July 2020 Update
Hello Indies!
We’re officially in Summer Mode, so don’t forget to bring your mask if you venture outside! But if you need any incentive to stay in, there’s a good amount of interesting things coming up; read all about it below.
Recap
Second Digital PocketGamer Connects wrapped up this month and we also closed submissions for Seattle Indies Expo. We’ll be starting the judging process soon and have more news in coming weeks, stay tuned!
If you’d like to sharpen your engine skills, Unity made all Premium learning content free, for everyone, permanently. You can find all the resources here, so take a gander and learn!
We recently integrated the Work With Indies bot into our Discord Server which lists fresh Indie Studio job postings both in Seattle and all over the world.
Upcoming Events
If you’re reading this newsletter as soon as you get it, you might still be able to make it for a workshop hosted by our friends at ADL Pacific Northwest! It’s a workshop to understand the manifestations of bias, reflect on our life experiences, and consider the lens that we bring to difficult conversations. Sign up now and learn tools to support personal reflection, to support strategies to engage in meaningful conversation, and to support action to fight bias.
Hype Jam is starting very, very soon! It’s a game jam for game trailers: convert a crazy game idea into an awesome game trailer! Join us July 31st on Itchio + Discord for the kickoff, where we’ll announce the theme, pitch ideas, and form teams. Find out all about it right here.
Just announced! Coming Sunday July 26 at 1:45pm we have the inaugural Indie Side Skills Club hosted by Jenn Sandercock and featuring an amazing lineup of local Indie Devs sharing their knowledge of skills outside of the game dev world. Featuring 30 minute sessions on cake baking, freediving, meditation, Filipino food making and more!
On Wednesday July 15 Game Club will be meeting to discuss the relaxing puzzler Spring Falls. Then on Tuesday July 21st it’s our monthly Seattle Indies Social to catch up with your friends or make new ones.
In case you missed it, GDC Summer will be a digital-only conference this year, taking place Aug. 4-6. You can now register for it right here on the official website.
PlayCrafting NYC is coming up in August, it’s a digital conference featuring the latest from indie developers and larger studios from both the New York area and all around the world. Apply to exhibit, reserve your ticket, and find out all about it right here.
Lastly, we are hosting our monthly Saturday Indie Support Group through Zoom now, so keep an eye out for posts on our Facebook and Discord for the next one!
Local Dev News
Michael Brune (@UnderflowStudio) just shared the latest idea jam update where he designs, creates and polishes a few games to the prototype phase. This update contains 3 different prototypes: a rogue-like card game, a minimalist 3D adventure game and a 2D AI space pirate sim!
The Steam Summer Sale is on and we bet you’ll see some Seattle games on there with sweet, sweet discounts if you poke around 😉
Harassment Policy, Black Lives Matter, and Resources
Seattle Indies believes the stories of the victims of sexual harassment and assault in the games industry that have been shared this past week and before. 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 Sarah 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 sarah@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!
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