When it comes to video games in NYC, all of us at Lords of Gaming do our best to be front-and-center, boots on the ground, covering it. And when the opportunity to cover the exciting second Annual NYC Video Games Festival arose, several of us were eager to attend the event.
And after spending a few hours at the Festival, Lord Cognito, King, and yours truly have a lot to say about the event, celebrating gaming and our youth engaging in an art form we love dearly.
What is the NYC Annual Games Festival?
Hosting the event, the NYC Media and Entertainment website describes the event with the following statement:
The NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment announced today that the City of New York will host the second annual NYC Video Game Festival (NYCVGF) — a day-long celebration of creativity, technology, and education featuring game design, esports, tech, and a digital media career pathway expo for students, parents, educators, industry professionals, policy makers and all New Yorkers with a passion for gaming to enjoy.
Commissioner of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, Rafael Espinal, also says the following about the event:
“The second annual NYC Video Game Festival will welcome more than 1000 New Yorkers for a full day of action, and showcase the talented workforce, indie developers and city agencies that make NYC a global hub for the digital games industry,”
“This festival has something for everyone – families can enjoy a day that combines learning and fun; students can meet with colleges and employers as they explore next steps in their digital career paths; and members of the digital games community can gather to develop new ideas for how to support this economic engine.”
The main goal of the event was to give our youth a positive window into developing video games, engaging with the medium, and a fun venue for New Yorkers to explore, seeing several highlights of what gaming has to offer.
From Darts to Drones
Entering the Festival, you are greeted with a fork in the road. Going left, you were able to engage with remote-controlled drones, trying to navigate them through a floating goal. This was cool to see in action, as kids were getting a real kick out of it. But what appealed to all of us, specifically King, was the Target OMNI Auto Scoring Boards.
These dart boards can be installed in schools, personal homes, and even bars. In addition, tracking your score is as easy as opening the app, having accurate tracking, and players can even engage in online tournaments.
Immersive Driving – Phillips Professional Display F1 Demo
A major highlight for all of us at the NYC Games Festival was seeing a sick-looking F1 Racing set-up, connected to removable panels. These panels offer perfect image quality at high resolutions and can be easily replaced if damaged.
The director of educational sales at Phillips Professional Display Solutions was proud to showcase the technology. In addition, they were demonstrating touchscreen smart TV-like devices, which I have personal experience with when working in classrooms.
Seeing both sides of display technology used for education and showing off gaming in the best light possible was amazing.
A Festival of Developers – Indie Games on the Showfloor
But it wouldn’t be a games festival without fun games to play. Thankfully, several indie studios were present, offering a wide range of fun titles to play.
One game I went hands-on with was Bungo Bash from Bungo Studios. Playing this a few years ago, back at Anime Expo NYC 2024, seeing the great progress made was awesome. Standout elements included playable characters, like a candy mage that felt like a ranged Jigglypuff from Smash Bros, and several dynamic stages adding to the 3D brawling chaos.
Other indies were present at the show, including the following developers. You can learn more about these studios and game development in NYC here.
- dank.game
- Planetary Games
- AniTOMO
- WhaleFood Games
- Computer Lunch
- Jia Jie Chen
- Bungo Studios
- Yarg Productions
- by Sam Eng
- @PixelappOfficial
- Hot Chai Games
- Muditaheart Games
- Dusk Sharp
- Davis Aguilera Studios LLC
- SPIN Encyclopedia
- Immersive Gamebox
- Scramble Heart City
- Mokuni
- GliK Games
- Shattered Journal Games
- Play All Gaming LLC
- Alter Staff
- Kaiju Fruit Labs
- Velveteen Coyote
For Future Developers – Game U
Empowering these studios and upcoming developers is a powerful game development platform. Called GameU, this suite offers online lessons that teach customized curricula, allowing a GameU student to learn at their own pace. Several classes are offered, with some examples listed below.
- Game Design
- Coding
- 3D Modeling
- Animation
- Digital Art
- Sound Design
- Creative Writing
- Basic Computer Skills
These are just some of the 220-plus course modules students can interact with. Key program goals of GameU include teaching STEAM concepts (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math), Social Inclusion & Participation, and Increased Critical Thinking.
And if all of this sounds too good to be true, this development platform was showcased proudly at the Festival. I was able to sample a short 2D platformer and move a simple shape left and right, with the only action available being jumping.
But there was a fun mechanic, where in the second stage, when landing on a colored platform, my character jumped higher. Most impressively? This short experience was developed by a fifth-grader using these development resources.
Considering how creative kids today are with creations in Roblox and Minecraft, tools like these are immensely powerful. You can learn more about GameU here, and we can’t wait to report more on it as future game developers learn from this education system.
Other Educational Tools for the Future
GameU wasn’t the only powerful education tool at the NYC Games Festival that caught our eye. Here are two powerful tools that could have a real impact on the future of game developers and education in general.
- TranslateLive: Removes Every Barrier, Builds Every Connection, and Improves Every Outcome. Using modern technology, students, families, staff, and communities can use ILA (Instant Language Assistant Suite of Tools) to communicate and overcome language barriers. Translate on demand in over 200 languages and dialects, alongside empowering students to strengthen their home language and English.
- Megaminds: AI-Powered Career Stimulations that ‘…gives our students real practice before they enter the workforce’ (Marie Maigan, 9th Grade Teacher). Key features include dynamic AI coaching and career exploration with support for simulations.
Both of these tools are powerful, with TranslateLive being a great way to overcome the walls that language barriers could genuinely have in the classroom. And while AI technology can be intimidating to explore, it’s a powerful tool when in the right hands, so MegaMinds potentially represents that technology being used correctly.
It’s Time to Rumble! – Battle of the Boroughs
But by far the biggest part of the Festival was the Battle of the Borough’s competitions! The Minecraft Education Battle of the Boroughs and NYC Collegiate Esports Champions were well underway, with the NYC Media and Entertainment website saying the following:
Fifteen teams have advanced through the qualifying round to become finalists for the BOTB competition. Representing all five boroughs, three teams from each borough – one elementary (K-5 grade), one middle school (6-8), and one high school (9-12)- will compete in the finals for the championship title. Finalist teams include:
- Queens – Young Women’s Leadership School, Astoria; PS/MS 200 – The Magnet School of Global Studies and Leadership; PS 239Q
- Staten Island – Tottenville High School; IS27 Anning S. Prall; PS 21 Margaret Emery-Elm Park
- Brooklyn – K371 Lillian Raskin High School; Fort Greene Preparatory Academy; PS 889
- Bronx – Mott Haven Village Preparatory High School; Soundview Academy for Culture and Scholarship; PS 86 The Kingsbridge Heights School
- Manhattan – Frank McCourt High School; New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math High School (NEST+); PS084 Lillian Weber Manhattan
While we didn’t stick around to see the full Minecraft event, we were able to see lengthy matches of Valorant and League of Legends. Seeing adolescent youth enjoy multiplayer games like these was amazing, and those who watched the Twitch live-stream, Lord Cognito and King said a few words about their experience watching the Battle of the Bourough’s unfold.
For me personally, I thought the Minecraft Battle of the Boroughs was by far the most important tournament there. It’s a creative platform that children use to express themselves, create stunning worlds, and show off their powerful minds. So that being tested and nourished with a healthy competition between boroughs was wonderful.
But since it’s a competition, we should celebrate the winners! Here’s everything you need to know about that below.
The 2025 defending champions in the Elementary division, team Hyper Pigmentation from Brooklyn’s PS 889, took first place once again while Manhattan’s NEST+ and Staten Island’s Tottenville won for Middle and High School. The NYC Collegiate Esports Circuit Finals (NYCCEC), produced with Video Game Amateurs (VGA), saw The City College of NY (CCNY) win the League of LegendsⓇ competition, and Pace University win the ValorantⓇ competition. For the first time this year, the collegiate finalists shared in a $10,000 prize pool thanks to Red Bull™ and proceeds from festival ticket sales
Closing Thoughts on the NYC 2nd Annual Games Festival
As a New York local, a writer in the industry here at Lords of Gaming, and as an educator for my main career, it’s amazing seeing all of that come together in a wonderful celebration.
Video games are a powerful art form, and having our youth engage with the medium in healthy ways will only better this growing industry. It was just awesome, in general, to see a love of gaming throughout the entire festival. I personally can’t wait to attend future game festivals in the future.
To close things out, here are some words from Lord Cognito and King of the Iron Lords Podcast, who had a lot to say about their time at the festival.
Thoughts from Lord Cognito
The NYC Annual Games Festival was amazing. Love to see all those involved supporting the education of kids through video games. You had Minecraft, League of Legends, and Valorant, and to see this level of competition not only from the kids’ level in the lower grades but through the collegiate level was great.All the major partners came out in support (shoutout to Video Games Amateurs, who played a key role in setting this up), which was powerful.
It was wonderful to be a part of this, as this was a dream for older gamers like myself and King. We were told that there was no future in video games and that it was a dead-end hobby. But guess what? This event exists is inspirational, not only for us who love the medium, but for our youth.
Special shoutouts to New York-based independent developers getting a spotlight, whose games could be the ‘next big thing’ everyone can love. And lastly, we want to support initiatives like this to make New York a major center for game development. It was an absolute pleasure for me and my team to be at this event. Expect the Lords to be front and center for future NYC Game Festival Events.
Thoughts from King
The NYC gaming festival highlights the opportunities for NYC youth, from grades K to C, with college being the apex. And if children go through the program, which is vast, covering every opportunity in the gaming industry (platform raising, programming, lighting, shoutcasting, and more).
This is a great way to open awareness for the young minds very early, while also educating teachers and the people in charge to oversee, allowing them to educate and grow, and cultivate. It’s a great opportunity for the city. It’s very enlightening to see a city embracing the digital future, the inevitability of the largest entertainment medium in the world. Being that NYC is the mega of the world, it only stands to reason that we take a ground-based look at it and ensure that our opportunities allow NYC and the East Coast to grow into one of the intersecting points for the gaming industry.
It was great to have Iron Lord Podcast and Lords of Gaming present to represent the transition from leaving the dark ages into the bright digital future. It was wonderful seeing parents relaxed, embracing video games and their culture. Meanwhile, it was incredible seeing children of all ages smiling and loving video games too.
I can’t wait to see it in a larger, more organized scale as this staple grows into a bigger event for NYC. It was a highlight of my weekend.
