PGM NEWS
April 2025 Playtest Night, Our Very First Coffee Meetup, and *Play* It Forward Month on the Horizon!
April Playtest Night
Playtest Night at Majux Hub in Old City on Thursday, April 3rd was a blast as usual!
Above: The show-and-tell portion of the evening (Click to expand)
First, Celeste shared her game, Recipe for Ruin, where players slay, sautee, and survive! Defeat monsters using dangerous combinations of foods in this top-down action-adventure dark fantasy game.
Continuing with the cooking-themed creations, Jon Dare shared his jam game for the Weak Sauce Game Jam, You’re Cooked! In this first-person puzzle game, you have one minute to make as many meals as you can while dodging slime balls! You can also listen to the OST Jon created.
Next, Quinn shared Former Future with us, a mid-century futurism-inspired strategic 2D shooter. Quinn explained how his work experience helped him in creating the art assets shown within the game’s futuristic levels.
Isabella brought the game Daisy Grotto to share. Meet adorable characters and fight fierce monsters in an adorable world!
Sarah shared a lot of fantastic 3D levels and assets she created. From an arcade cabinet to department store mannequins coming alive to a House of Leaves-inspired landscape, she had a lot of cool things to show off!
Finally, Steve shared his ongoing work on his game, Piece of Ship! We’d seen parts of the game before, and it was great to get updated on some of the progress and pitfalls and Steve continues development.
Above: People enjoying the networking and playtest portion of the evening.
After the show-and-tell portion of the night wrapped up, the playtesting began! Lots of folks had things to share, and everyone had a great time testing, and giving helpful feedback as well as networking with new connections and catching up with old friends.
As always, a special thanks again to Majux for being willing to host the PGM crew each month!
PGM Coffee Meetup at Good Karma Cafe
Above: Folks enjoying coffee and camaraderie
On March 29th, PGM took over part of Good Karma Cafe on Broad St. It was a great, casual hang, and we got to see a lot of new faces of folks who can’t make the weeknight events. Coffee was consumed, friendships were formed, and a great time was had by all!
We’re looking to do more things like this in the future, so if you have a place you think would be good for a meetup, let us know in the Discord server!
Upcoming and Newly Released Games from PGM Members
Just Released
One Million Stars by Tom Sennett Games was featured in our last newsletter, but now its Steam page is officially live!
“Get stars, avoid monsters. The rules are simple, but the goal massive. Pilot 4 different ships, choose stackable upgrades, and grab wild powerups in an endless, dynamically generated roguelite arcade space adventure. Take each run as far as you can, banking progress on the road to ONE MILLION!”
Fish Fear Me by Heather Flowers is out now!
“A top-down action roguelite about catching fish, fighting them, selling their bones, and catching more fish. Upgrade your boat and weapons, hunt down sea monster bounties, delve into eldritch mysteries, and try to pay off cosmic debt millennia in the making.”
The first paid episode of of the Devil by nth Circle Studios has just been released!
“Immerse yourself in neon, smoke, and high-stakes legal gambles as a Defense Attorney with uniquely Killer insights in this diabolically stylish visual novel adventure game.”
You can also checkout the free prologue if you’d like to give the series a try.
Coming Soon
Boast Guards has just been announced by Starworks Studios.
“In this casual multiplayer Co-Op game, play as a squad of vainglorious lifeguards and work together to keep your chaotic beach safe, clean, and most importantly famous! Experiment with game-changing Gear & many passive-effects to create the highest fame-generating strategies with friends!”
Don’t forget to wishlist!
Special Announcements
May is PGM *Play* It Forward Month
The month of May is a special one! Help PGM power up by participating in fundraising efforts so we can offer more to our amazing community! We will be relaunching our Patreon with new perks and exciting opportunities for members, so be sure you’re in the PGM Discord server to hear more of the details as the time for our relaunch draws near!
PGM will have a booth at Too Many Games!
PGM will have a table at the Too Many Games conference showcasing our members’ projects! You can sign up to have your game or demo featured with the dev sign-up sheet here! The sheet also includes all the information you need regarding prep for the event and what the booth layout will be like.
Tell us where you live and how you like to work
We’d love to know where you live—I promise we won’t make it weird! We’re running a survey to find out where PGM members are located (just your neighborhood is all we need) so that we can coordinate events that are accessible to as many of our members as possible. Please spare a (literal) minute of your time to take the (very short!) PGM Neighborhood Survey. It’ll help us continue to curate the best experience for our members.
Additionally, as we mentioned in the previous newsletter, PGM is trying to create a coworking program with our partners at Indy Hall, and you can help! And benefit from our partnership! There’s a form we’d be really grateful for you to fill out so we can use the data to make the most of our shared interests. Please take the PGM-Indy Hall Coworking Survey
Upcoming Events
IGDA Presenation on 2D and 3D Level Design
There is an online and in-person meeting with the Philly IGDA Tuesday, April 8th (that’s today!) from 7-9pm at the ExCITe Center at Drexel University (3401 Market Street, Suite 100). You can RSVP for the online event here, which will take place in the Philly IGDA Discord Server, and this is the link for the in-person event.
PGM Asset Drive
During the month of May, PGM will be hosting our first ever Asset Drive: a themed, jam-like event where PGM members come together to create models, music, textures, and more! Additional details to come! The PGM Discord server is where you can learn more.
Another Coffee Meetup is in the works!
Our coffee meetup was such a hit that we’re planning another! The details aren’t finalized yet, it will be on a weekend in the month of May. Keep a close eye on the announcements in the PGM Discord server, which is where we’ll share all the info as soon as things are finalized!
PGM Game Job Hunting Advice Sessions
Monthly job hunt advice sessions will now be hosted in the PGM Discord server starting this month! The first will be Saturday, April 19th at 11am and will be a resume review! In the future, there will also be sessions dedicated to interview tips, portfolio reviews, and general job hunting advice. This month’s resume review session will be led by RJ Reyes, and you can sign up here.
PGM Planning Session
The PGM Planning Session is a recurring meeting to help organize events for PGM. These events are open to everyone who would like to attend and are hosted in the Discord server the first Monday of each month. The next one is Monday, May 5th at 7pm.
Playtest Night
The next playtest night will be Thursday, May 1st at 7pm at our usual spot, Majux Hub (230 N 2nd St).
Too Many Games
The Too Many Games conference is from June 27-29th at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA. Many PGM members participate in the Indie Game Showcase and/or sell their art or crafts at a vendor booth. Applications to work as a defender (which is a paid role, by the way!) are currently open!