July 2021 Update
We’re halfway done with the year already, whoa! Hopefully you’re all surviving the heat waves as we have quite a lot of events (and jams!) coming up this month!
Board Update
This month we bid farewell to Simon De Sal as his term with the Board comes to an end. Simon has been a longtime organizer of the SQUID (Seattle QUeer Indie Devs) meetup and a member of the Advisory Committee and helped us maintain and update the SIX website in 2020. Simon will be missed from the Board but will still be around at community events, the future of SQUID is unknown at this point but we hope to see it come back with more fun events as we get back to meeting in person again.
Seattle Indies was founded in 2011 by a small group of local studios and friends from DigiPen as a way to keep in touch and promote the growing Indie Game Development scene in Seattle. In 2016 the founding Board Members came together to officially incorporate Seattle Indies as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in Washington State and along with a dedicated group of volunteers has grown Seattle Indies into the thriving community and organization that it is today.
That all being said, we are excited to announce that Tim Cullings has been named the first Executive Director of Seattle Indies! Tim will be doing a lot of the same things he was already doing with the added bonus of a small bit of compensation for his work and the directive to raise funds so we can pay more people to work for us and for you, our valued community members. Tim will continue to serve as the Board President as well with Ty Taylor as VP & Treasurer, August Belhumeur as Secretary and Angel Mero as our newest Board Member and Community Manager. This leaves us with one vacant seat that we will be looking to fill over the second half of 2021.
Recap
The Seattle Indies Expo signups have wrapped up, and the event is coming back this year in September! We’re starting our Jury process now and will be announcing selected games in August. Head over to https://six.seattleindies.org for all of the details.
We also wrapped up our Pride Month features of various creators in the Seattle Indies community, and you can find it by scrolling down through our Facebook Page.
Upcoming Events
Join us on Saturday, July 17th at Magnuson Park for the fourth annual IGDA Seattle Summer Picnic! You’re welcome to bring kids, family, and friends along as well. Vaccines are strongly encouraged. Here’s all the event info.
It’s been 16 months, and we’re back with our first in-real-life Seattle Indies Social since the pandemic! Join us at Optimism on July 20th from 7pm to 11pm. Vaccines required. Here’s the event info.
DreamHack Beyond is coming July 24th through July 31st, an at-home, all-digital free interactive experience showcasing the best of DreamHack. Best part is you can apply to their Indie Playground section for free! Click here for more information about the event, and click here to apply!
Hype Jam is coming up as well – a game jam for video game trailers (no actual video games required!) It will run for a whole week July 31st to August 6th. Saturday to Saturday and you can watch Andrew explain it right here. Register for the jam: https://itch.io/jam/hype-jam-2021
The Smithsonian American Art Museum and IGDA-DC are putting on an Arcade Jam with submissions opening August 2nd. Check out all the details here.
Monthly Events
This month’s Game Club will focus on Turmoil & Dorfromantik (a first ever double feature!) on July 21st at 7pm! 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. Click here to find out more info and sign up.
Indie Support Group has been rebranded to Coffee Break and is happening weekly as well! Tune in every Saturday from 1pm on our Discord in the #isg-voice channel, Curious how to start learning something? Want to chat with someone of another discipline? Need a place to work on a project and share it with others? ISG is a social, game development focused work group that encourages people of all skill levels and disciplines to come together and collaborate for the benefit of all.
As a part of Indie Support Group we have added Feedback Circle for you to get critical feedback on your game from our community of developers. Sign up on this form and ping the indie_support_group_isg channel on Discord when you are ready to have your game reviewed.
Local Dev News
Huge congrats to the team of mostly Seattle Indies that just took home first place in Game Jolt’s Party Jam for their game Swatchbucklers!
https://gamejolt.com/p/announcement-for-the-winning-games-of-party-jam-by-game-jolt-veisxekw
Patrice just launched their first-ever Steam Page for Laundry Simulator, a point-and-click time-management game where cats rule. Manage your hectic laundromat and get your cat through law school to defeat Laundrocorp.
Pharaoh shared their upcoming Online Horror Game The Fallen – check out their spoopy website.
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 hopes to start having in person meetups again soon. To that effect we need everyone to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus as soon as you are able. The Washington State Department of Health has this website for information on where you can get vaccinated in your area.
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 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.
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