By Ronald Gordon

Game-A-Palooza was a small but eventually densely populated event, jam-packed with many NYC based developers and games from nearly every genre. With examples like 2D Fighters, Action games with Roguelike features, haunting horror games and even engaging tabletop selections, there was something for everybody! While I perused the two floors of Brooklyn’s Hana House, I couldn’t stop myself from peering over a select few that caught my fancy, gathering short interviews from their creators and finding a comforting common theme among them: Connection among NYC-based devs. 

Amit from IGDA

Amit Hossain, co-chairman of IGDA NYC, is a man with a passion for NYC and the gaming industry. Disheartened by the fact that there were few developers located within the Big Apple, Amit seeks nothing more than to highlight the beautiful passion projects that so many out there are currently cobbling together. The conversation we had gave me hope for IGDA’s efforts to spotlight creators in the future. 

Ronald: What’s your name and tell me about the event. 

Amit: My name’s Amit, I’m one of the co-chairman of IGDA NYC. This is an event I’ve wanted to put on for a while now, ever since I joined the board. I think, on the big stage, New York City as a whole is unrepresented in the game development space. We have so many talented game developers here, but because we don’t have a lot of big anchor studios, we don’t get much attention. This was a way to bridge the gap.

Ronald: How long has Game-A-Palooza been in the works? 

Amit: I joined the board of IGDA back in January and immediately thought “We need to do a showcase event. I don’t see that many around here.” The first was in a tiny Mahjong place and so the games were literally on Mahjong tables, we had 14 developers, and I think we had 60 people show up, and that was overwhelming! We were expecting three developers, maybe 20 people, so that right there said “There’s a need for this!” Ever since the last one, we’ve been looking, we might have 100 people show up, we might have 20-30 games, so we’ve been looking around for that. As of today we have something like 400 people show up to this event … and almost 60 games. There’s a lot more out there, and we just look forward to making this bigger and better each time we do it.

Ronald: What’s the eventual goal for Game-A-Palooza?  How much bigger are we going to get? 

Amit: I think the goal with Game-A-Palooza is always to be a New York City dev based event. We have no intentions of becoming the next PAX East or anything like that. I’d love to have a yearly event, or regular event, where all the developers of NYC can rally behind and promote their games and get feedback on their games, potentially meet publishers or investors, an all in one for NYC game devs. 

Nicole from IGDA

Nicole Papadopolous is a bright and welcoming individual, one of the first members of IGDA to welcome me into the event. Her attitude towards filling Hana House with so many developers was amazing, and getting to chat with her about IGDA’s efforts was a short but sweet experience I kept with me at the end of the day. 

Ronald: What’s your name and what this event is about?

Nicole: I’m Nicole Papadopolous, I’m a board member for the IGDA NYC, and what’s really cool about this event is that it’s for the game devs: that’s why it was created. Yes. the audience is a part of it, but the main reason we’re doing this is to help the game devs and to support them, that’s what IGDA is all about.

Ronald: How have you felt about the gaming scene in NYC? 

Nicole: I think what’s interesting about the game scene in New York especially is that there’s no triple A studios here (Editor’s Note: Rockstar Games is based in Manhattan.)

It’s all indie and that’s fueling everything. Everyone is working together to try and make it as best as they can, everyone’s being creative and they’re helping each other out and building each other up, which I think is fantastic because you don’t see that all the time. There’s all that competition, not saying there’s not competition necessarily, but everyone seems to want to build each other up which is fantastic. 

Jeremy from Wynd

Bellows functions entirely off of the bizarre control scheme of using two fire bellows. My arms were on fire as I raced to get a good time, flying through a short and sweet obstacle course all with the help of wind and ingenuity. Jeremy, of the team of 6 devs behind this, had an infectious energy about him that made me eager to interview him. Here’s what I took away from out talk. 

Ronald: What’s your name and your game? 

Jeremy: I’m Jeremy, and I’m working on an alternative control game that uses fireplace bellows. You pump them with your arms, it spins a fan, and depending on how fast the fan is spinning, it’ll move you in the game. We wanted to make something that had a weird controller. At GDC, they have alternative control, a whole competition dedicated to weird control games. I have a background in mechanical engineering so I wanted to make something in that nature. A lot of the games you see, people get a normal controller, like Donkey Konga with the bongos, where you’re really just pressing a button in a weird way: we wanted to make something unique. 

Ronald: How have these events helped you as a developer? 

Jeremy: This is our very first one! Near us in Brooklyn is Gumbo, and we’ve done two Gumbo playtest nights, and that was really validating to see people get into it and get excited. We knew we had something fun, but here, Game-A-Palooza’s the very first time we’re showing it to the public and it’s motivating watching everyone play, get excited about it, it’s been good. 

Ronald: What’s a funny story/anecdote?

Jeremy: So a fun thing is as you’re building something like this, people are obviously various heights and sizes. I’m a short guy so when we were testing certain things, I wasn’t having issues. Some people’s elbows hit the fans. I don’t have that issue because I’m short. The  very first time a tall person plays it, it’s getting there and they’re hitting it. I never thought my height would affect game development! 

Alex from Greenbullet

Ghost Eater was one of the few games that actually interested me upon seeing the trailer. This third person action game reminded me of playing through Nier: Automata for the first time, and getting my hands on the controller was like experiencing a dream. Not only did the game play great, but the brief stint within Ghost Eater’s black and white world left me wanting more. Here’s what I took from my chat with the dev.

Ronald: What’s your name & what’s your game? 

Alex GB: I’m Alex, I work in music as a composer, and I mostly do advertising work these days. I’ve been a hobby game developer since Covid and have been working on Ghost Eater for two years. Hopefully releasing in the next year or two years. 

Ronald: What inspired Ghost Eater?

Alex GB: Gameplay definitely Nier is a big inspiration. Metal Gear Rising Revengeance is a big inspiration. Also, some of the more branching story stuff like Deus Ex and Fallout New Vegas – games where there’s a story happening and you just get dropped in the middle of it and you can participate in whatever way you like. I like games like that where the narrative is already going and nobody really cares about what you’re doing.

Ronald: How do you feel it’s been as an NYC-based developer?

Alex GB: It’s been fantastic. I go to all the playtest nights, I’ve been to the NYU playtest nights, I got to Gumbo they have one every month, have been going to the one at BrookLAN but I think that’s over now? The scene’s great; there’s a lot of cool games, like Scramble Heart City’s really good, Cyberlich is really good. There’s a ton of stuff here. I can’t imagine doing this in a place where there’s less community than this.

There’s still a lot of Game-A-Palooza to cover. Come back tomorrorw for Game-A-Palooza Part 2!

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Ronald Gordon is a New York Videogame Critics Circle Member and Mentor. He was the first of our writers – or any intern anywhere – to complete an internship at Rockstar Games.