New York City is not the first location that comes to mind when listing off gaming development capitals of the world — but the Big Apple is working overtime this summer to try and change that through sponsorships, partnerships and friendly competitions.
The latest in a string of events branded under NYC Summer of Games, a citywide initiative running from June-September led by the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME), is the ninth edition of Play NYC, the city’s top gaming convention. The con kicks off Friday at the Javits Center with three days of gaming developer-centric activities and demos planned across 80,000 square feet of the Manhattan event space.
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“We focus on providing a showcase space for indie developers and small studios and students and other community groups, and it’s just a way for us to let developers come and showcase their games at an event that gets a lot of media attention,” Krysti Pryde, executive director of Play NYC organized Playcrafting, told Variety. “They get a lot of hands on their game. It’s really important for them to get this play testing for the overall roadmap of their games. And we focus on developers from underrepresented backgrounds. A big part of what Playcrafting does is providing resources and events for developers who would have a harder time getting funding or attention on their game otherwise.”
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This year, Play NYC is taking place alongside Anime NYC, marking the first time the two niche events have partnered up to bring a larger audience to both. Per Play NYC, the strategic partnership has brought attendance up to 100,000, a 30 fold increase from previous years. And without that team up, there may not have been a Play NYC this year, as the financial burden of the event was not sustainable for Playcrafting, even with financial support from the city.
“We were just priced out of every venue, and we have been taking such a huge loss on Play NYC every year, and we just truly could not do it anymore and so I had to get creative about how I could still execute Play NYC in a way that was beneficial for developers,” Pryde said. “And devs love this event. The minute Play NYC ends, people are already asking about next year. It’s pretty beloved. So I felt a lot of pressure to make sure we did execute this event in a way that was responsible for the company, but we could still put something on for the developers. I had this idea a while ago about turning Play NYC into the new Indie Megabooth and bringing indie developers to bigger conventions where obviously there’s a ton more foot traffic, and thus more value for them. And very last minute, we worked out this partnership with Anime NYC, and they’ve been absolutely lovely, and they’ve given us a ton of square footage. It’s more square footage than we would have if we had rented a venue on our own.”
Under NYC Mayor Eric Adams, the mayor’s office has made promises to pull the gaming industry towards the city, but even prior to this administration, NYC has been supporting Playcrafting’s events, including Play NYC, by providing funding for gaming developers who can’t afford to host their own booths and more.
“With their new Made in New York digital initiatives for gaming, their goal is to really turn New York City into a place that is known for gaming, that people want to move to to make games,” Pryde said. “A lot of people think if you want to work in games, you have to be on the West Coast, or be in a city that has a lot of studios. And so they’re really focusing on making New York City a games city, which is also something I’m trying to do, both personally and professionally. We are very aligned there and they have so many great programs, events, grants, education — the tax initiative for making your game in New York is incredible. So work with them to help evangelize a lot of those programs. Devs have a hard time finding this stuff, so we work together to promote these initiatives and try to get people to come to New York and make their games. And then for the devs that are already in New York making games, we make sure that they know that they can benefit from a ton of the programs that they have going on.”
Play NYC caps off NYC Summer of Games, which began with the second annual Minecraft Education Battle of the Boroughs Mayor’s Cup in June, where honors were handed down by MOME Commissioner Pat Swinney Kaufman at the end of a 601-team competition, followed by the Waffle Games and the Games for Change festival.
