G for Game: An Internet Famous Game Developer Visits New Media for a Guest Lecture

By Mike Ditota

Andrews sits with a student as they try out one of the games. Photo by Mike Ditota.

The New Media senior studio was dim, lit only by the blue light from the windows. Early arrivals chatted with each other. Most of the attendees were upperclassmen and already quite familiar with each other. Latecomers to the lecture were forced to scour the room for its few remaining available seats. Those seats would be empty shortly after featured lecturer Blake Andrews had finally finished connecting to Purchase’s uncooperative Wi-Fi. 

Andrews is a primarily game developer, having released hundreds of short games online. Their games are absurd and highly experimental, ranging in gameplay from frogs catching flies to discussing Breaking Bad with a dinosaur. Additionally, they are a teacher at The School for Poetic Computation.

The studio quickly transformed into a makeshift arcade, featuring several works by Andrews. A crowd gathered around the projector screen, which displayed a bizarre ABCs guessing game. After matching “A” to a picture of an anime character, the group became stumped on which of the displayed images represented “B”. 

A group of students playing Andrews' ABC game. Photo by Mike Ditota.

After several incorrect guesses which filled the screen with “That’s WRONG”, Professor Lee Tusman, a longtime internet friend of Andrews who organized the lecture, shouted out “Backgammon!” The guess was correct and met with loud cheers.

Andrews spent the time observing gameplay, chatting with students, and fervently taking notes. Also available were unreleased demos of their upcoming titles, Smush Bros and Horse Race Tests: Life is Pain. The latter is a video game adaptation of Andrews’ viral Horse Race Test series of videos. These short clips were uploaded to Twitter, with the first posted on April 1, 2025. They quickly garnered millions of views, fostering a dedicated fandom. Each video features a cast of brightly colored “hortses”, who bounce along a maze to their goal. 

The guessing game had painstakingly made it to the letter “D,” for deck of cards, when the event transitioned to Andrews’ presentation. It was immediately clear that the lecture would maintain its lighthearted tone, with Andrews humorously moving and resizing textboxes on their slideshow.

What followed was a trip through Andrews’ lifelong relationship with the internet and video games. Throughout the lecture, they namedropped several cult classic video games, including Cave Story and Yume Nikki, eliciting excited reactions from many of the attendees.

“You probably saw me and Erica lose our shit,” New Media senior Krista Morlina said. “Having that kind of relatability helped to be really engaging.”

When Andrews mentioned studying under Bennett Foddy at NYU, the crowd reacted in shock. Foddy is best known for developing indie games QWOP and Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, the latter of which was a viral sensation on Twitch and YouTube.

“It’s more like a conversation,” Andrews said after the lecture, speaking on their own influence in the game development community. “I feel like all art is kind of based on itself in a way.”

Andrews’ last segment was a discussion about their work ethic in game development. They emphasized the importance of showing off game ideas as much as possible. 

“Use your weird, unique skills to make money,” Andrews said while scrolling through their personal website, which hosts over 100 games. Many of these games were made for commissions, with Andrews advertising a completed game in 10 minutes or less.

They closed the presentation by setting a 5-minute timer and creating a game. They asked the room for a topic, and the first thing shouted out was “cheese”. Andrews completed the game, in which you click on a stock image of cheese to “eat” it, with 2 minutes and 10 seconds remaining. The audience erupted with praise at the stopping of the timer. It was the loudest reaction of the afternoon.

“Honestly I think I can speak for everybody, this was one of the best lectures we’ve had,” New Media Senior Erica Fata said, on behalf of a small group who lingered after the lecture. “We’re making games, we’re also doing something interactive, so it’s really inspiring seeing other people who do it.”