In September 2025, we tried something. We opened a free 6-week program for anyone working on a side project — an app, a game, a tool, a book, anything creative and real. No pitch decks. No investors. No judges. Just build, share progress weekly, and ship.
85 people signed up. 15 made it to the end.
The format was simple: one update per week, a small group to push each other forward, and a public demo at the end. Remote, async, free. The kind of program we wished had existed when we were building Nocturne's first apps.
It wasn't perfect. Running it took more energy than expected. But watching 15 people go from "I've had this idea for years" to "it's live" in 6 weeks — that part was real.
It also gave us something harder to quantify. Helping people actually accomplish what they set out to do — shipping something they'd been sitting on, getting it out into the world — that was one of the most energizing things we've done as a studio. We don't know exactly when, but there will be a second batch.