New York is not usually the first city that springs to mind when you try to think of US-based epicenters of game development. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Austin, sure, but NYC? Rockstar has a small office in the Big Apple, and Just Cause developer Avalanche held down a fort until 2024. As far as triple-A goes, pickings are slim. The games industry, however, isn’t just its heaviest hitters. One institution that’s surprisingly more aware of that fact than most? The Mayor’s Office.
Though some have rushed to anoint Zohran Mamdani as NYC’s first-ever Gamer Mayor, the truth is that the city has been spearheading games-related initiatives since before Eric Adams revealed that he’s incapable of being normal. Prior even to Adams’ fraught reign, the Mayor’s Office Of Media And Entertainment (MOME) first expanded its portfolio to include games back in 2018 under Bill de Blasio.
This produced grants, educational programs, a study on the multi-billion dollar economic impact of games in the city, and eventually, beginning in 2023 after Adams took office, a “Made in NY” marketing credit program that has bolstered awareness of games like Skate Story. MOME has also taken to hosting recurring events like the scholastic K-12 Minecraft Battle Of The Boroughs esports competition and 2025’s season-spanning Summer Of Games that includes the NYC Video Game Festival, Tribeca Games, Games For Change, Game Devs Of Color Expo, and Play NYC. Over the past three years, NYC has invested a total of $3 million into the video game industry.
Additionally, in 2022, under current governor Kathy Hochul, New York state – as opposed to NYC – finally got around to providing a five-year, $25 million game development-specific tax credit program after disgraced ex-governor Andrew Cuomo mystifyingly vetoed a bipartisan version of the idea during his tenure (such credits are common means of attracting talent to states; more than 20 offer them).
Mamdani has yet to make his mark in this arena. The fresh-faced mayor’s first two months at City Hall have been characterized by big wins, like a team up with Hochul to begin realizing his campaign promise of universal childcare, and missteps that betray his inexperience, like a budget blame game that failed to get Hochul on board with his plan to tax the rich (though the tide might be turning on that front) and a placative stance toward his own NYPD that has seen him seemingly abandon some of his promised reforms in exchange for… very little, so far. He’s also managed to charm the ill-fitting suit jacket off Donald Trump, which is funny, if nothing else.
MOME has yet to communicate at length with City Hall about games since Mamdani took office. Most of this comes down to simple bureaucracy. When I first established contact with MOME in January, the expectation was that a new commissioner, Rafael Espinal, would take over in the middle of February, and then MOME and Mamdani’s people could really get the ball rolling. Espinal, MOME press secretary Johanna McCabe recently told Aftermath, assumed his new position two weeks ago, but as of this publishing, there were no updates to share. McCabe also tried to procure a statement from Mamdani’s team on Aftermath’s behalf, but was unable.
However, Alia Jones-Harvey, a theater producer turned MOME associate commissioner of workforce development and education — and one of the main people responsible for NYC’s gaming initiatives — is optimistic about what the near future holds.
"The good news is that we think what we've been working towards in the game industry is very much aligned with what Mayor Mamdani has been addressing publicly for months now,” she told Aftermath. “I don't feel like we're off doing something in a totally different direction. I think we all understand that if we can make New York more affordable, and if we can make designing games in New York more attractive and affordable, that people will design games in New York. So that's what our office is working towards."
A Brand New Start Of It
These days, MOME largely works to facilitate the efforts of independent developers and studios, but that has not always been the case. Early efforts focused more on attracting triple-A companies to the greatest city in the world that also happens to be one of the most expensive. They did not exactly bear fruit.
"The first thing that we did was, we established a council that would inform the mayor on how we could attract more development,” said Jones-Harvey. “Our initial thinking was that if we get more triple-A studios in New York City, there'll be a lot more opportunity for developers here.”
The council, established under Adams in 2022, boasted names like Omar Shakir, game director at Avalanche; Alan Lewis, VP of corporate communications and public affairs at Take-Two; and Sarah Denby, senior account executive at Zynga. Later, it added members from Epic, Rockstar, and Amazon, among others. However, Naomi Clark, director of NYU’s Game Center game design department and a member of the council, told Aftermath that it only met a few times, and though she was unable to attend, she doesn’t feel like she missed much.
"My impression is that it was mostly a nothingburger, a typical local politics business council for a minor industry — we are not, [for example], real estate developers or Wall Street, obviously — that the Mayor's Office Of Media And Entertainment wanted to claim as a new cool thing for job creation and such," Clark said.
Mitu Khandaker, an NYU Game Center professor who was also on the council and who was able to attend meetings, believes it proved to be a worthwhile starting point.
"Honestly I think the role the Digital Games Council played was more about bringing together the very diverse groups doing work in games across the city,” she told Aftermath. “It really felt like a big tent, with folks from education to triple-A and everything in between in the same room. Obviously that means a lot of different priorities in the same room too, but I think we were all there because we care about games and New York City.”
Ultimately, the council and decisions made by the state convinced MOME to refocus.
“Since then, we have really turned to doubling down on who is here now: indie developers,” said Jones-Harvey. “We have over 7,000 indie developers in the city. … When that tax credit was put in place [by the state], it was pretty clear that it was not designed for triple-A development. I mean, a $5 million annual credit over the course of years; one triple-A [project] could take the whole $5 million in one year pretty easily.”
"We have really turned to doubling down on who is here now: indie developers."
“What we have turned to,” she continued, “is promoting an incubator and potentially pushing for more studio incubators so that developers have the support of mentorship, funding, and marketing to really launch successfully and create the right business models for sustainable studios in the city."
The incubator, known as the NYU Game Design Future Lab, was established as part of a $1 million investment in games from MOME and the NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) last year. It offers "personalized mentorship, industry-specific workshops, investor outreach, access to new technologies, and professional networking to establish and build successful businesses in the city," according to a release from the NYCEDC. Khandaker serves as its associate director.
“I’ve had the opportunity to define the program from the ground up and to build the curriculum and priorities,” she said. “That means regular workshops, talks, and other events, alongside very hands-on support. Each company does weekly check-ins with me. I took them through a mentor-matching process, we regularly bring people in to give talks, and I help with fundraising strategy and building decks, game design feedback, and business operations – you name it, really! I’ve also been explicit with the cohort that the more intangible aspects, like founder mental health, really matter. Running a business is a huge leap, and it’s taxing in so many ways. … The companies also receive 12 months of free office space, which for some of the cohort, like Munity Games, who are building arcade machines, is particularly invaluable.”
Khandaker’s goal is to establish a program that lies tandem to NYC’s curves and many, many edges.
“When I think about the name of ‘Game Design Future Lab,’ it’s not only about innovating in games as a creative form, but also about what it means to be in the games business, especially in 2026,” said Khandaker. “And especially here in New York City, there is space to build sustainable studios that do not all look like venture-backed Silicon Valley startups. A big part of my mandate coming into this role was to challenge the idea that venture capital is the default or even the right model for most game companies. For many teams, it simply is not. Having been through this journey myself with [now-defunct indie studio] Glow Up Games, it’s one I know well, and I’m glad to be able to bring that experience to the cohort, alongside the strength of the mentor networks we have here in NYC.”
The initial Future Lab cohort is made up of six companies, ranging from CYBRLICH Studios, which is working on very cool-looking hand-animated shooter CYBRLICH And The Death Cult Of Labor, to Sapient Technology, a company that’s developing “scalable GenAI tools integrated within Unreal Engine to streamline game development workflows.” For better or worse, AI is the buzziest term of our times, and like a horde of booze-addled Brooklynites lining up outside a trusty pizza place after a night of partying, everybody wants a piece of that pie – even the city of New York.
"I do think that we can facilitate thought leadership around how the industry is going to shift with AI and what the new opportunities are,” Jones-Harvey said. “So if you've been doing things one way all of this time, and now you have this tool that's going to make it much easier for you to do that thing, then you can start to do something else. ... I don't think that we'll be able to stop the use of AI in the early part of the coding and design process. I think that train has left the station. And now what you're seeing is, it's much harder to get an entry level position. There's a lot of supervisory positions because correcting what the AI has done is more of the task now than initiating the process."
Jones-Harvey went on to contend that supporting Sapient could put NYC-based studios in proximity to a product that might exponentially speed up a projects’ liftoff sequences: "Maybe the five-year conversation becomes two, or the two-year conversation becomes one, and we start to see the development of games accelerate, which I think would be welcomed by the industry — and even by triple-A studios eventually, because they spend so much money and time in the development process."
But while many video game industry execs have pushed AI for this exact reason, it remains supremely unpopular with those who buy and play video games, and rank-and-file employees at major studios find themselves cleaning up its messes just as often as they’re able to accept its bizarrely-rendered helping hand.
"The theory is that the AI will get more and more proficient at doing that task [that it’s currently messing up],” said Jones-Harvey when pressed on AI’s tendency to hallucinate and complicate developers’ workloads. “And so over time, it's learning and these corrections are happening; the corrections will eventually disappear, and so it'll be less of a bottleneck. The bottleneck will be reduced over time."
For now, though, that remains a theory.
Khandaker believes that Sapient is relatively benevolent, as far as these things go.
"The concern that exists that generative AI tools could displace developers is a real one, and I don’t dismiss it at all,” she said. “But I truly maintain that tools don’t make layoffs happen, bad leadership does. I think that all too often AI — or whatever the latest hype is — gets used as cover for short-term cost cutting decisions that ultimately make studios less sustainable.”
"The concern that exists that generative AI tools could displace developers is a real one, and I don’t dismiss it at all."
Tools developed by companies like Sapient, she hopes, will allow studios to use time and manpower more efficiently.
“The real question is not how quickly you can replace people, but how long you can keep building without running out of money or burning out your team,” she said, citing her own experience at Glow Up. “I think that if used responsibly, certain GenAI tools can reduce costs of iterating quickly, and actually support devs rather than hinder them. … Sapient AI for me falls in this category, because they are not positioning themselves as a replacement for developers, but their focus is on helping teams cut down the time and cost of iteration and prototyping, rather than removing people from the process.”
“Game Design Future Labs isn’t at all about a future where GenAI displaces developers,” she added. “It’s about grappling with the reality of the games space in 2026, both in terms of business, design and workflows, and supporting companies that are responding to these questions and building tools that, under thoughtful leadership, can help studios remain independent, take creative risks, and stay alive in an industry that already puts enormous pressure on its workers.”
That’s also not all to say that the city is wholly disinterested in triple-A studios. For now, though, it’s working within a specific set of means and strategizing accordingly.
"I remember when the Dots team was formed here in the city, and eventually they went on to great success and [made] a grand exit where they were acquired,” said Jones-Harvey. “What they talked about is, triple-A [companies] are really buying teams; they're looking to hire a team that has some demonstrated track record. So I think the more we can facilitate those teams coming together — whether it's 'Oh, we need space to develop in' [or what have you]’ — those are some of the strategic ways that we as a city can continue to support growing the industry."
Empire State Of The Industry
While it’s natural to express skepticism at the prospect of yet another arm of the government embracing AI — if only to a limited extent, in this case — developers and others in the local games scene say they’ve benefited from MOME’s growing involvement, on the whole.
Designer Cat Small, executive director of the Game Devs Of Color Expo that, though founded in 2016, is now one of the events under MOME’s new Summer Of Games umbrella, is extremely grateful for the city’s monetary support.
“[MOME has] partnered with us to deliver a grant to an NYC-based game dev of color every year for the past several years,” she told Aftermath. “We're grateful to have a partnership that results in someone receiving actual funding. This past year, MOME provided funding for our NYC watch party [of the expo] as well, and they gave us an award of recognition for reaching our tenth year of running the event. They've been one of the more predictable partners we've worked with.”
Small also shared with Aftermath a list of grant recipients and how much they were given. In 2025, Game Devs Of Color and MOME split $14,000 between Chris James of Dusk Sharp and Sri Kankanahalli of Zenovia Interactive. (In 2024, Game Devs Of Color did not host an in-person event.) In 2023, Daniel Lowe of Parkour Legends was awarded a grant of $15,000. In 2022, Geneva Heyward received $15,000 to develop Skate & Date.
Harold Goldberg, a longtime journalist and author who heads up the New York Video Game Critics Circle, has collaborated with MOME for years on educational programs and also spotlighted its initiatives during the Critics Circle’s annual New York Game Awards.
“I had the pleasure of connecting with [Jones-Harvey] through some of the key educational games industry events in New York, and she’s been a vocal supporter of our non-profit offerings, like our Playing with Purpose writing program for schools and shelters across NYC,” he told Aftermath, noting that funding from the city helps his organization offer internships to underserved youth. “Alongside Playing with Purpose, the game development courses at higher education institutions such as NYU Game Center, CCNY [City College of New York], NYFA, and MOME’s efforts with its NYC Summer of Games Festival last year, there are more opportunities than ever before to showcase games from independent developers.”
Sam Eng, creator of Skate Story, which is about being a demon made of glass who rides a skateboard through hell and also New York, was a beneficiary of MOME’s “Made In NYC” marketing credit. It all began, he said, when MOME reached out to him, as opposed to vice versa, back in 2022 for an event. Attendance was sparse, but he stayed in touch with Jones-Harvey, who ended up loving his work. Following years of ups, downs, and delay-inducing bumps in the road, she helped him apply for the marketing credit, which resulted in two different kinds of ads: a LinkNYC ad and a bus shelter sign.
Did these displays move the needle saleswise? Eng doesn’t think so. But for a game like Skate Story, in which even the subway is a (literally) living, breathing character, they still proved invaluable.
"I think they made me look really good to people who already know the game,” Eng told Aftermath. “Friends and people in the industry saw it and were like 'Holy fuck, how did you get that?' I hate to say this, but it's, like, prestige, right? ... It was a shot at something, and I think it fit the game."
Eng also helped found NYC-based indie game collective and workspace GUMBO back in 2016, and he thinks MOME ultimately wants the same things he does for the city’s multifarious games scene: growth and prosperity.
"I don't think the Mayor Office's goal was to make me rich,” he said. “I think it's more like 'Hey, let's grow the industry here.' And I think their goals were very aligned with mine. I think they saw that I was trying to raise the profile of cool indie games in New York City, and they were like 'Let's support that.'"
It would be hard to argue that MOME deserves all or even most of the credit at this point, but the efforts of a great many around the city have produced a pretty stellar crop of recent games, including the aforementioned Skate Story, as well as Baby Steps, Ball X Pit, Despelote, Consume Me, and Old Skies — all of which have been nominated for or taken home 2025 game of the year awards. Eng believes that NYC’s games scene is growing rapidly, but that as a result, it needs a whole lot more support.
"I would say it is growing at a massively exponential rate, and it is thriving in the way where there's a lot of cool people, but no one's making any money,” said Eng, who noted that he’s one of the lucky few who is making money, but that he considers himself the exception, not the rule.
just wanna shoutout MOME. they are not all talk. they sponsored ads for my 100% Made in NYC videogame
— Sam Eng (@bysameng.com) 2026-01-12T20:50:08.109Z
There are numerous pockets to NYC’s games scene, as well: the students coming out of NYU Game Center and the public (and therefore in some ways more accessible) MOME-subsidized City College of New York game design degree program, the GUMBO crew and numerous other indie collectives, the local multiplayer-inclined tinkerers who fill Wonderville in Bushwick with indie arcade cabinets, the weirdos (complimentary) at Boshi’s Place, the competitive gamers and streamers at OS NYC in Manhattan — the list goes on.
"I've been in the New York games scene since, in my opinion, before it started,” said Eng. “I don't know how to support it. It's too big. It's too sprawling. It kind of reminds me of the stories of the New York music scene back in the day when The Strokes were here."
If nothing else, Eng thinks a space in which to bring people together might help.
"I do wish the main thing the Mayor's Office [would provide] — and we've mentioned this to [Jones-Harvey] multiple times — is 'Hey, can you give us some space or an office to organize?'” he said. “Because I feel like the biggest problem in New York is the price and the community. And GUMBO, we all chip in to get this beautiful space, a community space. But it's crazy because [Jones-Harvey] would mention 'Oh, the city has so much real estate. Maybe we can run an event.' And then we'd be like 'Can you just give us a tiny fucking office?' We mentioned this in nice ways, but it just never went anywhere. And I always felt like the main thing that New York — and a lot of people — are missing is that third space."
“I don't know how to support [the NYC games scene]. It's too big. It's too sprawling. It kind of reminds me of the stories of the New York music scene back in the day when The Strokes were here."
For now, only members of the Game Design Future Lab benefit from such a space, but Jones-Harvey agrees that in-person collaboration is a must.
"The more we can facilitate teams connecting, and the more we can facilitate them being able to afford space to work together or have resources to promote their games — whether it's through a marketing credit or meetups or conversations or conferences — that's what we're looking at. … Feedback I've already gotten is that we need more incubators. How can we create incubator opportunities in other parts of the city and other colleges or in other spaces where developers can connect, meet funders, and meet companies with resources that can help?”
MOME, however, is facing the same sprawl as Eng, and with relatively little in the way of resources when you consider that NYC is inhabited by over eight million people. It serves many masters, both indie and trendy. AI and a new NYC Collegiate Esports Circuit, which just launched last month, rank as current priorities, in addition to indies. And bear in mind, the city’s goal in all of this is still to bolster its own economic fortunes — not, as Eng put it, to make developers rich. Esports generates $4 million annually in tourism-related spending, MOME said when it announced the Esports Circuit, though that information comes from its 2021 Digital Games Report as opposed to something more recent.
“All of our research shows that the industry speculation has given way to a more sustainable growth model,” said Jones-Harvey. “While the myth of esports events being comparable to the Super Bowl has been debunked, the fanbase still exists, revenue growth forecasts continue to be positive, and institutional engagement is increasing. ‘Future of the games industry’ is an overstatement, but ‘integral part of publisher IP strategy’ is still the case. As the media capital of the world, the City of NY is focused on building talent pipelines, drawing new events to increase tourism spend, and leveraging our world-class media and broadcast infrastructure to support these events.”
"I think the most urgent need is absolutely that: funding opportunities, grants, and more — anything else that makes staying in NYC and building games more affordable."
The needs of an esports circuit are very different from the needs of indie developers, which are very different from the needs of educators, event hosts, AI aficionados, and so on. But as MOME waits to hear more about Mayor Mamdani’s plans for the future, everybody can at least agree that Campaign Mamdani got to the heart of the problem: The city is too damn expensive.
“I think the most urgent need is absolutely that: funding opportunities, grants, and more — anything else that makes staying in NYC and building games more affordable,” said Khandaker. "There’s clearly more to do, especially around focused task forces on education, entrepreneurship and sustainability, city-specific tax breaks, and long-term infrastructure. I’m genuinely curious to see what the new administration, and the city’s first true gamer mayor does next — especially with his emphasis on affordability."
"It’s been covered before, but Mayor Mamdani was a big fan of games like Sim City 3000 and FIFA 2003. It’s great to have a mayor who grew up with games and recognizes the value in this art form,” said Goldberg. “Maybe it’s time for New York to blaze its own trail in giving players and developers the chance to connect via a large-scale event in the heart of Manhattan — or even at Gracie Mansion.”
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