Babycastles Studio Inc

Babycastles aim is to increase the diversity of voices in video game culture and connect the independent game developer community with the broader art community. We do this by identifying exciting new voices in game creation from around the world and providing them exposure to new audiences. Over the past seven years, Babycastles has worked with other institutions as curators and collaborators to organize countless art exhibitions, live music performances, readings, workshops and lectures in New York City and around the world. Examples of these programs can be seen through (http://www.babycastles.com) or through our facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/babycastles).

It is our duty to be available to facilitate and represent independent games, developers and artists to other institutions so we can spread knowledge and appreciation of games as an expressive art form within the broader arts and culture community. As much as we enjoy programming events in our own gallery we view this as an opportunity to present these unique game experiences to an otherwise un-reached audience.

Based in New York City for over seven years, Babycastles has facilitated talks, exhibitions, events, and festivals in NYC and around the world. Babycastles operates out of the gallery located at 137 W 14th St. in Manhattan that has been our home for the past three years. We host a wide variety of programs in our gallery space including a co-working, independent game exhibitions, talks and concerts that are open to the public up to seven days a week.

In addition to hosting our own events, we’ve worked with over a dozen museums to curate and showcase independent games in a playful, thoughtful and progressive light. Working with larger institutions provides a unique experience to pair an artist or developer with a technology or space that may open up new opportunities for professional growth that they may otherwise not have.

We are also an organization uniquely offered to offer educational programs as a majority of our volunteer members are professors or teachers as their primary profession. We host monthly 'pay what you can' skill sharing classes where we teach people different gaming engines, platforms and supporting tools including Unity and Maya.

Babycastles is a volunteer-run, 501c3 non-profit artist collective dedicated to increasing the diversity of voices participating in video game creation, arts and culture. Babycastles champions games as a mainstream, visible part of the broader art ecosystem by creating opportunities for collaboration between independent game developers and artists working in other mediums.

Maintained by a board as inclusive as its target audience, Babycastles diversifies the gaming scene in a number of ways—first, by consciously selecting and championing video games created by underrepresented voices for our exhibits, and by curating exhibits that focus exclusively on underrepresented communities (see Installations under Project Summary); second, by providing a safe space that features works of many mediums, thereby encouraging the collaboration of various types of creators; and third, by rethinking and widening the definition of what a video game is, further welcoming an experimental blend of disparate mediums, as well as amateurs and experienced game makers alike.

Our target audience is anyone interested in video games, across all ages, races/ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations, and across a broad community of creators—game makers, artists, musicians, writers, coders, activists, scientists, filmmakers, AI, etc. In the past year, we’ve run 134 unique events, reaching 5,315 public attendees, with an additional 1,095 through web-based programs, an enormous feat for purely volunteer efforts.

Our educational classes and workshops are lead by specialists and are often low-cost or free, and the bulk of our events are donation-based with a recommended sliding scale. Still, we never deny anyone admission if they are unable to provide the recommended entrance fee, ensuring that our events remain accessible to the public. Most of our events are live streamed, and audience members need not be physically present for game jams, as remote participation is possible through the internet.

Some of the events we have produced include ‘Space Cruiser’ in conjunction with the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History (http://www.wnyc.org/story/183224-planetarium-sized-video-game/) which has the unique distinction of being the first multi-player video game made for a planetarium or the ‘Babycastles Summit’ held at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC (http://www.madmuseum.org/events/babycastles-summit) which allowed us to program three days of talks, workshops and bands featuring over 200 artists and five installation specific playable games.

We often work with other non-profits and volunteer-run organizations to produce events at cost. Our mission to support inclusivity means that we do not discriminate against age or socio-economic status and thus it is important to make game exhibitions free and publicly available when so many events where games are exhibited can cost hundreds of dollars to enter. These are just some of the many events we have facilitated with other organizations that have provided free, public access to independent games and developers; an indie game developer lecture series at NYU Polytechnic University (http://game.engineering.nyu.edu/category/babycastles/) and producing publicly playable installation games with institutions including (but not limited to) the World Science Festival (http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/1/3056035/world-science-fest-joust-girp-folk-games) and Brooklyn Academy of Music (http://www.bam.org/media/809805/fisherblockparty_final_2012.pdf).