Somewhere in New York right now, someone is finishing a level in a bedroom after their shift at Starbucks. Someone else is three years into a game they’ve never shown anybody. A team of four is working nights on the game they’ve always wanted to see exist in the world.

On Wednesday, October 7, we’re putting as many of them as we can fit into one venue in Downtown Brooklyn.

Game-A-Palooza is a one-day showcase of independent games made in New York, run by IGDA NYC. About 500 people came through last year. This year we’re going bigger.

Here’s the part worth understanding: almost nothing on that floor is out yet. These games don’t have publishers or funding, and most don’t have a release date. You can’t buy them. You can’t watch someone else play them. For a lot of them, October 7 is the first time strangers have touched them at all — and the person who made it is standing right there, watching your face while you play.

That’s a specific kind of day, and it happens once a year.

If you make games — submissions are open

We’re looking for developers in the New York metro area with a game that doesn’t have outside funding yet, and that you’re aiming to release commercially in the next year or two. Any genre, any platform, any stage of development — vertical slice through near-launch. Solo work counts. Student work counts.

What you get is a table, power, and a whole day of people who have never seen your game putting their hands on it while you watch. That last part is the whole thing. You’ll learn more in one afternoon of watching a stranger get stuck than in a month of feedback threads.

You’ll also be on the slate we send to every publisher, investor, journalist, and creator we invite — and there’s a private meeting room on site if you want to take a conversation somewhere quieter than the floor.

Free to submit. If you’re accepted, there’s a $50 exhibitor fee for the table, due only after you’re in. If $50 is a problem, tell us and we’ll reduce or waive it — no form, no explanation, no effect on whether you get in.

Slots are limited and a review committee accepts games on a rolling basis, so don’t wait to submit.

Submissions close August 28th, 2026 · Decisions sent within 7 days of submission.

If you want to play — tickets

Spend an afternoon playing things nobody has played yet.

Every game in the room was chosen — there’s no filler on the floor, nothing renting a table. You’ll probably find one you end up telling people about in two years when it finally comes out, and you get to say you played it in a room in Brooklyn before anyone had heard of it. And you can ask the person who made it anything you want, because they’re standing right behind the table.

Two sessions, so the floor stays playable and you’re not queuing for a turn:

– 1:00 – 3:45 PM
– 4:15 – 7:00 PM