Indie game communities and where to find them

Welcome to Narrative News, your must-read source for all things narrative design. Every month I publish one feature at the beginning of the month and one roundup of jobs, resources, and opportunities mid-month. Thanks for reading!

When I first moved to New York in 2022, I was all alone.

Well, except for one large, cranky feline companion—my beloved Colby Jack Lebowski.

Desperate for human interaction, I searched for indie game dev communities in NYC and I hit upon GUMBO.

My hopes weren’t high when I first walked in. In this day and age, how likely is it to find real community? People who say '“let’s hang out” and mean it? And yet, that’s exactly what I found.

GUMBO is a non-profit co-working space for game devs. At almost any hour you’ll find fello devs milling about in slippers with mugs of tea ready to share in gallows-humor chuckles about the state of the industry and excited yapping sessions about new indie games. It’s cozy and inviting and has saved me multiple times. First, when I’d just moved and was lonely and heartbroken, then when I got laid off the first time (sad), and then a second time (devastating). When I lost my apartment. When I lost my cat. It was in those darkest moments that I found the meaning and crucial importance of real community, and I’ve been proselytizing it ever since.

In that pursuit, I recently put out a call on LinkedIn to hear about more communities like this. I know quite a few in the US and Canada, but I wanted to know about communities around the world. In response, a lot of wonderful people weighed in to highlight their beautiful game-making communities. I’m collating all the responses here plus a few others I dug up, but I know there are still many that I’ll miss—that’s why I’ll keep updating this post as when I get new intel on indie game communities. If you know of one I missed, please pop into the comments and let me know! Keep in mind, I’m mainly thinking of places that are for indie devs and offer some chance of socializing/making friends. This is not a list of funding opportunities or even co-operative studios (though those might incidentally pop up in the list).

Without further ado…

*Note: everything that has a physical space is marked with an asterisk.

There are International Game Developers Association (IGDA) chapters all over the world, check and see if one is active near you! There are also Women In Games International (WIGI) chapters worldwide.

• ADVA

• IC-Cube*

• Catalyst Games*

• Game Plus*

• MASS*

• Gent Game Nest

• Games Brussels

• Spawnpoint Hasselt

• GameJamPlus*

• Indie Hero

• Pixelles*

• Gamerella

• Indie Asylum*

• Hand Eye Society

• Video Games Chile

• Gamebaze*

• Copenhagen Game Collective

• Espoo Game LAB

• Saftladen*

• The Rabbit Indie Games Residency*

• Game Makers Iceland

• Icelandic Game Industry

• GDAI

• IMAGE COE

• Imirt

• Ardan

• iGi

• Dutch Game Nest

• Game Bakery

• NZGDA

• CODE

• Africa Comicade

• Kucheza

• Spawn Point Trondheim*

• Work-Work*

• Saiyara

• FemDevs Peru

• Game Hub Senegal*

• SGGA

• AB4IR*

• Animation SA*

• ITTHYNK Gaming*

• Tshimologong*

• Game BCN

• FemDevs

• AEVI

• Game Habitat*

• Spelkollektivet*

• Rocketdesk* (Not only for game devs, but apparently there are plenty there.)

• Games Innovation Zone*

• Game Dev Local

• ATX Game Makers

• GUMBO*

• NYU Games Center Incubator*

• Coexist Gaming*

• NYC Games Social

• Tech Valley Game Space (Albany)*

• Buffalo Game Space*

• ROC Game Dev (Rochester)

• CNY Game Devs (Central New York)

• Boston Indies

• Jeffrey Doka’s garage?!* (One man’s garage. Very cool.)

• Glitch City*

• Philly Game Mechanics

• Seattle Indies

• Rocketdesk* (Not only for game devs, but apparently there are plenty there.)

• Games Innovation Zone*

• Game Dev Local

If there’s nothing near to you, consider:

• Itch.io Jams

• Mod communities (like Fallout: London Development Team)

• Online volunteer game studios (like Cave Bear Games)

• Engine communities (like Unreal Mexico City)

• Digital networking opportunities (like GIG, Questline, and Game Devs of Color).

Thanks for reading! Pass on the good vibes and share this newsletter with other narrative designers.

About the Writer:

Rose Behar is a narrative designer at Scopely working on an upcoming AAA project. Her previous work is featured in Longleaf Valley and Ashe Cove, among other projects. She puts out the free Narrative News roundup twice every month.

About the Illustrations:

The beautiful illustrations dotted throughout the newsletter were created by Callum Isaac.