We make game development accessible to all.

Making games should feel like playing one.
We build learning tools, AI-powered creation, and games with that in mind.

Now playing

The flagship

JoyStick Academy

In active development

Learn to make games, five minutes a day. A Duolingo-style mobile app with streaks, leagues, and capstone projects, paired with plugins that bring practice inside Unity, Unreal, Godot, and Roblox Studio, right next to the editor.

  • 197Lessons
  • 42Courses
  • 50Capstones
  • 4Engines

Practice inside the engine

  • Unity
  • Unreal
  • Godot
  • Roblox

Public launch planned Q4 2026 on iOS and Android, with all four engine plugins live at launch.

In the lab

Two more things are loading…

Early, unannounced, and under codenames. We'll say more when they're ready.

Codename

OVERSEER

An AI-powered game studio you can actually see. A full team of specialist agents (producer, developer, artist, designer, QA and more) working on your game, in a studio you watch from above.

  • AI agents
  • Game creation
  • Isometric view

Codename

MINDGAME

A social deception game where honesty is optional and trust is a weapon. Game modes built around reading people, bluffing, and the occasional beautiful betrayal.

  • Social deception
  • Multiplayer
  • Mind games

Who's building this

One founder. Full stack, full time.

Walid Mahfoud

Walid Mahfoud

Founder · Game Developer

JoyStick Studios is a solo build. Every product, every lesson, every engine plugin commit ships from the same desk in Casablanca. Capital efficient by design.

By day, Walid is a Data Engineer at SanlamAllianz, one of Africa's largest insurers, building distributed pipelines and production data platforms. Behind that: a Master's in Big Data and AI, a degree in Mathematics, Data Science, and Computer Science, and professional certifications across Azure, Microsoft Fabric, Databricks, Terraform, and CompTIA. JoyStick Studios applies that same data-and-infrastructure discipline to games.

Game development is the long-running parallel track: engines, level design, and the loops underneath how shipped games actually feel. For JoyStick Academy alone, that meant shipping five distinct surfaces solo: the mobile app, a 4-engine catalog, the backend, admin tooling, and the marketing site, all built methodically since late 2025.

Beyond the build, Walid leads in the Global Shapers community, a World Economic Forum network: Curator of the Mohammedia hub and previously its VP of HR.

Investors and partners get a direct line, no layers.

Let's talk.

Investors, partners, press, or future teammates: there's one inbox and it's read by the founder. Replies within 24 hours.