A new bar and event space celebrating independently made arcade games in Brooklyn
Latest Updates from Our Project:
BONUS! New dev for the Wonderbundle. Also, more cats!
about 5 years ago
– Fri, Mar 22, 2019 at 12:51:43 PM
We have a new developer joining us. That means all of you who pledged for a Wonderbundle reward will be getting another bonus game on top of all the games you're already getting! What?! YUP!
Paolo Pedercini is an independent game developer and educator. Working under the name of Molleindustria, he has produced many experimental and satirical games since 2003 (Every Day the Same Dream, McDonald’s Video game, Phone Story). Paolo is also the director of LIKELIKE, a space devoted to independent games and playful art in Pittsburgh, PA.
He is one of only a few major contemporary game devs making political art that is actually effective, as both political statement and as a game. And we're thrilled to be working with him!
Question of the week
In the news this week, with the Game Developers Conference (GDC) underway, there's been a lot of talk about the future of video games, particularly a move away from physical media and downloads, and more toward streaming. Inspired by this thread we wanted to ask you all-->
Will streaming democratize access to video games or create a gatekeeper culture which makes it difficult for indie developers to find an audience?
We have some thoughts on the matter, we believe in transformative local game spaces which allow anyone to make and play games, but we'd love to hear from you. Let us know in the comments or use #WondervilleNYC on social media to tell us what you think!
And, More Cats!
Meet Waffles. This furball lives with Neil Sveri and when Waffles wants to jam out, ain't nothing going to stand in the way.
"I was just jamming a bit before work and my cat just jumps onto my desk and starts stepping on all my equipment," said Neil, adding with a laugh, "He has no respect and knows I can't do anything to stop him."
Rock on Waffles.
Have a pet who loves video games? We'd love to see it! Comment here, or post on Instagram or Twitter using #WondervilleNYC and we may just re-share it to all our followers or in a future update! Let's have some fun people!
Only 11 days left!
Thank you everyone for the support, we really wouldn't be here without you! We have some runway ahead to make up, but we're feeling good about an on time departure.
Ways to help:
Share our campaign on social media, let your friends and family know how cool this project is!
Share us with your favorite video game press and writers, we love talking about video games, woodworking, electronics or Brooklyn zoning laws!
Share us where you hang out already, such as Discord and Reddit. Invite us over and we'll be there to chat, answer questions and thank you!
Use #WondervilleNYC on social media to comment about the project. We check that hashtag to chime in when someone has a question about us or just to share the love.
Talk to us, leave us a comment, or find us on our Twitter, Instagram or Facebook to ask us questions, share stories or anything else you want! We're big fans of open communication.
Send us pictures of your pets and videogames, because, you know, who doesn't love a goldfish playing Tetris?
Tell us what you want Wonderville to become!
We love Kickstarter and Kickstarter loves us! Also, cats.
about 5 years ago
– Wed, Mar 20, 2019 at 06:57:53 PM
Hey fam!
The love cup runneth over! Kickstarter followed up last week's Instagram profile on our campaign with an article on their official Medium page, and the top spot in their newsletter!
We're floored! We love Kickstarter, where else can the little guy have a chance to make something amazing, and to know that they love our project is just nothing short of amazing!
And, New York City is really showin' us the love today! Wonderville's founders, Mark and Steph, were featured in a segment on NY1. Peek the magic!
Wonderville is going to give the public a chance to meet the NYC indie videogame community and for everyone to see us in action in a venue that will become a true home for the thinkers and tinkerers designing tomorrow's video games. (Which, BTW, we have a few workshops in the rewards, to learn how to make games yourself). We can't wait!
As of now, 550 backers have helped us get to just shy of 70%. We can almost see the light on the other side! Please help us continue to spread the word and make Wonderville real.
Ways to help:
Share our campaign on social media, let your friends and family know how cool this project is!
Share us with your favorite video game press and writers, we love talking about video games, woodworking, electronics or Brooklyn zoning laws!
Share us where you hang out already, such as Discord and Reddit. Invite us to share and we just might show up and thank you!
Use #WondervilleNYC on social media to talk about the project. We check that hashtag to chime in when someone has a question about us or just to share the love.
Talk to us, leave us a comment, or find us on our Twitter, Instagram or Facebook to ask us questions, share stories or anything else you want! We're big fans of open communication.
Tell us what you want Wonderville to become!
And, a bonus!
I had a fever dream last night and came to the realization that there are not nearly enough cat pictures of cats playing arcade games. So, enjoy these gems!
This is Lulu, she lives at an awesome venue called Cloud City, which is run by our friends Lizzy and Jeff. And right now, Lulu is trying to figure out how to play Dustmop's game "Filthy Kitchen." A true connoisseur!
Have a pet who loves video games? We'd love to see it! Comment here, or post on Instagram or Twitter using #WondervilleNYC and we may just re-share it to all our followers or in a future update! Let's have some fun people!
Game on!
Live event tonight! Some love from Kickstarter! And more!
about 5 years ago
– Fri, Mar 15, 2019 at 12:24:47 PM
Hey fam! Week two is nearly in the bag and what a week it has been!
We passed the halfway mark, added a new reward (see the last update for info on the sick new Line Wobbler reward), sold out of some early birds, had a live event to show off our arcade games and we got some pretty epic shout outs!
Kickstarter themselves decides to feature us as their story of the day on the Kickstarter Instagram! We couldn't be more humbled and excited (excitaumbled?) for the support and recognition of our project from the mothership itself, it's just... whaaaaat? Wow!
Be sure to pop over to @Kickstarter ASAP to catch the story before they disappear. (Remember, stories are only active for 24hours on IG.)
And while you're at Instagram, take a moment to look up our archived story on the origins of Wonderville. You can find it on the story titled "Past is Future."
And speaking of shoutouts
We were covered in a few more places in the press this week as well:
If you're in Brooklyn tonight and free around 7pm, come visit us in person at Secret Project Robot for a special event we're co-hosting!
It's the official release date of BLACK EMPEROR - a new game by BumbleBear. The launch party is in Chicago at Logan Arcade, but we'll still be celebrating in Brooklyn with our very own Black Emperor cabinet at Secret Project Robot! 闇と闇とを切り裂いて High scores will be sent to @goBlackEmperor on Twitter/Instagram and the high score of the night will take home a prize!
Grab the full details and a FREE ticket here and join us at 7pm tonight!
If you're not in Brooklyn, fear not, you can still catch the livestream! Where you'll be able to ask us questions, say hello or just watch us completely destroy Chicago and leave a wake of tears in our... um... wake.
Check back on our Twitch page at 7pm tonight for the livestream. See you there!
Thanks again for all your support, we're making great progress, but we're not ready to celebrate yet. So please continue to help us spread the word, ask us questions and leave a comment sharing your favorite arcade memories. We love to hear from you!
We've got a new reward today! Plus some shoutouts to share.
about 5 years ago
– Wed, Mar 13, 2019 at 12:20:33 PM
Some exciting news today!
Game developer Robin Baumgarten surprised us big time, when he reached out and asked us if he could donate some special edition Line Wobblers as a special tier reward for the Wonderville Kickstarter!
After we took our jaw of the ground and asked him if he was serious a few dozen times, we realized we needed to share this with everyone ASAP!
We can't thank Robin enough for his super generous (and super fun) donation. Line Wobbler is a one-dimensional dungeon crawler game with a unique wobble controller made out of a door-stopper spring and a several meter long ultra bright LED strip display.
There are only 3, so snap 'em up quick!
Check out what he has to say about Wonderville and why he's digging deep to do this.
Robin's on his way to the Game Developers Conference right now, if you see him out there, give him a big hug for us! We love this guy!
And speaking of game conventions, we also wanted to give a huge shout out to Catt Small and a conference she is helping to organize a little closer to home.
The Game Devs of Color Expo #GDoCExpo is coming to Harlem, NYC on July 27, 2019 at the Schomburg Center in Harlem and tickets just went live.
Catt is an amazing designer/coder/game dev and she's making a game for the Wonderbundle! So if you see her, say something, like hello or thank you :)
We can't wait to see what she is cooking up for all of us! And to attend #GDoCExpo to meet some of the developers working on some of the most exciting games in the NYC indie game dev scene.
And in update news, we continue our upward journey with the Kickstarter, we're 59% as of now, only a few more pledges and we can get over the hump. So close!
And as we mentioned, we're out of the Early Bird Wonderbundle, but there's still 14 left for the Wonderbundle+T-shirt+Pins tier. And when they're gone, they're gone!
Thanks again for all your support, we're making great progress, but we're not ready to celebrate yet. So please continue to help us spread the word, ask us questions and leave a comment sharing your favorite arcade memories. We love to hear from you!
FIVE DAYS DOWN!
about 5 years ago
– Sun, Mar 10, 2019 at 04:34:12 PM
Wow what an incredible first week! We launched on Monday and we're already at 49% of our goal! Someone even pledged $10,000 for the custom arcade cabinet reward! So we're really excited to start working on that : )
On Thursday evening, we held a small arcade tournament at the Recess Popup in Manhattan. You can watch some of it on our Kickstarter Livestream! Throughout the month, we've got more NYC-based events, including:
HEX90: A queer hacker salon featuring the DreamboxXx cabinet at The Footlight in Ridgewood (Sunday March 10th)
Black Emperor Launch Party: Celebrating the new arcade cabinet by Bumblebear with a Brooklyn Vs Chicago showdown! At Secret Project Robot (Friday March 15th)
Check out http://dbaa.nyc for more info on these events! We'll have more throughout the month as we fundraise for this Kickstarter, so come by and say hello! We'd love to meet our backers in person!
Just an update - the early bird Wonderbundle rewards are ALL GONE! Thanks to everyone who grabbed one! There are still 18 early birds left for the $90 tier, which includes all of the games bundles, a T shirt, and the enamel pins!
Also for those of you who have wondered about the "Death By Audio" part of "Death By Audio Arcade" - we just posted a Twitter thread and Instagram story (@dbaarcade) that includes our history from 2013-2014 in the iconic music venue:
That's it for now! Keep an eye out for more event streams and help us spread the word! We're halfway there, but there's a whole lot left to go!
