Seattle Indies @ Global Game Jam, GDC and more!
Hello Indies!
With January over, we hope you had a good start of the new year. Things got off to a flying start for us.
We welcomed Ty Taylor to the Board as Vice President of the Seattle Indies non-profit org and re-launched our Seattle Indies Spotlight series with an interview featuring Ty that you can read here. We also have portions of the interview available to watch on video for the first time that you can see for yourself here.
We had a busy weekend hosting the Global Game Jam on January 25-27 in collaboration with the Pacific Science Center, IGDA and AIE. With thanks to our friends at TurboPlay G-Fuel and of course our wonderful Patreon backers for helping to make the event possible and Valve for providing some excellent mentors for us.
The turnout was fantastic! So fantastic, in fact, it even got covered by Forbes 😱😱 Check out the awesome write-up here!
“For anybody who’s ever considered or wondered if they could ever make a game, whether they think they can or not, they should come to a game jam,” says Bry Hunter, who worked on What a Drag. “Because for a group like us, we made something. We did it. We saw it. It can really have you walking away with, OK, no, this is something you can do.”
You can also play the games and meet the devs that created them at the Seattle Indies Show & Tell and Global Game Jam Showcase on Sunday February 10th at Pacific Science Center from 10am – 6pm. Use the code GAME JAM PARTICIPANT for 15% off your admission.
We were proud to co-sponsor the first ever meetup of The Diversity Collective+: Support Group for VR/AR, Gaming & Film on Wednesday 2/7 at Pluto VR. We will be working with them and co-sponsor AIE going forward to help keep this group strong and safe for all of its members and welcome them to the Seattle Indies family!
We also returned to the East Side for the first time in almost a year with the East Side Meet & Drink at its new location in Redmond at the Hop House. Turnout was great for the first event and we hope to see more of you on the first Tuesday of each month ahead.
The Indie Support Group continues going strong every Saturday at AIE, so strong in fact that we’ve extended the hours to 1pm-7pm so you can get an extra hour of work in on your latest creations or spend more time with your friends each weekend. If you are looking for a relaxed and quiet environment to come work on your game and learn from your fellow Indie devs then ISG is the perfect place for it.
In January Game Club played and discussed the critical hit Gris. Join us on Wednesday February 20th for a discussion of the game Not Tonight (confusing title but that is the name of the game).
As for what’s coming this month, we are hosting the Seattle Indies Town Hall on the 19th, and want to hear from you! Here’s your opportunity to tell us what we’re doing right and wrong (but mostly right 😉) over a few beers, followed by our ever popular monthly Social.
Then, on the 25th, IGDA Seattle, foundry10 and Seattle EdTech are teaming up at Pacific Science Center to present an evening of panels and breakout sessions dealing with the intersection of games and education. Here is the Showcase Application if you’d like to present.
Also, If you plan on going to GDC, check out the Devs going to GDC” spreadsheet and add yourself here. Kudos to Ty for putting it together!
Lastly, if you missed it, GDC folks also released the 2019 state of the industry survey results, with some interesting stats 📊
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!