What Happened to Dev Night?

On July 1, Philly Dev Night officially became homeless. The Philly Game Forge, a coworking space meant to foster support and collaboration between local indie game studios, closed its doors. You may have read about it in Tech Philly, or even on Engadget.

If you visit 239 Chestnut Street now, you’ll find that the old space has been passed on to The 215 Guys — local developers and cool dudes! However, Dev Night is not the same event that it was a few years ago. We’ve grown a lot, which made finding a completely new location a pressing matter.

Not only do we need the space for 70+ people to get together and jam every 3rd Thursday-we also need a particular environment that can foster the creative, crazy, and quickly evolving beast that our community has become. It’s kind of like a Pokémon, except we haven’t been farming any Pidgeys to level it up. This one is all natural.

Dev Night regulars and lurkers know that after the Forge shut down, beer gardens and parks became our go-to spot for meetups. But we were hesitant to call those gatherings a “real” Dev Night, because we don’t want to settle for just any old spot. Our event and community were lovingly tied to our physical home, the Forge. We know how important our location will be.

photo by Kotaro Fujita

To answer the question — What happened to Dev Night?— this Thursday, August 4th, a brand new game jam will be kicking off in a new, transitional space.

And this place is pretty damn great.

G-Team is located at 1010 Cherry Street in Chinatown. Much of Philly’s gaming community knows about the tournaments they host. G-Team is interesting, because it’s poised to connect the worlds of gamers, tech companies, and developers. Dev Night is a rare, concentrated gathering of quite a few of the latter. Making meaningful connections has been a really special part of Dev Night, and that’s why we are looking forward to the mutual benefits that will come with being a guest in G-Team’s space.

So, this is your official invite. Bring yourself, some stuff to show off, and what do you say we gather at 7:00 to make a great impression on our new interim home?

 

photo by Ryan Gerbino

 Dev Night lives on!

Philly Dev Night Podcast New #1 – What is elbow grease?

Philly Dev Night Podcast new #1! Join Tabitha Arnold , Nicole Kline, and Jake O’Brien for a podcast on Philadelphia’s game scene. Here the panel discuss game jams, E3, and possibly why people are running. Hosted by Shawn Pierre.

Find it on iTunes! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/philly-dev-night/id1134081273?mt=2

Download on Soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/user-236925929/what-is-elbow-grease