June 2025 Newsletter (Patreon)

Hello folks. I usually try to get these out earlier in the month but, to be honest, it's been a bit crazy. The main piece of freelance work I do to keep the lights on is very unpredictable; some weeks it's 3 full days, some weeks it's none. I'd love to be able to quit it before the end of the summer, but that will be dependent on how well we do on here over the coming months.

We've had an influx of new members over the past week. If you're having any issues getting connected to the Discord please let me know via DM on here and we'll get it sorted. In the meantime, you can also check out the Learning Materials collection on here [https://www.patreon.com/collection/1458568?view=expanded ] to see what's been previously uploaded.

Some community members requested copies of the slides so they could review what had been discussed in those sessions, and I've uploaded the videos in that collection too, so that those of you without YouTube Premium can watch them when you want without ads. I try to keep the Patreon perks as things which are "scaleable" [i.e. aren't going to produce loads of extra work alongside YouTube] and this is my way of doing that; I hope some of you get value from it. As for upcoming lecture/workshops, the next one will be on Tutorials and Player Onboarding, and should be coming around the middle of the month. Keep an eye on the YouTube channel upcoming live streams, as I'll be updating the scheduling there in the next few days.

For those of you who are have already checked out episode one of The Game Developers' Library, episode 2 will be up before the end of June, covering Raph Koster's A Theory of Fun For Game Design. You can listen in any order, but I'd recommend reading them chronologically, as the benefit of this kind of book-club style podcast is that the hosts can weave the different texts together, weighing them up in relation to eachother. The purpose of that podcast is ultimately to make game design theory more accessible, and to also weigh in with some personal perspectives on which game design books offer more value to devs who want to make better games.

In jam news, those of you already in the Discord will have heard some murmurs about the next game jam. "MVG Jam 2025" will run on itch.io from August 1st to 31st. Unlike CollabJam, you'll be able to submit solo entries, but this time, there's a different catch. Every game will be a "music video game", i.e. an interactive music video. I'm currently in the process of collecting entries from bands known to me locally and further afield. All of this is to say, if you're in a band, or make music - or are friends with someone who is - get them to sign up to submit something. We're welcoming music of all genres, but I think we'll get more interesting games out of structured pop songs with lyrics, because those will provide more interesting creative constraints.

Thank you all for your support; I appreciate you helping IGC to keep going, and I hope you get as much out of being part of this community as I do.