In the hyper-competitive world of mobile video games, Ray Sharma knows it's all about standing "on the shoulders of giants."

As the founder and chief executive of XMG Studios Inc., one of Canada's top mobile videogame publishers, Mr. Sharma knows that when it comes to designing a top-selling smartphone video game, there's no point in starting from scratch.

For videogame developers hoping to craft the next Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja, there's no need to write a new piece of code that governs the physics of gravity inside a gaming environment. There's no point in creating a new model that governs how light shines through trees or how characters can move inside a two-dimensional environment.

That's because those software tools exist, many of which are free or available at reasonable prices.

Call it the democratization of game development.

XMG plans to make more than two dozen software tools available to university students participating in this weekend's Great Canadian Appathon videogame coding competition.

"Software is one of those industries that intersects intel-lectual capability with creativity," Mr. Sharma said.

"It's all about the condensation of creativity. It sounds a little bit like motherhood and apple pie, but software is an industry where you really can stand on the shoulders of giants."

While 48 hours might not seem like a lot of time, Mr. Sharma knows first hand that reputations in the mobile gaming world can be cemented in a two-day span.

Earlier this year, XMG hosted its internal hackathon to challenge employees to come up with a new video game for the company over the course of a 48-hour time frame. When the weekend was over, one game emerged as the clear victor, Cows vs. Aliens.

Since then, Cows vs. Aliens has gone on to become the company's biggest hit to date. Apple Inc. featured the game in its App Store, making it the App of the Week and putting it at the top of the Great Canadian Apps list.

"We've shown with our own actions what's possible," he said. "We can not only provide a learning experience and prizes with this Great Canadian Appathon, but we want to provide a real commercial result that these kids can put their finger on."