We are so pleased to introduce the new face of the STL game dev community: The St. Louis Game Developer Co-op.

Several of our community members knew this transition was coming, as the community voted in overwhelming support to make this change at our annual game developer community member’s townhall in April. It’s taken us a few months, but it’s now official, and we are excited to share the changes with you.

The goals of the new Co-op are to be inclusive, community-driven, and hyperlocal in order to serve the game creators of St. Louis in the very best way possible.

Inclusive

We intend to provide support and resources for all kinds of game creators: pro, student, and hobbyist, including those focusing on digital, physical, tabletop, and innovative methods of play. We’re finally merging the leadership of the hobbyist-focused meetup and the professional-focused community organization to create an inspiring and diverse community of creators.

Community driven

The Co-op will be a fully volunteer-run organization. Dues and fundraising efforts will go directly toward support, resources, events for our members.

Local

Everything we set out to do is to benefit our city’s game creation community; we are focused on supporting a great group of creators and continuing to foster a welcoming place to make games. The way our organization is now set up, we have more control over how things are organized and operated at a fundamental level. Our core operations and leadership are and will remain to be actively involved at a local level; we are here to support game creators in St. Louis.

The Future

Opportunities for speaking, leadership, and involvement will continue to grow as usual. Nearly all of our events will remain to be free and open to the public as they always have been, but should you choose to officially join the Co-op, your membership will now directly benefit our community efforts toward events, sponsorships, outreach, and member resources.

Benefits of membership include opt-in developer listings on the website, stlgamedev slack team access, free entrance to our annual holiday mixer, the ability to submit press releases and blog articles to the stlgamedev.com website, and a vote in annual elections.

Our hope is to increase our locally-focused benefits as our community grows and strengthens. We hope also to tailor benefits specific to our local community’s needs, and are absolutely open to suggestions and feedback.

Thank you for being right here with us and making our community what it is!