I’m regularly asked questions like:

Hey. I just moved to New York. I want to find cool people doing tech/art/games stuff.

Where should I go?

The exact details vary. Sometimes someone is just visiting; sometimes someone is focused on tech, or on games. But my answer is always the same. Here it is.

The tech/art/games triangle

The way I see it, there’s a triangle with art, tech, and games on the points. And most places that I spend time at in New York exist somewhere on that triangle.

the triangle

Please don’t read into my placement on this triangle too much. It is largely me trying to describe what the average person in each of these spaces is focusing on. I love all of these places! But I think it is clearly true that NYU’s Game Center is more focused on games than ITP (also a branch of NYU), even though I’ve brought my games to both of them.

This is also far from complete! I’m only including places that I have visited or interacted with in some capacity.

I'm so scared I forgot something important, sorry if I did

So there you go! Here’s a brief description of each item, grouped by the area I think the item is most aligned with.

Tech

Recurse

The Recurse Center is a writers retreat, but for programming. I love it a lot - I’m at Recurse as I write this! You go there to write code in a self-directed way and become a better programmer; it’s a free 6 or 12 week program. I have improved at my craft a lot while there and met lots of cool people through it. Plenty of people at Recurse are focused on improving as programmers, but lots of folks are doing art or game aligned work while there!

For the most part you can’t visit Recurse until you apply and do a batch there, but it occasionally hosts events that are open to the public.

If you’re reading this post there’s a good chance that you should apply to Recurse (do note that it’s a full-time commitment).

SPC

South Park Commons is a community that aims to get founder-type people from “-1 to 0.” I haven’t gone through the program so I can’t really speak to what it’s like (although it seems neat). They semi-regularly host public events in the evenings. Some of the demos I’ve seen there are artsy or games-y, but I’d say they’re almost always tech-focused more than anything.

The last demo night I went to at SPC was really great!

Betaworks

Betaworks is a startup accelerator with an attached coworking space that hosts lots of cool events. While the “startup accelerator” part of it is definitely tech-focused, the events that I’ve been to have been all over the place (in a good way) - from demos of funded companies to a fun artsy demo night.

Betaworks has also let a friend of mine run community events in their space in the evenings. I really appreciate that!

Fractal Tech

Fractal Tech is a coworking space / tech hub / coding bootcamp. They run events and hackathons and have a 3-month coding bootcamp.

I am mostly familiar with Fractal tech because I know some of the people involved, and because I have spent a bit of time in the broader Fractal community - I haven’t attended the bootcamp and while some friends of mine have run events there, I’ve never been to one myself. But I know someone who went through the bootcamp and they got a lot out of it!

Hex House

Hex House is a big old warehouse in Williamsburg with a bunch of studios that house cool techy artsy projects. The project at Hex that I am the most familiar with is folk computer, which is very cool. If you see an event happening at Hex House (for example, a Folk Computer open night!) you should check it out!!

Also this might belong in the “art” category and not the tech category and I’ve mis-sorted it because I’m most familiar with the tech side of the space. Hex House friends feel free to yell at me :)

Art

ITP

ITP bills itself as “the center for the recently possible” and is about as close as you can get to the meme “the intersection of art and technology.” It’s a school with a bunch of different programs - from a multi-year masters program (which several of my friends have attended) to a 3-week summer camp which I attended and enjoyed in 2024!

I see ITP as a place that artsy people go to learn tech stuff and techy people go to learn art stuff. One particularly cool thing about ITP is how physical it is; I’d say the majority of the projects that I see at ITP shows have a hardware component.

ITP has lots of shows and events and you should go check out some of the shows :)

SFPC

The School for Poetic Computation is an experimental school with a focus on “art, code, hardware, and critical theory.” I’ve never gone to an SFPC class (although I know and really like some of their instructors) but my impression is that the classes are hyper-specific in a way that a typical university isn’t; you learn about, say, Drawing Data by Hand instead of “data visualization” broadly.

Maybe that impression is wrong! I haven’t taken a class!! Sorry Todd!!

SFPC occasionally hosts events; I’ve attended their “software for artists” day in the past and enjoyed it. I don’t know where to find their events page but they have a newsletter here.

Games

NYU Gamecenter

NYU Gamecenter is a school at NYU about…games! It’s got a masters program and an undergrand program as well as an incubator; it’s in the same building as ITP (but on different floors. It’s a big building). The people I know who attended have had a good time there, and I quite like the various folks I know that teach there in some capacity. A few of their instructors are also, like, pretty famous, if you care about that.

Maybe more importantly for the purposes of this list, the gamecenter runs lots of events! It has a weekly playtest during the schoolyear, lectures that are open to the public, and once a year it puts on a very neat event called No Quarter that you should check out.

The audience for the playtest at NYU definitely skews towards “other people making games,” which may or may not be what you want. You’ll definitely get playtesters who want to give advice! But I’ve found it to be a nice place to showcase work and meet folks, and it’s open to a variety of formats (videogames and board games both fit right in).

Wonderville

Wonderville is an indie arcade bar - that is, the arcade cabinets at Wonderville are made by people in the NYC games community and many of them are one of a kind. It’s a very very cool space that you should go check out.

There are also a few “rotating” cabinets that you can submit games to - one is for PICO-8 games specifically; another is for games in general. I have heard that the submission process is competitive and I can see why - the games are really really good!

It also has a whole bunch of great events. Some of my favorites are a monthly playtest that’s great because you often get an audience of kinda-drunk people that didn’t realize there was a playtest, and a 2 hour gamejam club where you make a full game in 2 hours! I met my first gamedev friend at the 2-hour gamejam club :)

Boshi’s Place

I do not know that much about Boshi’s Place! I have only been there once, and their about page says “under construction.” But my impression is that it is a fun artsy gamesy collective of people that often put on fun events. And I’m a fan of the people that I know who are at Boshi’s :)

GUMBO

GUMBO is a gamedev coworking space in Dumbo (get it?). By day it is a lovely coworking space full of people working on games - either solo or for larger companies. The people there are really great (GUMBO friends, I’m so sorry I haven’t visited in several months I swear I will be back soon).

GUMBO also hosts lots of events. Plenty are open to the public; you might want to check out their show and tell series, their monthly playtests, or their open happy hour. Others are member-specific; you can send in an application to join the space if you’re interested in those.

Wordhack

So I put this think called “Wordhack” right in the center of the triangle. Why is that?

Well, Wordhack is a monthly event at Wonderville that I think is as close as you can get to the synthesis of all of these things. Wordhack has two different components:

• A few “featured” talks that are 15-20 minutes long and tend to focus on technology, the arts, silliness, and sometimes games. They’re hard to categorize, but if you’re reading this list I think you’d like them.
• An “open mic” that is really an “open HDMI cord” where folks come up and show…anything (?). I sometimes show my games there or tell a cool story about something I’ve made.

Here are some things I have seen on the Wordhack open mic:

• “Teenage Dirtbag” sung only using Magic the Gathering card titles
• couples.game
• websim
• talk paper scissors (this one was me)
• greg technology showing like 30 different projects in 5 minutes
• todd anderson typing out a poem using a keyboard strapped around his neck while using an NBA Jam soundboard
• Mr. Beast saying increasingly large amounts of money
• so many more things this list is too long already sorry

Anyway, the point is if you’re reading this post I think that you should go to wordhack. I will probably be there; I may be on the open mic; you should say hi.

A few notes

Here are a few quick things that I think you should know.

“Babycastles” used to be a space where people hosted games and events (and where Wordhack used to be hosted). It doesn’t exist anymore and I don’t really know much about the history because I joined this world after Babycastles shuttered. But if you see old comments about it online, maybe check whether the event they’re referencing is at Wonderville now.

Verci is a coworking space and community that should probably be on this list but I don’t know enough about it. They did let my friends and I host a fun artsy salon last summer; that was cool.

Brooklan is some kind of gaming cafe thing? I’ve only been once for a playtest. If you’re looking for more playtests you might want to check it out!

Playcrafting is a gaming…thing? Community? Company? I don’t really understand what they do, to be honest. They put on a thing called “play NYC” that I went to once but I didn’t get too much out of it - I think conventions just aren’t really for me. I think if you’re more into traditional and business-y games stuff than I am it might be a fit for you? idk.

are.na is an image-gathering website that is kinda like hipster pinterest. Lots of people in the “scene” here love it. I don’t really use it! But it comes up a lot. They also release a book (the “are.na annual”) every year and throw a party for it and lots of cool people go to the party, so maybe go to that if it sounds interesting.

Also: the vast majority of the things I’ve listed are in Brooklyn. Do with that what you will.

Wrapping up

I’m positive that I’ve forgotten a place that is important to me on this list. I’m so sorry if I did.

Otherwise, uh, I hope this was helpful!