Hi everyone, 

I hope you are staying safe and healthy. 

Quarter four is full of activity at the IGDA, that’s for sure. 

First, we have Pathfindings coming up on 14-17 November. Pathfindings is a conference highlighting and showcasing developers across the global south from Latin America, Africa, Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia. The great thing about this conference, aside from the amazing people and speakers, is that it’s free and it’s an opportunity for you to pop into our live streams and hear some amazing stories about initiatives and industry trends that are going on all around the world. We’ll have over 20 speakers for the conference and each day we’ll host roundtable discussions so that we can further expand upon the topics already discussed. And that’s going to happen right in our IGDA Discord. So if you’re not already on the discord, now’s a great time to join.

I’m also really excited to share this news. Today we are opening registration for an exciting Game Jam in collaboration with the IGDA Foundation and with Global Game Jam and in partnership with Google Play. The IGDA is thrilled to announce the WE CREATE Women Empowerment Android Game Jam! This is specifically for the regions of Latin America and Asia with prize pools of $10,000 in each region. Rules and terms of service are available for review and registrations are open, so please review the associated information and share with your friends, colleagues, peers in these regions. The theme of the Game Jam will be announced on 16 November and submissions will be due by 27 November. We hope you’re able to participate and we really look forward to seeing your submissions. 

Additionally, the IGDA has partnered with several organizations for a few of our initiatives at the end of this year. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we did have to delay some of those initiatives. That’s why they’re happening all pretty much at once! However, we are excited to finally announce that we’re hosting two indie showcases. The first showcase will be ThanksGaming: Celebrating Women-led Indies on 25 November 2023 from 9am-1pm Pacific Standard Time. This showcase will feature women, femme identifying, and nonbinary game developers and recent projects they’ve been working on. We’re also working to create a sale for the developers to support their success and the promotion of their games even more. 

On the same day, 25 November 2023, we are hosting the Queer Indie Showcase from 5-9pm Pacific Standard Time. In partnership with MidBoss and GaymerX, the Queer Indie Showcase will feature six LGBTQIA+ developers in addition to queer influencers and streamers playing through six unique games. For both showcases, we will hold a panel at the end of the live stream to discuss various topics such as women in leadership and positive queer representation in games. We hope you’ll join us! More information will be found on our events page by the end of the week. 

There are a few more things going on at the end of the year. One I can’t announce just yet, but I promise you’ll be hearing about it soon. The other, we’re still finalizing the date, but you can expect a panel and workshop on the topic of worker empowerment and unionization in the games industry. We’re collaborating with Communications Workers of America and we’re really excited to put together a panel of amazing guests from around the globe to share their experience and insights as organizers. More information will be available as soon as we land those dates. I just wanted to give you a heads up that this is in the works. 

As always, I hope you are safe, healthy and well, and I hope you have a great rest of your time zone wherever you are in the world today. 

All the best, 

Dr. Jakin Vela

IGDA Executive Director