that goal. Throughout this process they learned a lot about the industry and some of the challenges that come along with building a video game.

“There are a lot of challenges with it,” Koptur said. “Making a game takes a lot of money, effort, experience and a lot of mistakes. You must make small mistakes and big mistakes to learn how to fix them and learn how to do things right.”

Along with the everyday challenges of making a video game, many members of Square Table Games face a unique challenge within the industry, the challenge of balancing Square Table and their full-time jobs. Because Square Table is a small indie studio, most of the members of the team have full-time jobs along with working at Square Table.

“It definitely adds a lot of pressure,” Koptur said. “It’s a tiring business for sure, especially while you are working a full-time job, raising a family and trying to do it on the side. We hope one day that this can get big enough to where this company will be our main jobs.”

Along with having multiple Kent State alumni on staff, Square Table also offers internships through the internship course that Koptur teaches. Koptur and Lundy want to provide students in the game development field with valuable hands-on experience.

“Even though it is considered to be a course that students can take over the summer, the experience that I feel I have been able to provide has been invaluable to these students,” Lundy said. “It has been really rewarding to see and help a lot of them go and be very successful.”

Square Table Games are still working on their game, Soul Spires Initium. The game is a story driven action role playing game that is set in a universe completely unique to Square Table Games.

If you are interested in learning more about Square Table Games or Soul Spires Initium, you can find out more on the Square Table Games website.

Adam Kring is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].