Make Games NYC

The State of NYC Indie: Developing a Better Games Community
2025-10-09 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | NYU Games Center, 370 Jay St, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
New York City has become a hotbed for pioneering independent game developers whose unique artistic expression rarely gets the spotlight it deserves. We can change this by finding new ways to work together, creating a more cohesive and inclusive community in the process.
Our panel of four community leaders are passionate about this goal. Each has long-standing roots in the NYC game development scene yet brings a diverse set of perspectives that cover both the professional and academic realms. This meeting of the minds will discuss why NYC is a great place to make games, how we can work together to better support NYC game developers, and more.
Our Panelists:
Yiyi Zhang (GUMBO)
Kyra Wills-Umdenstock (EGD Collective)
Jess Haskins (NYC Indie Games Social)
Mattia Sicuro (IGDA NYC)
The panel is moderated by Tim Rattray, a writer and documentarian creating a docuseries on the NYC game development scene. A teaser for his team’s ongoing work will be shown here.
We thank the NYU Game Center for graciously hosting this independently run event. Come early to check out their Playtest Thursday event!
Event Details:
Date: Thursday, October 9th, 2025
Time: 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Place: NYU Game Center Theater — Lecture Hall 202 (370 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY)
Price: Donation (Recommmended: $10 | For a free ticket, use the code GAFREE)
After paying off the expenses for running this event independently [note: we’ve achieved this goal, thank you!], the remaining profits will be split among the organizations of our panelists represent (25%/per).
Following the panel, we’ll move to Evil Twin’s DUMBO taproom (43 Main St.) to socialize and network. All ages are welcome.
For any questions and inquiries, email Tim Rattray (tim.rattray@me.com).
Also, a huge thank you to Krysti Pryde (Playcrafting) for creating the poster and banner art!
Our Partners:
NYU Game Center
Playcrafting
Game Devs of Color Expo
Wonderville
Produced By:
Tim Rattray, Nicole Papadopoulos, & PolyMedia Productions

Game-A-Palooza
2025-10-18 12:00 - 17:00 | Hana House, 345 Adams St, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
UPDATE: 10/14/25 – For A Limited Time Only – buy a ticket for Game-A-Palooza and get one to bring a friend along for free!
NYC’s biggest indie game showcase is here—and it’s your chance to play games before anyone else in the world. On Saturday, October 18, 2025, IGDA NYC takes over Hana House for Game-A-Palooza, a one-day festival built to celebrate and spotlight local game developers. Proudly sponsored by the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, this event puts the city’s creative talent front and center.
🕹️ Play 50+ New and Unreleased Games
From 12–5 p.m., get hands-on with over 50 brand-new and unreleased games from NYC’s most inventive developers. This is your chance to discover the next big thing before it hits Steam, consoles, or anywhere else.
Don’t just play games. Play them first.

[rect*]] repair x boshi's place: Shanghai New York game portal
2025-10-18 20:00 - 23:00 | Boshi’s Place, 1002 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11211, United States
join us on saturday 10/18 @ 8pm for an international crossover event with our friends from [[rect*]]repair in shanghai! at the same time they will be showing our games in new york, we’ll have a curation of chinese games, a portal to interact with the attendees in shanghai, and a fax machine(?!!)

Level Up Tuesdays with Coexist! Featuring Elaine Gómez
2025-10-21 18:00 - 21:00 | CoExist, 325 W 38th St, New York, NY, 11435, United States
Elaine Gómez is a Borikua (Puerto Rican) and Kiskeyan (Dominican) game designer with nearly a decade of experience in game design and development. Her talk will focus on the initiatives, collaboration and advocacy work Latinx in Gaming has launched to best support and uplift Latine developers and creatives, regardless of where they are in the world.
Echograph by Sach and The Coldest Winter by Vibe XP will be part of our featured showcase!

Unreal NYC | October Event - Sponsored by Epic Games
2025-10-22 18:00 - 20:00 | B&H Photo Video, 420 9th Ave, New York, NY, 10001, United States
Join us for our sort-of 😉 monthly Unreal NYC Meetup, where we dive into all the latest features of Unreal Engine and network with other professionals in games, animation, film, broadcast, live events, and more.

GUMBO Board Game / Tabletop Playtest Night
2025-10-23 18:30 - 20:30 | GUMBO
Come meet some board game designers, play some unreleased games, and maybe even make some new friends!

Zohran Games Gallery at Boshi’s Place
2025-10-23 18:30 - 21:30 | Boshi’s Place, 1002 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11211, United States
Join us for a night of Zohran themed games as we get hyped to vote! During this happy hour, you can play and win Zohran themed prizes!!
Know a Zohran game you’d like to submit? Let us know!!
Enter the building by using this link and typing ‘ding’ in the bell chat: https://discord.gg/VY9ydwtW6

NYU Game Center Lecture Series Presents Dimma Davidoff
2025-10-23 19:00 - 20:30 | NYU Game Center, 370 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
Join us for a conversation with Dimma Davidoff, creator of the Mafia game. We will talk about the psychological roots of the game (why was it not created before?), ways to look at it from different perspectives (how come it is not about lying?) and lessons opening the new worlds of play (what games would zombies like to play?).
Dimma Davidoff is a psychologist who studies and sometimes makes games. He graduated from the Psychology Department of Moscow State University in 1989. He designed the Contact word game and the Mafia game (which became popular worldwide and led to the creation of the Social Deduction games genre). His current quest is to make cross-species games.
(This event will also be live streaming at twitch.tv/nyugamecenter!)
RSVP Here

Brooklyn Experimental Electronic Music Group
2025-10-23 19:00 - 23:00 | Wonderville, 1186 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY, 11221, United States
Join the local electronic music community for our showcase featuring an eclectic mix of New York City artists working in a variety of styles.
Organized by Metamyther

XR Motion Meetup!
2025-10-23 20:00 - 23:00 | Crystal Lake Brooklyn, 647 Grand St, Brooklyn, NY, 11211, United States
XR Motion is a mograph, VR, AR, 3D, AI, Metaverse meetup that gathers enthusiasts, professionals, and experts in the field!

GameMaker Game Jam 2025 @ Gumbo!
2025-10-24 23:00 - 2025-10-26 01:00 | GUMBO
GameMaker, Gumbo NYC, and Shattered Journal Games are teaming up to host another game jam at Gumbo. The jam will run for 48 hours from October 24th 6pm to October 26th 6pm.

Open Tables: A playtesting space for tabletop game designers
2025-10-25 13:00 - 16:30 | Wonderville, 1186 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY, 11221, United States
Come and play games during the fall (costumes not required)!
This event will only be running from 1-4:30 PM so it is recommended that designers and playtesters come right at the beginning for maximum testing potential.

Wonderville's Last Tuesday of the month PLAYTEST
2025-10-28 19:00 - 22:00 | Wonderville, 1186 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY, 11221, United States
Playtest Night is EVERY last Tuesday of EVERY month at Wonderville!
Come to Wonderville to playtest in production games!
If you’re a developer, bring your game! No signups required.

Video Games: The Great Connector
2025-11-03 15:00 - 2025-11-05 18:00 | City College of New York, 160 Convent Ave, New York, NY, 10031, United States
The Harlem Gallery of Science is excited to announce that Video Games: The Great Connector is returning for 2 days only — Monday, November 3rd and Wednesday November 5th — at the City College of New York.Doors are open to local middle and high school groups for free, interactive field trips that explore the educational power of video games and digital storytelling.

Play Scrapeboard
2025-11-04 19:00 - 23:59 | Wonderville, 1186 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY, 11221, United States
Hey slime bag! Scrapeboard is an arcade game played on a real skateboard deck and metal floor pads. Challenge a boss rush where the player performs combos using the skatedeck and metal floor pads to block sword attacks from Tony Hawk’s hardest hitters, including Kool Man, an alien, and a Nintendo Switch. Do you have the moves to skate through a gauntlet of goons all the way to Tony Hawk?

Monthly 2 Hr GameJam Club: Môsi
2025-11-08 13:00 - 17:00 | Wonderville, 1186 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY, 11221, United States
This month we are using Môsi to make adventure games in under 2 hours. Bring a computer and come out! Good for beginners and experts.

GUMBO Playtest Monday
2025-11-10 19:00 - 21:00 | GUMBO
Come hang out, play some games, and maybe show off what you’ve been working on as well!
Details / RSVP: https://www.meetup.com/gumbo-collective/events/311775129/

Women in Games Monthly Chill: Astoria Edition
2025-11-12 18:00 - 20:00 | NY
Join us at Martha’s Bakery in Astoria, Queens. There will be yummy baked goods, board games, and art supplies.
This is our monthly, casual recurring event on Wednesdays! Come hang out 🤗

NYVR
2025-11-12 18:00 - 21:00 | Glimpse office, 15 West 38th, 2nd floor, New York, NY, 10018, United States
A community meetup with people interested in the development and application of virtual reality technology.

Unity NYC Playtest+Network Event
2025-11-12 18:00 - 21:00 | Urban Arts, 39 W 19th Street Fl #5, New York, NY, United States
The Unity NYC User group is hosting a playtesting event Nov 12th, 6-9pm at Urban Arts and we’re open for submissions!
Here’s the form to submit your game:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfNNF_McOcI5F5hss0AcIt_zMQcKHuEZQUoDJAGb4vbwGZc-Q/viewform
Aren’t working on a game, but still use Unity? Just come hang out with all of us and Celebrate Unity’s 20th birthday 🎉 !
Rumor has it there will be merch and a surprise!

NYU Game Center Lecture Series Presents: Alumni Developers Panel
2025-11-13 19:00 - 20:30 | NYU Game Center, 370 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
Join us for an evening with Jenny Jiao Hsia & AP Thomson (of Beglitched and Consume Me), Julián Cordero (of despelote) & Gabe Cuzzillo (of APE OUT, despelote, Baby Steps). What do these NYC-area developers have in common? They’ve all released games this year, earned attention and awards for their efforts… and they’re all graduates of the NYU Game Center, where many of their projects and collaborations took root in the early days of development! Of course, releasing a game is a long and complex road, and all of their acclaimed works grew and evolved over years. What’s it like to release a game in 2025? How does your vision change in unexpected ways? And what’s on the horizon? We’ll discuss all this and more on a panel moderated by Naomi Clark, chair of the NYU Game Center.
RSVP HERE

NYU's Game Design Week Launch Party
2025-11-14 20:30 - 23:59 | Wonderville, 1186 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY, 11221, United States
NYU Game Center Week launch party kicks off with chiptune musicians Ah Dek, Double XP Weekend, Business Pastel, Chillbrave, and Rockman, with visual art projections all night by artists Slime Bubble, datacats, Claire Kwong, and emdashi.

Pitch + Plate w/Women in Games NYC
2025-11-19 18:30 - 20:30 | NY
RSVP here: https://www.meetup.com/women-in-games-nyc/events/311692473/
Join us for Pitch + Plate, an evening celebrating Women in Games, creativity, and community over dinner!
We’re bringing together women to share what they’re working on in a supportive, inspiring space. Everyone is welcome to step up and give a quick pitch about your game or creative project, and there will be time to mingle, eat, and connect.
Pitch time is 2-8 mins. You can present, chat or show a trailer of your game/product if you choose to. We will provide power and basic hdmi cables along with a big TV to present on.
We encourage you to show us your project even if it’s not the most polished one out there. Progress matters and we’re here to cheer you on!

3DNY: Sponsored by EPIC GAMES @ Lucky Jacks!
2025-11-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Luckey Jack’s
We are STOKED to be back LUCKY JACKS for our next 3DNY kindly sponsored once again by EPIC GAMES! We will have a FREE DRINK for the first 100 guests! Sending a huge thank you as always to Epic for the ongoing support of our program 🙂 So come early and stay to enjoy insights from industry leaders. NO TICKETS REQUIRED, open to walk ins and uncapped entry 🙂 Cheers!

Gaming Pathways Guest Speaker Demetri Detsaridis
2025-11-20 19:00 - 21:00 | City College of New York, 160 Convent Ave, New York, NY, 10031, United States
Join Demetri Detsaridis and Gaming Pathways @ CCNY for “Gaming Business Models: Why Everything Feels Like a Live Service Now”

GameMaker x Wonderville Meetup
2025-11-22 14:30 - 18:00 | Wonderville, 1186 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY, 11221, United States
Game Maker, Wonderville, and Shattered Journal Games have teamed up to host a meetup in NYC. Be there on November 22nd from 2:30pm to 6pm.
GameMaker developers will be showcasing their games during this event! If you are a GameMaker developer in the area who would also like to showcase please reach out to contact@shatteredjournalgames.com
Join us for food, music, happy hour refreshments, and play some games made in GameMaker!

No Quarter 2025
2025-11-22 19:00 - 22:00 | NYU Game Center, 370 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
No Quarter is an annual playable exhibition where four newly commissioned works from leading artists working across games are debuted. No Quarter returns to Brooklyn, New York this Fall on Saturday 22 November. The event is free to attend, but spaces are limited.

RSVP HERE
No Quarter 2025 Cohort

Julián Cordero

Julián Cordero is a game developer from Quito, Ecuador, based in NYC. His latest project, despelote, is a slice-of-life adventure about childhood and the magical grip soccer held over the people of Quito in 2001. He’s passionate about finding new ways to capture the world, and sees video games as the perfect vessel for that exploration.
Despelote.game

Patrick LeMieux and Stephanie Boluk

Stephanie Boluk and Patrick LeMieux are associate professors at the University of California, Davis where they make, play, and think about games together. Their research and teaching examine the community practices and material histories of play through the lenses of game design, media theory, and political economy. Some of their projects include Metagaming, a book about the games people play in, on, around, and through videogames and the Octopad, an eight-person NES controller.
patrick-lemieux.com
stephanieboluk.com

Jana Romanova
Jana Romanova is a multidisciplinary artist working with games, performance, and photography. Through live-action role-plays and social games, she invites people to step into unfamiliar roles, discover meaningful connections in liminal spaces, rethink the systems that shape us, and explore agency, care, and ecological imagination.
janaromanova.com

Nicole He and Rémi Forcadell
Nicole He is a game designer based in Brooklyn, NY. She directed The Crush House in 2024. Rémi Forcadell is a game developer based in Paris, France. He created Giraffes Volleyball Championship 2016 in 2016 and co-created Pikuniku later. They both enjoy looking at ducks in ponds.
nicole.pizza
remiforcadell.com

The venue is wheelchair accessible, seating will be available, transcriptions will be provided for audio only works. The environment includes low level lighting, music, projections and bright screens. There are quiet spaces with seating on the same floor as the exhibition that are easy to access.
NYU Tisch School of the Arts provides reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities. Requests for accommodations should be made at least two weeks before the date of the event when possible. You can request accommodations here: https://form.tisch.nyu.edu/a/accessibility-request-form

NYC Games Social
2025-12-03 19:00 - 22:00 | Wonderville, 1186 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY, 11221, United States
RSVP: https://withfriends.events/event/G1jbpOdh/nyc-indie-games-december-social-brooklyn-edition/
NYC Indie Games Socials
We meet 7–10pm on the first Wednesday of every month, at a bar in downtown Manhattan with food with vegan and GF options, and a good selection of both alcoholic and NA drinks.

NYC INDIE DEV NIGHT / COZY EDITION / OS-NYC / December 4th
2025-12-04 18:00 - 22:00 | OS NYC, 50 Bowery, New York, NY, 10013, United States
RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nyc-indie-dev-night-cozy-edition-os-nyc-december-4th-tickets-1902309792799

Overview

Join us on December 4th for NYC Indie Dev Night at OS-NYC, where local developers showcase their latest games and projects!

Join Playcrafting for a festive night of gaming and community at OS-NYC!
This month’s Indie Dev Night is all about cozy games — think narrative adventures, dating sims, cooking, farming, puzzles, and irresistibly cute art. Give us the warm fuzzies!
And don’t worry — the theme is flexible. Whether your game is chill or chaotic, all are welcome, because cozy is inclusive.
We’ll also have a cozy-themed cocktail menu and an ugly sweater contest with prizes!
Come playtest, share your work, meet new friends, and celebrate the season with NYC’s indie game community.
***PLEASE NOTE: This will be at a new location – OS NYC (50 Bowery), not at BrookLAN.***
EXHIBITOR INFORMATION:

All exhibitors must purchase an exhibitor’s ticket here on Eventbrite ($25)
Indie Dev Night starts at 6 pm, we like to have everyone set up, and ready by 6:30.
Gaming stations are first-come, first-served! Our OS event space has 6 large monitors, each paired with a 2-seater couch. In addition, about 10-12 computer stations are available with gaming chairs on the perimeter.
You can bring anyone you’d like to work your table with you, at no additional cost. Bring as many people as you would like.
You may bring signage and decorations for your table to advertise your game/studio – we encourage it.
Please bring your own controllers if possible; house controllers are for other OS guests and will be in short supply.
Yes, you can eat and drink at your table.
OS is not responsible for anything lost or stolen; OS is a secure spot but we want everyone to be mindful as it gets busy. You can ask someone from Playcrafting to watch your table if you need to step away.
OS and Playcrafting have a no-harassment policy. Zero tolerance. Anyone harassing anyone for any reason will be removed. We work together as a community to keep developer and community spaces safe for everyone.

Unreal NYC | December Event
2025-12-04 18:30 - 20:30 | School of Visual Arts (Unreal Meetup), 132 W 21st Street, New York, NY, United States
RSVP: https://www.meetup.com/unrealengine/events/312058067/

Details

Hosted by the School of Visual Arts
Food & Swag Sponsored by Epic Games
Join us for our next Unreal NYC Meetup, where we dive into all the latest features of Unreal Engine and network with other professionals in games, animation, film, broadcast, live events, and more.
​Each meetup features technical sessions, live demos, and discussions with community experts.
Working on something cool in Unreal? Mention it and bring it along! We’ll encourage everyone to try each other’s demos and provide feedback.
SPEAKERS
Andrew Delgado, ICRAVE
“Evolution of Arch Viz Pipeline: A Battle to Real-time”
Trials and tribulations of trying to achieve the ultimate goal for architectural visualization: Matching offline render quality in a real time environment. Spoiler, its not easy and I did not ultimately succeeded but I will go over what I learned and what to try and not try.
Andrew is a Digital Artist serving as the Technical Director of Visualization at Journey. Driven by a deep love for architecture and technology. Always experimenting with new workflows and techniques to build the most compelling digital worlds. Thrive on turning ideas into visual storytelling experiences that inspire.
Website | LinkedIn
Yu-Jun Yeh, Agile Lens
“Ghosts of Performances Past: Capturing the Live VR Theatre with Unreal Replays”
Jun will share her experience using Unreal’s replay system to record and play back Agile Lens’ iconic annual VR performance, A Christmas Carol VR. Each year, Agile Lens takes on a new technical challenge, and this year’s goal is to capture the entire show—without a traditional production pipeline. Jun will chat about the surprises she ran into while making the replay plugin and pass along some helpful notes for anyone thinking of doing something similar.
Jun is an XR Creative Technologist with a background in architecture, primarily focused on developing XR experiences in Unreal Engine. Her work spans web-streaming interactive experiences, AR, MR, VR, LBE, and both single-device and cross-platform environments. She has contributed to a wide range of projects—from large-scale shared LBE in VR (Four Seasons Lake Austin), web-based interactive theater (The Orchard), full-body motion-capture performance in VR (A Christmas Carol VR), mixed-reality theater (Your Mind, Girls…), and location-based VR installation (Royal Caribbean’s Perfect Day Mexico VR).
LinkedIn
Ajinkya Hukerikar, Zero Density
“Broadcast to Cinema: Building Scalable Virtual Production Systems”
Camera tracking protocols, network architecture, timecode sync, GPU thermal management, real-time compositing pipelines, and color management workflows. Learn the technical stack that keeps broadcast VP running 24/7 and how to scale these principles from $15K indie setups to enterprise deployments. Real architecture, real failures, real fixes.
Ajinkya Hukerikar is a Filmmaker and XR Technologist based in New York. He deploys virtual production systems for major broadcast networks and Fortune 500 clients through his work at Zero Density. His films have screened internationally, and his most recent short “Dulo” is currently on the festival circuit. An NYU alumnus, he’s authoring a book on democratizing immersive technologies.
Website | LinkedIn | Instagram
