Baltimore IGDA – April 2025
Welcome to the inaugural article for the Baltimore IGDA newsletter. In this newsletter we will go over what is happening around the Maryland area game development scene. April has been a busy month for the Baltimore IGDA.
Earlier this month Zenimax Online Studio or ZOS debuted Elder Scrolls Online – Return of the Worm Cult Trailer.
Please check out their brand new podcast where they go over more details of their new expansion.
Michelle Menard, former Oxide Games Designer, started a new startup called, ‘Dragon Snacks Games’.
https://www.dragonsnacksgames.com/
Balti Virtual continues to create AR content for multiple sport teams such as Baltimore Orioles, Ravens, DC Commanders, Capitols, Nationals, etc. They specialize in making all kind of marketing specialization to help with branding and fan engagement.
https://www.baltivirtual.com/
At the end of March, there was an unpublished boardgame convention called, ‘Unpub’. This convention is a great event for aspiring table top, card game, and boardgame developers to playtest their latest builds for their unpublished games. Allen Lambert showcased his Mesoamerican inspired boardgame, Teocalli.
https://allenlambert.info/
You could even meetup with local boardgame developer Elizabeth Hargrave, the developer of the popular boardgame bird game ‘Wingspan’. The Baltimore IGDA interviewed Elizabeth last summer to showcase the development of Wingspan. https://www.unpub.org/upcoming-events/unpub-25
https://stonemaiergames.com/games/wingspan/
BreakAway Games recently attended the DC History Center and Folger Shakespeare Library where Doug Whatley, CEO of BreakAway games, connected with youth who are interested in Serious Games for Education, History, Medicine, and much more.
https://www.breakawaygames.com/
Local Indie NEARstudios from Bethesda Maryland debuted a new trailer for their game Hawthorn at the Future Games Show.
https://www.nearstudios.com/
They have also started a kickstarter for their project.
https://playhawthorn.com/
Hawthorn is a charming co-op sandbox RPG video game that involves a village life sim inspired by Victorian-era European fairytales and the spirit of 80s and 90s anthropomorphic animal adventure stories.
The Baltimore IGDA started a youtube channel which features interview series with local indie game developers, recordings of presentation from local AAA developers, and projects of interest. They recently interview Bobby Foster with his project, The Forsaken of Baltimore. They also interviewed Boba Studio’s, a woman owned Indie Game company, with their game Squirrely Roo Rabbit. https://www.youtube.com/@IGDA-Baltimore
GDC was at the end of last month. It was quite the event conversion. Dorian Newcomb, former Art Director at Oxide Games, started a new venture called, ‘Redacted Initiative’. More news coming soon.
Big Huge Games Celebrates 10 Years of their mobile game title, DomiNations. DomiNations is an epic combat strategy game of advancement, exploration, and conquest from a group of industry veterans (Civilization II, Rise of Nations) based in Baltimore, MD.
http://www.bighugegames.com/
The Baltimore Game Dev social continues to provide a great networking opportunity with local developers every third Thursday of every month held at BC. Brewery. One of the best ways to socialize after work with industry professional, indies, and hobbists. BC Brewery is an amazing venue to play games, attend concerts, and of course get some delicious food and 30 locally brewed beers on tap. If you haven’t attended yet it is recommended if you are in the Hunt Valley area after work.
https://www.bcbrewerymd.com/
The Unreal Engine – Baltimore Chapter discord had their monthly showcase event which showed off personal work from industry professionals Russell from Midsummer, Ryan from Bit Reactor, Tronster from Firaxis, Noah a local animation student, and Dillion showing off his Indie project Gardener.
Sparkypants released their new game, ‘Mind Over Magic’, back in February of 2025. “Mind Over Magic is a colony sim set at the site of a cursed magic school. Build and optimize your own magical academy, train powerful Mages, and master mighty relics in order to battle through the Underschool, a mysterious underground dungeon that holds the key to liberation from a deadly curse.”
https://www.sparkypants.com/
UMBC’s game dev program had their spring Digital Entertainment Conference or DEC which featured many local AAA professionals giving back to the local community with presentation ranging from 3d, Audio, Programming, Production, Accessibility, etc. Ryan Griffin showed off how to create a AAA 3d Prop using only free software for students to learn. Michael Curran former Audio Director and Phillip Klassen former Audio Designer on Ara: History Untold, presented the audio production from the music and audio engineering from Ara: History Untold made by Oxide Games published by Microsoft. Derrick Lin a former Tools Engineer from Oxide Games presented a talk about how to tackle accessibility within game development. He goes over general guidelines to tool creation from a software engineering perspective for accessibility in game development. Katie Hirsch a senior UI engineer from Zenimax Online Studios goes over her life journey to get into games and the challenges of career development. She gives perspective on 20 years of game development. Finally Tronster Hartley current programmer Team Lead at Firaxis Games went over a presentation about tips and tricks with production, engineering, and art for making great games.
Bit Reactor was at the Star Wars celebration 2025 in Japan. Bit Reactor announced the trailer for their brand new game, ‘Star Wars Zero Company’. “Command an elite squad through a gritty and authentic story in STAR WARS Zero Company™, a single-player turn-based tactics game set in the twilight of the Clone Wars.”
Lastly the Baltimore IGDA hosted our second annual Multi-School Senior Showcase featuring 8 different Universities, and high school programs which have game development programs. With over 125 attendance and many local AAA game developers from Firaxis, Zenimax Online, Oxide Games, Bit Reactor, Big Huge Games, etc. Over 30+ student games representing MICA, UMBC, Morgan State University, University of Baltimore, John’s Hopkins University, University of Maryland College Park, Howard County ARL Highschool Program, and the George Washington Highschool Carver Center in Baltimore County.
An important upcoming event with the Baltimore Indie Game Devs or BIG will be hosting the Indie Game Fest in June 7th at the Enoch Pratt Free Library.
https://baltimoreindiegames.com/
This event will showcase many of the local Indie projects which are great to check out the variety such as Domino Grove, Goat Massacre, Heart is Muscle, Flowstone Saga, Station Zeta, Gregg Tower Defence, Champion’s Chalice, The Sand Knight, Picto Pull, Bewildebots, Tangledeep, Aurora Nova, Be Honest, Crypt Crawler, RPGirl, Scrap Seas, Star Shogun, Sudoban, Sunset High, and Untold Depths. https://calendar.prattlibrary.org/event/indie_game_fest_2025
This article was written by Ryan Griffin, Baltimore IGDA President 2025.
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