December 2022 Update

Dec 1st, 2022 by Tim Cullings

Hello Indies!

Hope you’re having a good Holiday Season and looking forward to Math.Rand() amount of snow! Before we wrap up the year, we got one last big gathering left, so read ahead…

Upcoming Events

The annual Seattle Indies Holiday Party will take place December 11, from 7pm to 1am at GameWorks in Downtown Seattle! Here is the link for tickets. Join us for a special night of festive drinks and merry-making with your fellow indie devs to celebrate a successful 2022, and kick off 2023! Come help Seattle Indies raise money to support our ever growing list of community events in the upcoming year.

Few Highlights:

We hope to see you there, and make sure to grab your tickets here!

There is still time to be a sponsor of this year’s Holiday Party. Email contact@seattleindies.org if you are interested in sponsoring.

WN Dev Day Canada’22  will take place on December 6. While the event is for Canadians (teams with at least one Canadian core member, and Canada-based game developers), there will also be free lectures anyone is welcome to join, for FREE! Learn more by clicking here!

Monthly Events

The Eastside Meet & Drink is happening at  Eastside Beer Works on Dec 1 at 7pm! Keep in mind it happens  on the first Tuesday of every month. It’s time to get together and swap stories. Put down your keyboards and brave the outdoors. Let’s meet for a drink, a bite to eat, and some good conversation!

Discord Social is happening Nov 2 at 7pm right on our (surprise surprise) discord! Can’t make the in-person socials or just want to hang out? Come join us every first Weds for the Discord social!

Seattle Indies Social No social this month, we’re doing the Holiday Party on the 11th 😎

No Game Club this month as we take December off for the Holiday break. We will be back on January 18, 2023 discussing Neon White. What a book club is to a discussion of literature, this event is to a discussion of game design. Every month, we agree to play a game, then meet to discuss and analyze its design and presentation.

The Writer’s Room is coming up on December 1st and December 29th, 6:30pm to 9:30pm online. Bring your scripts, flowcharts, character bibles or whatever you’re working on to share and get feedback on your storytelling.

Indie Co-working Support Group  in-person will take place every Saturday,  from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM PST, at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment.  Masks will be enforced and vax cards will be checked at the door. Seattle Center wifi will be available for use. Please bring everything you need to be productive. The online Coffee Break session will still be available to anyone who isn’t ready for in person events yet or doesn’t have the ability to attend the in person event. We will be meeting every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month at AIE going forward. We have also added a Co-working voice channel in Discord for people to use any time they want a quiet space to work alongside their peers.

Indie Coffee Break – Once a week, take a Coffee Break with our Discord community, and chat with your local game devs! Meet new folks. Talk about games. Share your work. Ask for help / feedback. Commiserate over problems. Collaborate on solutions. Give high-fives. We’re a weekly social work group for game devs of all levels and disciplines. Join us on Discord every Saturday from 1pm to 7pm! Drop by anytime; folks usually drop in and out throughout the day. Coffee Break also happens on an impromptu basis throughout the month so if you see folks hanging out in the channel feel free to drop in and join the conversation.

Mentor program update

We are coming to the end of the first year of our mentorship program and so far we are hearing great things from the mentors and mentees who have participated. We currently have 117 matches and are planning to do another round of match making sometime in Spring 2023. Sign-ups are always open for the program on this form.

This program is for everyone and prioritizes people from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds as mentees. As you can see from this recent bit of feedback it is already having a positive impact. “At the beginning I didn’t know what to expect as a mentee and now I’m so happy that I joined this mentorship program.

Also, because English is my second language and I’m a stay-at-home mom, our recurrent meetings became a practice of confidence in my possibility to find a path in the gaming industry or at least trying and see what happens.

Finally, for 2023 I decided to apply to a Digital Gaming and Interactive Media program here in WA and joined a group of Women in Tech in my community and we’re creating an accountability buddies group to help each other to move forward in our careers.

Thank you very much to you and the Seattle Indies Mentorship Program to help me find the courage to go for it.”

Thank you to the mentors who are generously giving their time and making a difference in the lives of our community members. If you are a mid/senior level member of the community and have an hour or two to spare every month please consider signing up to be a mentor and help us inspire and shape the future leaders of the industry.

Local Dev News

EricJohnE shared that Gracewind Tale: The Leeds Murder released, from the same team behind Do You Copy and set in the same universe. It’s free on GameJolt so take a look!

Corey Kemper shared their new project Conquest of Eldinars! Follow on Twitter, TikTok or Instagram!

Enji launched Tendryll, a roguelike isometric deckbuilder, made by a three person indie team. Please check it out, wishlist, or join the playtest if you are interested! Here’s the Steam Link!

FartFish announced they will be hosting a game jam in January called the Boss Rush Jam with a $500 prize pool! Feel free to join here on Itch.io!

Harassment Policy, AAPI, Black Lives Matter, and Resources

Seattle Indies stands with the AAPI community. We are here for our members who have been affected by the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes both locally and nationally. For further resources to educate yourself on the issue and how to take action, here is a useful link: https://anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co/

Seattle Indies is having in person meetups again and we need everyone to get vaccinated and boosted against the COVID-19 virus as soon as you are able. The Washington State Department of Health has this website for information on where you can get vaccinated in your area.

Seattle Indies believes the stories of the victims of sexual harassment and assault in the games industry that have been shared. We strongly condemn the actions by people in power preying on the dreams of vulnerable people trying to make their way in the industry and strive to build an inclusive community that welcomes all minorities to provide a safe environment and a better vision for the game industry.

While our code of conduct states a zero-tolerance policy for harassment of any kind we are especially sensitive to the daily challenges faced by womxn due to the ingrained sexism that has existed in the structure of the games industry for far too long. We are actively working to build a better community of game developers and we all need to do better.

Additionally, Board Member August Belhumeur has offered to be a personal resource for anyone who needs help, someone to talk to or some guidance on next steps if you have experienced harassment in the industry either at our events or elsewhere. She can be reached at august@seattleindies.org.

Our friends at Take This Org have compiled valuable resources for anyone in immediate need of professional help for their situation.

Lastly, Seattle Indies and Diversity Collective+ support Black Lives Matter. Here are some resources compiled by Diversity Collective+ for how you can offer support, whether this is financial, contributing to petitions, preparing for protests, or getting informed. If you have additional resources, comment below and we will add them.

As always, keep an eye on our Discord for any last-minute news and discussion, and let us know about any projects you’re working on that you’d like shared on our Steam or Itch collections or tweeted about from  @SeattleIndies!

If you want to join our mailing list to get this update sent to your inbox monthly just signup on this form.