Make Games NYC

Brooklyn Experimental Electronic Music Group
2025-10-23 19:00 - 23:00 (America/New_York) | 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

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

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

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!

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.

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!

[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(?!!)

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.

The State of NYC Indie: Developing a Better Games Community
2025-10-09 19:00 - 20:30 | 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

NYU Game Center Lecture Series Presents Zeke Virant
2025-10-02 19:00 - 20:30 | NYU Game Center, 370 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
Picking Up Things in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Join us for a talk on how MachineGames developed a first-person game focused on simulating hands-on experiences and adventure over action. This talk goes through the design process for developing the GRIP system (grab, reach out, interact, push), the hurdles of encouraging hand-to-hand combat over gun combat, and the never-ending pursuit of creating authentic Indiana Jones interactions.
Zeke Virant (MFA ’14) is the lead game designer at MachineGames and a graduate of NYU Game Center’s MFA program. With over 10 years of experience in game development, he has designed and contributed to indie games, as well as AA and AAA titles. Before games, Zeke wrote and directed experimental operas and cleaned people’s apartments.
RSVP HERE

(This talk will also be live streamed at twitch.tv/nyugamecenter at 7:00pm EST)

Playframes - How Do We Know We Are Playing? A Lunchtime Talk with Celia Pearce
2025-09-30 12:30 - 14:00 | NYU Game Center, 370 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
Playframes (MIT Press) builds on the work of Gregory Bateson and Erving Goffman to take a deep dive into Bateson’s primary question: How do we know we’re playing? In this book, Celia Pearce addresses this question by building a comprehensive theory of the specific mechanisms that meta-communicate the message “this is play.” Join us for a book talk and discussion about Playframes with author, award-winning game designer, researcher, and professor Celia Pearce!
RSVP HERE

How to Play the Sondheim Way - A Lecture & Workshop with Barry Joseph
2025-09-25 19:00 - 20:30 | NYU Game Center, 370 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
Join us for How to Play the Sondheim Way: A Parlor Game Workshop, a 90-minute lecture/workshop designed for game designers to discover how the playful approach to parlor games of the famed lyricist/composer Stephen Sondheim can inspire our own creative practices. Based on the new book Matching Minds with Sondheim: The Games and Puzzles of the Broadway Legend, the gathering will open with an exploration of how Sondheim designed puzzles (like treasure hunts and cryptic crosswords) to create moments of clarity and designed games (like parlor and board games) to create moments of connection. Then, in a hands-on workshop, participants will experience and analyze Sondheim-style parlor games, identify the design values embedded within, and work in small groups to remix familiar parlor games through the lens of these values: playfulness, generosity, and mentorship.

Barry Joseph is a games-based educator, game designer, and founder of the Games For Change Festival. After learning that famed composer & lyricist Stephen Sondheim once considered leaving the world of musical theater for video game design, Barry began research to uncover this wholly original way to use games and puzzles design to understand the mind that transformed musical theater. Barry worked at the American Museum of Natural History and the Girl Scouts of the USA. He is now the founder of Barry Joseph Consulting, dedicated to innovating solutions for learning in a digital age, and the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum. He also teaches Digital Design for Museum-based Learning at New York University, based on his book Dancing with Dinosaurs: A Toolkit for Digital Design in Museums. His latest book is Matching Minds with Sondheim: The Games and Puzzles of the Broadway Legend. Learn more at MatchingMindswithSondheim.com, on his podcast of the same name, or on Instagram @MatchingMindswithSondheim.

RSVP HERE

Playtest Thursday at NYU Game Center
2025-09-25 17:30 - 19:00 | NYU Game Center, 370 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
NOTE: THIS PLAYTEST THURSDAY ENDS EARLY AT 7:00PM DUE TO AN EVENT DIRECTLY FOLLOWING PLAYTEST THURSDAY!
If you’re making a game, you need to playtest! Bring your work-in-progress game and get feedback from fellow game makers. No game is too early in development for Playtest Thursday, and all types of games are welcome. Bring your board game, digital game, VR project, new sport, anything!
Here’s how to attend Playtest Thursday in person this Fall:

Fill out this Playtest Thursday Visitor Request Form
Once you fill out the form, you will be permanently added to the guest list for every Playtest Thursday occurring this semester. No further confirmation is needed, and you only need to fill it out once!
When you arrive at 370 Jay Street, check in with a Game Center Librarian in the front lobby to gain access to the building.

Official GDoCExpo 2025 Watch Party
2025-09-19 12:00 - 22:00 | NY
Expect GDoCExpo conference sessions broadcast live to the big screen, game stations, and dedicated space available for attendees to mingle and network in-person. We’ve partnered with OS NYC, the home for gamers and streamers in New York City, fitted with a huge screen for GDoCExpo, top of the line PCs, Xboxes, PS5s, Switches, streaming booths, and bar. TADA, a local Korean Fried Chicken restaurant, is the food provider of OS NYC (no outside food or drink permitted), and there are plenty of local places to eat.
Admission to our Watch Party grants a wristband that’s also an OS NYC day pass for access to all their PCs, consoles, and games!
Please note that this is a pass to attend the in-person screening of only Friday’s sessions of the online GDoCExpo conference. For full access to all of the online Game Devs of Color Expo, including live chat, speaker Q&A, online networking, industry AMAs, job board, and all 4 days of talks, panels, and interviews (Tuesday through Friday, September 16-19), please purchase a full ticket here: https://ti.to/GDoCExpo/2025

Monthly 2 Hr GameJam Club: ZZT
2025-09-13 13:00 - 17:00 | NY
This month we are using ZZT to make action adventure games in under 2 hours. Bring a computer and come out! Good for beginners and experts.
Bring a computer and come out!
Good for beginners and experts.
1:00 PM Doors
1:30 PM Workshop
2:00 PM Game Jam Starts!
4:00 PM Jam Ends, Presentations Start!
5:00 PM
The arcade opens for regular use. This event will be streamed online, so people across the world can participate. This event is free to attend but donations are welcome and help pay for your instructor!

NYC Indie Games Social
2025-09-03 19:00 - 21:00 | NY
The NYC Indie Games social is a monthly gathering for indie game devs of all stripes to mix and mingle in a casual, relaxed setting.
—
NYC Indie Games: https://jesshaskins.com/nycindiegames
Sign up for email notifications of new events: https://buttondown.email/nycindiegames

Women in Games NYC - Let's Go to the Arcade
2025-09-03 18:00 - 19:00 | NY
Come hang out with Women in Games NYC at Wonderville!

Brooklyn Experimental Electronic Music Group
2025-08-28 19:00 - 23:00 | NY
Join the local electronic music community at Wonderville for our showcase featuring an eclectic mix of New York City artists working in a variety of styles.
Organized by Metamyther

Unreal NYC August Meet-Up
2025-08-28 18:00 - 21:00 | NY
Join us for our 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.
​Each meetup features technical sessions, live demos, and discussions with community experts.
Speakers
​Arturo Brena: How to Leverage Your Unreal Engine Skills in UEFN
Arturo, CEO of KéexFrame, will discuss his company’s journey from broadcast and virtual production to the world of Fortnite and UEFN.

NYC Handmade Meetup
2025-08-28 17:00 - 20:00 | NY
This event is a part of the NYC group of the Handmade Cities meetups.
5-6: Coworking
6-8: Demos / talks
Most people just come and watch, so no need to demo anything! Demos are usually around 15 mins.

Wonderville's last Tuesday of the month PLAYTEST
2025-08-26 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
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.

Alt.Ctrl Festival at Wonderville
2025-08-24 16:00 - 22:00 | NY
Wonderville is hosting a one-day Alt.Ctrl Festival!
The gallery will be open from 4pm – 10pm and features the following games:
Between
by Claire Kwong
Cooked Intel
by Wenxiao Ding
G-String Theory
by Hanwen Xu/ Yoyo Meng/ LamQiu
Gemzy Frenzy
by Baiyuan Xing
GUAC-A-MOLE
by Four Friends Studio
Lever Up!
Controller by Mat Olson and Mark Kleeb
Games developed for MAGFest 2025:
Amphibifans
Card Shark
CLOMBER
leveRAGE
Reach Eat
Sing Circuit
Special De.lever.y
TrashBot
Rice!!
by Isabel Wu / Steve Sun / Sangyu Chen
Save the DJ
by David Stein
Scrapeboard (Finger Edition)
by Frank Demarco and Blake Andrews
Fingerboard Cabinet by Mark Kleeb
Spin & Splash
by Sky Seo / Niki Hu
Unwanted Girl
by Wenxiao Ding & David Stein

Animation Nights New York (ANNY) Virtual Events
2025-08-24 11:00 - 23:00 | NY
Watch a curated program of animated short films from all around the world.
​Animation Nights New York is a monthly screening event and annual festival based in NYC. We show the very best animated short films, virtual reality animation experiences, and interactive games from all around the world. https://www.animationnights.com
​This event is a curated monthly screening of our in-competition films. Admission is PAY WHAT YOU DECIDE — donations are greatly appreciated. Support Independent Animation!

Brooklyn Game Knight Film & TV Board Game Meet Up
2025-08-22 19:00 - 22:00 | NY
More info and RSVP HERE
A one-of-kind location that has over 100+ board & card games in their inventory. Our networking event will be casual and this is your chance to meet other likeminded people in the industry. Whether you’re a filmmaker, artist, actor, costume designer, video game developer, puppeteer, magician, musician or any related job position in entertainment you are welcome to our event. Invite your friends!

Play NYC
2025-08-22 10:00 - 2025-08-24 17:00 | NY
More info and Badges here
PLAY.nyc, now in its 10th year, is New York’s premier gaming event. Created to give
indies and small studios the opportunity to showcase their games; both digital and
tabletop, in an event full of other devs, gamers and industry professionals.
Badges and Entry
Wanna Attend? An Anime NYC badge gives you access to both PLAY.nyc and the
broader Anime NYC show and programming.
Badges for Pickup are available here:
https://animenyc.com/badges/

Animation Nights New York (ANNY) at The Gutter Spare Room!
2025-08-19 20:00 - 22:00 | NY
Watch a curated program of animated short films from all around the world.
​Animation Nights New York is a monthly screening event and annual festival based in NYC. We show the very best animated short films, virtual reality animation experiences, and interactive games from all around the world. https://www.animationnights.com
​This event is a curated monthly screening of our in-competition films. Admission is PAY WHAT YOU DECIDE — donations are greatly appreciated, while no one turned away for lack of funds. We hope to see you there. Support Independent Animation!

Level Up Tuesday! Ft Nicholas O'Brien
2025-08-19 18:00 - 22:00 | CoExist, 325 W 38th St, New York, NY, 11435, United States
Level Up Tuesdays is your new go-to space to connect, learn, and grow with fellow game developers in NYC.
Every month, we will feature a talk from an industry professional, after which, there will be spotlights/demos of local games, alongside a cool place to network with other game devs.
RSVP for FREE by CLICKING HERE ⸻ This Month’s Speaker: Nicholas O’Brien (He/Him) An artist, writer, game designer, and founder of Essay Games – a narrative-focused indie games studio based in Brooklyn, NY that uses unconventional storytelling techniques utilized by experimental film and video artists.
For his talk, “Right in the Feels: Designing Emotive Games” Nicholas will use a combination of narrative design research and game design concepts to discuss his experience with creating games that prompt/guide emotional responses, while trying to avoid telling the player exactly how to feel.
This month’s showcase will feature:
Bundle of Joy by Essay Games – a lighthearted, story-rich, minigame romp about becoming a parent during the pandemic. Complete all your child-rearing tasks, manage your stress, find time to rest, survive the day, wake up, and do it all over again.
Lost Hearts by Alexander Kazazis – Explore the mansion of Aswarby Hall and uncover the stories of the ghosts that haunt it in this third-person adventure game. Come for the talk, and stay for the games and devs. See you there!

Building Virtual Avatars for Streaming in Unreal Engine
2025-08-16 10:00 - 17:00 | NY
Turn your iPhone into a motion-capture studio and Unreal Engine into a virtual stage. In this intensive, one-day workshop you’ll import a 3D character, connect real-time facial/body capture from your phone via Live Link, drop the avatar into a scene, and output a live or recorded feed for YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, and more. By sunset you’ll have a ready-to-stream VTuber setup—and the confidence to keep iterating.
For more workshops like this, visit Tandon at The Yard’s 2025 Summer Workshops page.

Monthly 2 Hr GameJam Club: M.U.G.E.N
2025-08-09 13:00 - 17:00 | NY
This month we are using M.U.G.E.N to make fighting game characters in under 2 hours. Bring a computer and come out! Good for beginners and experts.
Bring a computer and come out!
Good for beginners and experts.
1:00 PM Doors
1:30 PM Workshop
2:00 PM Game Jam Starts!
4:00 PM Jam Ends, Presentations Start!

Long Island Retro Gaming Expo
2025-08-08 - 2025-08-10 | NY
The Long Island Retro Gaming Expo, home to New York’s premier video game convention, returns to the historic Cradle of Aviation Museum.
Experience over 50 years of video game history across three exciting days.
