Building Tomorrow's Game Developers
We started arthenar because we noticed something missing in game development education. Real mentorship. Practical skills. And honest guidance that actually prepares you for the industry.
Our Beginning
Back in 2016, Dmitri and Hassan were working at different studios but kept running into the same problem. Fresh graduates would join their teams with impressive portfolios, but they'd struggle with the practical stuff. Debugging complex JavaScript. Building engaging user interactions. Understanding how social casino mechanics actually work.
We'd spend months training each new hire on things that should have been covered in their education. Don't get me wrong — we enjoyed mentoring. But we realized there had to be a better way.
So we started meeting at coffee shops on weekends, sketching out what game development education could look like if it focused on real-world skills instead of just theory. By early 2017, we had our first beta course running with twelve students.
The People Behind Your Learning
We kept our team small on purpose. Every instructor here has spent years in the trenches, building games that millions of people actually play.
Dmitri Kovalenko
Lead Curriculum Developer
Dmitri spent eight years at Zynga before joining a smaller studio where he led the team that built three successful casino games. He has this talent for explaining complex programming concepts using real examples from games you've probably played. When he's not updating our JavaScript curriculum, he's usually experimenting with new HTML5 Canvas techniques.
Hassan Al-Rashid
Senior Programming Instructor
Hassan's background is a bit different — he started in mobile app development before transitioning to social casino games in 2019. That outside perspective helps him spot common mistakes that game-focused developers might miss. He runs our advanced JavaScript workshops and has an impressive ability to debug the most puzzling code issues during live sessions.
How We Actually Teach
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Code Reviews Matter
Every assignment gets reviewed by someone who's written production game code. We don't just check if it works — we help you understand why certain approaches scale better than others.
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Real Project Experience
You'll build actual casino game features, not toy examples. Our final projects use the same tech stacks and architectural patterns you'll encounter in professional studios.
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No False Promises
We can teach you solid programming skills and game development fundamentals. Landing a job depends on your effort, the market, and dozens of other factors we can't control.
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Small Cohorts
Our September 2025 cohort caps at 24 students. Hassan and Dmitri both attend every live session, so you get guidance from instructors who know your progress individually.
What Makes Us Different
Most bootcamps rush through frameworks and libraries. We spend serious time on JavaScript fundamentals because that's what trips up junior developers in their first year. You'll understand closures, prototypal inheritance, and asynchronous programming before you touch React or Vue.
Our curriculum changes every few months based on feedback from hiring managers at studios across Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. When CSS Grid became standard for game UI layouts, we rebuilt our entire front-end module. When WebGL gained better browser support, we added those workshops.
The best part? Our alumni stay connected. We have an active Discord where graduates share job opportunities, get help with technical challenges, and occasionally roast each other's code. It's the kind of community we wished existed when we were starting out.