Here’s why Philly Dev Night changed its name to Philly Game Mechanics

It’s a year of rebirth for Philly’s videogame crafters: the storied meetup group and online community we came to know as Philly Dev Night has changed its name in a push to be a better reflection of itself: meet the Philly Game Mechanics.

Organizer and creator Shawn Pierre said the change is aimed at making the group — which has over 1,000 members on Meetup — a more inclusive one.

“We wanted to help people overcome any concerns about the word ‘Dev’, as our community of game makers include coders, artists, writes, musicians, modelers, producers, and everything in between,” Pierre told Technical.ly in an email. “We felt that Philly Game Mechanics makes it easier for people to not feel excluded when first looking up indie game development in Philly.”

A lot of big things are happening- we've made a plan to help Philly make better games/art/connections. Join us: https://t.co/GJzF0LG92r 👾 pic.twitter.com/5Slls2WdC1

— Philly Game Mechanics (@PhillyGameMechs) August 17, 2017

The org also launched a Patreon page that’s currently the Mechanics’ main source of income. That could change now that the group has also become a charitable project within CultureTrust Greater Philadelphia, a 501(c)(3) trust. Not only could they now reap donations but CultureTrust is assisting them on ways to obtain grant money.

What’s the money going to? Sure, supporting the bi-weekly meetups at Indy Hall, but Pierre said the group won’t stop at that.

“Hopefully this will help us offer classes and bring in teachers and speakers,” said the organizer. “We want to do what we can to help help developers in Philly be better and we also want our indie developers to get their games out there.”

The group started in 2012 with Pierre and Cipher Prime’s Will Stallwood at the helm. Stallwood stepped down earlier this year “to make way for the next generation of awesome peeps.”