Playable Drafts is a hub designed to find resources & build community in the game industry. We are mainly aimed at game artists, designers, and developers of every specialty, at every stage of knowledge. We’re here to fight gatekeeping with free resources, honesty, and a commitment to learning in public.

What We Do

We aim to publish two main posts a week using human-led research & writing:

  • Study Session: Educational deep dives on game industry topics, including workflows, breakdowns, and tutorials. We’re your friend studying next to you who is also making mistakes, researching, and learning out loud.
  • Resource Cache: A curated collection of free tutorials, downloads, or tools that we actually verify and recommend.

In between posts, we aim to build a library of free tools, guides, templates, and learning resources. To support the website, we may create digital downloads in the future that conveniently compiles all of this free, accessible information.

And on occasion, we may post personal stories of learning experiences, devlogs, or projects we are messing with called From the Drafts.

Why We’re Doing This

Learning the skills it takes to be in this industry can honestly be overwhelming. Whether you’re self-taught or received formal education, there seems to be a universal complaint of knowledge gaps. Too many valuable resources hide behind paywalls or are presented in a confusing way. It also seems like a lot of people in this industry are burnt out or trying to rebuild their knowledge… We all deserve a space that meets us where we are, not just continually take our money, attention, or time.

Playable Drafts is built with the long game in mind by creating a space for so many resources. Our goal is to keep it sustainable through things like Patreon and digital downloads for convenience (never putting new info on a paid resource!).

Who’s Behind It

Playable Drafts was started by Mariah, a 3D artist by trade, mom, and forever-tired professional. Continually seeking knowledge in her craft, but being met with paywalls everywhere (including university!), she aims to provide free resources to everyone. We can all learn, we just need to find the right time, resources, and community to fuel that fire within ourselves.