Most college students spend their freshman year adjusting to campus life; Bermuda resident Maxwell Totten spent it creating a video game company.

The Warwick Academy graduate was part of the team behind Mage: Mega Awesome Gregarious Encounters, essentially a wizard duelling app.

“It’s a very fast and frantic game where you throw spells at each other and fly around,” the 21-year-old said.

The project began during his first week at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. Three years later, Mage has grown into a registered game studio and business, FunRug Studio, and a commercial game release on Steam, a large online digital distribution and management platform.

Mr Totten said the work of making the game was a mix of coding, painstaking documentation and a great deal of testing.

“I would play for two hours and make sure it felt right,” he said. “If it didn’t then I would change it by 5 per cent and do it again.”

Mage did not start as a commercial endeavour, but slowly became that as his group of college friends grew.

“As we became more invested, we realised, wow, this game is really awesome,” he said.

The game includes 21 different playable wizards each with their own quirks, abilities and weapons.

His younger sister, Elizabeth, and girlfriend, Samantha Soares, voiced some of the wizards.

“My favourite character is Bug Mage,” Mr Totten said. “She shoots weaker than the others but has a pet bug that mimics her actions and fires its own small projectile, making her a more technical, late-unlock character.”

The group consisting of Mr Totten, Ben Adams, Alex Weiswasser and Harry Tomasco set up a limited liability company so that they could to split up any funds from game sales. They applied to Steam, paid a small fee and sent them various versions of the game for review.

“Now that we are a business, hopefully we can build a backlog of games that will continue selling,” he said.

Mage generated more than 1,900 demo downloads before its release on June 23. It is priced at $10.

So far, the game has produced modest but real returns.

“We made a total profit, not including taxes, of a little over $6,000,” Mr Totten said. “That is not a lot for the amount of time we spent on it, but it is something to put on our résumés.”

The hardest thing about the project was the time it took, especially since he had to balance his game design with his regular college work.

“I have a reputation as a hard worker,” he said. “For me, doing well on an assignment comes almost higher than getting a good grade. I need to feel good about what I'm handing in.”

In September, Mr Totten enters his final year at Champlain. He is not sure yet whether he will seek employment at a major studio or continue to grow FunRug Studio. Ultimately, the decision will come down to how well FunRug can get things off the ground while its executives are still in college.

They are already working on their next title.

• Mage is available for download for Mac and PC computers through theSteam platform