NZDGC
So, here we are. Feeling like we’re starting for the 4987164598673rd time.
If you know me, you know I’ve been interested in writing and making games and designing games for a really long time now. Well, it’s about time we get serious about this and actually give it a go.
So I’m in the process of making some steps to prove to myself that I am serious. One of those things is this totally unserious design for the noise I put out into the world. Another is getting the wheels in motion to actually officially form a company here in New Zealand. There’s a lot of weird legal stuff I have to look into and talk to people about - mostly because America is really stupid when it comes to its citizens working and owning businesses abroad. Stupid America.
So the first of these truly big steps I took this past week was to stop orbiting around the gaming sector here in New Zealand (and more specifically Auckland itself) and I went to the 2026 New Zealand Game Developer's Conference as actual member of the New Zealand Game Developer's Association.
It was up in Auckland for the first time in like a decade, so it was an opportunity that I could not pass up.
I attended some interesting panels. I got to meet some other devs and see the things they have been working on. I got to talk with a handful of people from a couple of the major studios here (Grinding Gear Games and NinjaKiwi to name drop a couple of them). And all-in-all it was a very inspirational handful of days.
I wasn't trying to network or do mentoring. Mostly I was trying not to be completely overwhelmed by imposter syndrome. But this does make me want to push forward on the game-adjacent project I'm working on and try to actually build and show something the next chance I can get to make it to an NZGDC again. (Sadly, this looks like it will be in 2028, but we shall see.)
So that is where we sit today. I am working on a project that I want to show off and talk about soon. I'm doing some of the pre-work on the first real "game" I want to make. And I'm working on getting more and more familiar with the new stuff going on in Godot.