June 2025 Update
Hello Indies!
It’s getting hot in here! Both in terms of the weather, and upcoming events. June is Pride month and Seattle Indies remains committed to supporting and celebrating everyone who wants to make games regardless of their sexual preferences or gender identity. This month sees the return of the annual Diversity Collective Pride celebration! We will also be appearing at the Kent Nerd Party Sunday June 7th from 2-7 pm with six games made by our community members and the chance to meet the developers behind them.
In July we will be at GeekFest West with over 25 incredible indie games and August brings the annual summer picnic, SIX 2025 and our newest event SLICE, an indie and AA focused B2B event set to bring together founders, executives, investors, publishers, and service providers for a day of learning, knowledge sharing and a celebration of our industry.
We also have not one but two Show and Tell events scheduled on Saturday June 21, 2025. One will be at AIE Seattle in the Seattle Center Armory during the usual Indie Support Group hours from 1-4pm and the other will be in Auburn at the Community Convention Center from 2pm – 6pm. So whether you are in the Seattle metropolitan area or in the south Sound area we have you covered with opportunities to show your games. Both events will hopefully become regular monthly occurrences and we’ll work on scheduling them on separate days in the future. Now we just need a North Sound location and we’ll have the entire region covered with Show and Tells, let us know if you have any ideas. Show and Tell is an opportunity to show your game in any state of development and get feedback from the public and fellow game developers.
Read on for updates!
Seattle Indies Expo 2025 is coming soon! SIX is the largest annual celebration of indie games and game creators from the Pacific Northwest and beyond. 2024 was our biggest year yet with close to 4,000 attendees getting to play 32 games made by our community members and 2025 is expected to be even bigger with an expanded show floor and more rooms for meetings and programming. More news to come on the expansion of SIX 2025. In the meantime relive the excitement of SIX 2024 with this amazing highlight video of the event.
Join us this Saturday at the Kent Nerd Party! We will have six games for you to play and have a chance to meet the developers.You can find us in 403 W Meeker St, Kent, WA 98032 from 2-7pm with Adventures, Inc., AlakaBLAM!, Minotaur Princess, Oops All Tennis, Wanderling, and We’re Tethered Together. Stop by, say hi and play some incredible indie games made by our local community members. The event is completely free to attend and there is plenty of parking available.
Diversity Collective Pride Celebration: Mox Boarding House Ballard. June 22, 2025 6-10pm
Join us for our 4th annual LGBTQIA+ game dev Pride celebration! This event is meant for our LGBTQIA+ identifying members, allies are welcome as guests of Diversity Collective members. Network, socialize, play games, or bring your own game project to show! We’ll have over 300+ board games available to play through Mox’s library, as well as table space for setting up game demos to show off your latest work or get feedback, which can easily support both video or physical games. (If you bring your own video game, you will need to provide hardware to play it on, but we will have extra extension cords and power strips on hand to help with your setup) FREE food and drink will be provided through the Mox Kitchen. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages are available. Bonus: We’ll be playing music exclusively by queer artists throughout the event! Mox parking is limited, street parking around Ballard is also limited.
Seattle Indies will be appearing at Geek Fest West for the second year in a row with over 25 amazing games from our community members! The event is on July 18-20, 2025 at Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett, WA.
GeekFest West – Game Expo – 2025 is the ultimate Geek Festival, taking place over three days with three main areas. The first is the Angel of the Winds Arena itself, it will have board Game Rentals, Private Suites for Community Meetups, Guest Speakers, Panels, Lecture Series, Workshops, a DEDICATED Gameboard and Card Game Area, Card and Board Game Tournaments, a Retro Video Game console free Play, Vendors, Booths, Special After Hour Events, and the “GEEKAPALOOZA” Film Event. On Hewitt Ave outside the arena, there is the Street Festival with food and other vendors, Peaks Entertainment Wrestling, and more! Finally, up the street is the Everett Historic Theater where we will be showing retro sci-fi classics, with each day having different retro movies.
Book your tickets and find out more information https://www.geekfest.com/GeekFestWest#/about?lang=en
The hottest event of the summer is back in a big way! Mark August 3rd, 2025 on your calendars for the return of the Seattle Indies Summer Picnic at Madrona Park. We’ll be there in our usual spot at the North end of the park under the trees with games, food, and fun. Bring your family, friends and pets and celebrate the summer with us and your friends at Seattle Indies.
Seattle Indies is proud to present SLICE (Seattle Loves Indie Creators Expo). A new games industry event
for Indie and AA game studios in the heart of Seattle.
Check out the promo video where Seattle Indies VP Ty Taylor tells us what to expect from the inaugural event coming to Seattle on Wednesday August 27th, 2025 at an amazing venue to be announced shortly. https://youtu.be/gISMdjGQY5E
SLICE is a one-day conference to celebrate developers and empower them to build and grow thriving studios. Whether you’re leading a tiny but mighty indie team, guiding a growing studio, or looking to level up your own skills, SLICE brings developers together for a day packed with practical tools, insights, and connections.
With tracks spanning leadership, business, production, and creative development, SLICE is your backstage pass to the real talk, real tactics, and real people shaping the future of games. Join us in the heart of Seattle’s geeky, passionate game dev community—two days before PAX West kicks off—for an energizing dive into what it means to thrive as a game maker today.
Fill out this interest form to be notified when tickets are available https://forms.gle/YNVPALojCXVxtmCt8
Keep an eye on Discord and our social media channels for more information as it becomes available.
Thanks to our amazing team of industry veterans and advisors who are helping us to build an impactful event for all who attend.
There’s still time to submit to the IndieCade Festival happening in Fall of 2025! Submissions for this season include online Festival – IndieCade Anywhere and Everywhere, as well as consideration for any and all in-person events, as well as our ongoing streaming features and activities for the year.
IndieCade accepts and features a wide spectrum of games and experiences including tabletop, VR, AR, Escape Rooms, Zoom Games, mobile, traditional digital games, and more — regardless of platform, style, experience, or background, and we especially encourage work-in-progress as well as completed projects.
SUMMER GAME FEST airs live on June 2025, featuring world premieres, special guests and a look at what’s next in video games. Launched in 2020, Summer Game Fest is a forward-looking celebration of upcoming video games, available as a free digital and livestream experience to fans around the world.
The event is an amalgamation of different smaller events, giving you a lot of opportunities to showcase your game! Take a look at the website and keep your eyes peeled!
Serious Play is happening 13-15th August 2025 in Rochester, New York. Explore how the power of play, games and gamification are transforming education, training, and knowledge mobilization. Experience interactive sessions, compelling speakers, and cutting-edge research. This is where learning and innovation come to play. Learn more here!
The 10th annual Game Devs of Color Expo takes place online September 16-19, 2025! Submissions are also now open for speakers, panels, and game devs interviews. The organziers were kind enough to share a 10% discount code with our community: gdocSI.
Here is a link with the code pre-applied: https://ti.to/GDoCExpo/2025/discount/gdocSI
Tokyo Game Show is coming back later this year, and game signups are unfortunately closed, but you can still attend. Read More Here!
If you want to get a list of all upcoming game event shows and get ready early, The Indie House has published this fantastic list of upcoming festival that’s exactly that. Well worth a bookmark!
This month’s feature is Tomas Gomez, Founder of Pancake Games who recently released the SIX 2021 Nominee Slime Heroes on Steam.
“I am the founder of Pancake Games and the director of our recently released game Slime Heroes. Over the last 15 years, I have gotten to work with amazing companies and teams, to create a vast MMO world for Guild Wars 2, lead a team to build colorful competitive arenas for Gigantic, and sharpen my technical skills in immersive VR stories and on-the-go mobile games. My focus the last few years has been to create stylized game experiences, lead collaborative and iterative teams, mentor and develop new talent and produce pipelines that adapt to new technologies.”
This month’s feature is a little different from previous months. Instead of a written interview you can watch the video interview we conducted with Tomas at the inaugural Founders Club event at ThinkSpace Seattle! Tomas shares the raw realities of bootstrapping a game studio from concept to launch. Explore funding strategies, creative problem-solving techniques, and the personal resilience needed to overcome the inevitable setbacks that define the indie journey.
Speaking of Founders Club, if you are a local Founder, CEO, publisher, or investor, please mark July 22, 2025 on your calendar for the next edition of the Founders Club. We’ll be back at ThinkSpace Seattle again with an informative panel discussion and plenty of time for networking and to enjoy the incredible views of Lake Union.
Here’s our Meetup Page with all future upcoming events.
Seattle Indies Board Game Meetup is on June 1st, this month, but at 3pm at at Phoenix Comics and Games. Come play board games with Indie Game Developers!
The Pierce Country Social is taking place on June 2, 5:30pm-8:00pm at 7 Seas Brewery and Taproom on 2101 Jefferson Ave · Tacoma, WA. Kids are welcome until 8pm as long as they are within arm’s length. Main tap room is first come, first served!
The Eastside Meet & Drink is taking place on June 3, 6:30pm at Northwest Brewing Pint & Pie Public House. It’s time to get together and swap stories. Put down your keyboards and brave the outside world. Let’s meet for a drink, a bite to eat, and some good conversation!
The Seattle Blender User Group is happening on June 7, 10am to 1pm at Academy of Interactive Entertainment – Seattle Center Armory – Suite 405 (305 Harrison St, Suite 405 · Seattle, WA). Seabug’s goals are to help beginners learn Blender, create Blender opportunities in the Pacific Northwest, showcase advanced Blender tools and projects, and celebrate open source graphics in all forms.
Women in Games @ Microsoft June 5, 2025 5:30pm-8pm: Just a few spots left! Seattle Indies, in partnership with Microsoft Women in Gaming, is hosting a special evening for women in the games industry — and you won’t want to miss it. We’ve got amazing networking opportunities and a powerhouse panel on building your personal brand, featuring Chloé Giusti, Paula Cuneo, Perrin Kaplan, and Brandy Camel. Register here.
Conspire is happening on June 10th at Havana Social Club in Capitol Hill. This is a casual networking event for good people in games development in the Puget Sound Region. Thank you to our sponsor, David Rice.Seattle Indies is the fiscal sponsor and founding partner of Conspire. Pizza will be provided, Havana has a full cash bar available.
Feedback Circle is back on June 10, 7pm right on our discord. It’s time to stop coding, animating, making art or audio or adding that amazing new feature you thought of while you were falling asleep last night and come to Feedback Circle to get some real responses to what you have been working on from game creators in our community like yourself.
An In-Person Writer’s Group will take place at Hugo House on June 11, 6:30 PM. For anyone interested or working on projects in game writing, narrative design, voice acting or more– swing by Seattle Indies’ In-Person Writer’s Group! Bring your narrative games, scripts, flowcharts, character bibles or any other story materials for sharing and feedback.
Northside Social is happening at Watershed Pub & Kitchen on June 12 from 6-pm. It’s time to get together and swap stories. Put down your keyboards and brave the outdoors. Let’s meet for a coffee/tea, a bite to eat, and some good conversation!
Seattle Indies Social takes place at Stoup Brewing (formerly Optimism) on June 17, 7pm. Join us for some well-deserved mingling, drinks, and socialization! Make some new friends, catch up with old ones, and find out what the community’s up to.
The Game Club is happening on June 18 at 7pm right on our Discord, focusing on Potions: A Curious Tale. 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 SnoCo Social is happening on June 20, 6pm at Zulu’s Board Game Cafe located on 5116 196th St SW Suite 203, Lynnwood, WA 98036 · Lynnwood, WA. Hang out at a local game store with fellow Snohomish Co and adjacent folks over food, drinks, engaging conversations, and maybe some board gaming! If you want to demo/playtest your game, let me know and I’ll make sure there table space + open outlet for your setup.
Show and Tell at Indie Support Group: Saturday June 21, 2025 1pm – 4pm – AIE Seattle Campus, Seattle Center Armory, 4th Floor
We’re hosting a show and tell at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE). Come get feedback and playtest games! Feel free to bring projects at any stage of development. If showcasing a game, fill out this google form: https://forms.gle/zDsKJC5emmkoFhUw6
Pizza and wifi will be provided, but be sure to bring everything else needed to show off your games (laptop, controllers, chargers, etc). The event will run alongside the weekly Indie Support Group, so feel free to hang around to work and talk to other devs.
Southside Show & Tell/Demo at the Community Center in Auburn: Saturday June 21, 2025 2pm – 6pm: Auburn Outlet Collection Mall in the Community Convention Center: 1101 Outlet Collection Way
https://forms.gle/pfVhWVtLqCCBS5KH8
Seattle Indies is holding a Show and Tell/Demo event at the Community Center inside the Outlet Collection Mall located at: Auburn Outlet Mall 1101 Outlet Collection Way Auburn, WA 98001
You can learn more about the community center here: https://www.c3auburn.com/
Kitsap Social (Bremerton) Join us every last Tuesday of the month (June 24) at Ashely’s Pub at 6:30pm to meet for a drink and some great conversation! Feel free to bring what you’re working on. We may have a room reserved for the public event. Dogs allowed. Outside food allowed.
The Writer’s Room is happening on June 26, 6:30pm right on our discord. Welcome all game writers, narrative designers, voice actors and more to the Seattle Indies Writer’s Room! Bring your scripts, flowcharts, character bibles or whatever you’re working on to share and get feedback on your storytelling.
Southside Social is taking place on June 30, 5:30pm at Logan Brewing Company, 510 SW 151st Street, · Burien, WA. It’s time to get together and swap stories. Put down your keyboards and brave the outdoors. Let’s meet for a coffee/tea, a bite to eat, and some good conversation! This meetup will alternate between Kent and Burien for the next few months at least so we can find out which location works best for people.
Indie Co-working Support Group in-person will take place every Saturday, from 1:00 PM to 6:30 PM PST, at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment. Seattle Center wifi will be available for use. Please bring everything you need to be productive. We will be meeting every 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.
Seabug Study Hall is a new series of events taking place every week on Thursday, 9pm to 11pm, right on our Discord! Join others from the Seattle Blender User Group for a lo-fi chill out online study hall. Bring a project, just chat, and have a good time with some unstructured project sharing and Q&A.
Our regular Events that are NOT HAPPENING this month:
The Diversity Collective+ is OFF this month. Check out the notification in the Major Events section about this month’s annual Pride celebration.
Yohan shared a first demo on Steam. If you’re into strategy games or roguelikes or both, take a look!
Papa Murf shared a demo for their roguelike buffbuilder called Negative Space! Take a look!
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 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 follow us on all of our social media platforms.
If you want to join our mailing list to get this update sent to your inbox monthly you can Subscribe on LinkedIn.