Digital Games

Discover the innovative and growing digital game design ecosystem in New York City.

New York City has a growing digital games industry and a world-class creative sector to cultivate inspiration, talent, and expertise. NYCEDC, together with the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME), develop local events and support game developers to build and grow their digital games studios.

In 2021, MOME published an economic impact report that identified an opportunity for NYC’s cultural and creative industries to augment this exciting growing industry. With a rich history and strong network of film and television, music, fashion, and tech leaders residing, working, and succeeding in New York City, NYCEDC sees an exciting opportunity to grow the digital games industry.

NYC Game Design Future Lab

NYCEDC and NYU Tandon are partners on a new digital game design incubator to establish NYC as a hub for digital game development and production. The NYC Game Design Future Lab is a one-year in-person program designed to help digital gaming startups reach their goals by providing desk space, in-person staff support, academic and industry mentorship, networking opportunities, investor guidance, tailored workshops, and office hours.

Cohort 2 Companies:

• Antientropic, the Brooklyn studio behind Dustbunny, a cozy mobile life sim that has reached more than one million players organically and is now expanding into a cross-platform, shared-world version.
• garden robot, co-founded by Creative Director Jude Pinto and Narrative Director Jason Guisao, is developing Ponch: Cyberspace Investigator, a stylish cybernoir detective game set in a depraved virtual metropolis. Jude leads design alongside Jason, whose credits include Destiny 2 and consulting work on Borderlands 4.
• Kinlo Labs is building a co-op mobile game for families where quests completed together in the real world save your magical world from darkness. Founded by Sarah Huth, Nicole He, and Andrey Dobrikov, their credits include Peloton Lanebreak, The Crush House, and Draw Something.
• My Dog Zorro, an independent studio run by Brett Taylor since 2015, now developing Lemony Fresh, in which you play as a tiny lemon who cleans up filthy spaces.
• On The March is building Normandie, a narrative "ocean crawler" in which players dive the wrecks of legendary ocean liners in the aftermath of World War II. Founded by Sam Butin, the studio's team includes Aaron Freedman, Angela Vanden Tak, and Nicolás Escarpentier. Together, their credits include 1979 Revolution: Black Friday, Sunburn!, MindsEye, Open Roads, and The Simpsons: Tapped Out.
• Pariah Interactive, the studio behind the award-winning platformer 1000 Deaths, now developing Sound of Smog, a rhythm roguelike set in a pollution-ravaged New Delhi in 2099.
• PlayCog, which is building Portal Fall, a turn-based roguelike that won “Best Unity Game” at DreamHack Atlanta. The studio's mobile games have reached more than 25 million downloads.
• ScoreSpace, a "game jam powered publisher" pioneering a new model. Its Blackjack game on Discord Activities draws around 850,000 monthly active users, and solo founder Khaalid Booker has raised over half a million dollars to scale operations.
• Video Game Amateurs (VGA), an NYC gaming, education, and technology company. It co-produces the NYC Video Game Festival with MOME and NYC Public Schools, supports “Battle of the Boroughs,” and leads the NYC Collegiate Esports Circuit. It's now building KODA, a privacy-first platform that helps schools launch and scale gaming programs tied to learning and career pathways.

Makegames.nyc

A one-stop-shop focused on accelerating innovation and strengthening collaboration among NYC’s digital games community, Makegames.nyc provides NYC’s digital games industry with access to information and resources to support their operations and growth. Publicly accessible to all, the digital gaming hub aggregates up-to-date submissions for industry events, facilities, communities, and careers openings. Explore and share your opportunities at Makegames.nyc.