We’re thrilled to announce the 2021 NYU Game Center Incubator! These games span genre and style and explore a variety of subjects that reflect our current moment ranging from climate change to learning to cook. Developers in the 2021 Incubator cohort include both undergraduate and graduate NYU Game Center alumni from both the Class of 2020 and Class of 2021.
Over the course of the next year, these Incubator developers will receive funding and mentorship to continue to polish their games and work toward individualized goals including pitching to publishers, crowd-funding, and more.
The success of the Incubator is made possible by support from many people and organizations. This year, the Bigglesworth Family Foundation will provide $25,000 in follow-on funding to at least one project whose team is composed of one or more developers from under-represented demographics. Increasing the amount of financial support we can provide developers after the Incubator has been a long-time goal of the Incubator, and we’re grateful for the Foundation’s support to make that possible.
The Game Center continues to receive substantial support from New York State Empire State Development. New York State is committed to long-term investment in the game development industry in the state. Learn more about how New York state is investing in games here.
Bird Town
by Danny Hawk, Michelle Bao
Bird Town is a comedy exploration adventure game where you play a bird named Margo, returning home to the end of her hometown’s summer festival. Each playthrough changes dramatically based on who you talk to and what you do, whether it’s getting into hijinks or talking with neighbors, going on bite sized adventures, or taking a nap.
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Crown Delights Deli
by Isiah Rosa, Lianna Pang, Mike Zhang, Isaac Wirth,
Kyra Zimmermann, Christian Douglas
Crown Delights Deli is the 2021 Alfred P. Sloan Grant recipient and is receiving additional mentorship from the 2021 Incubator program.
Crown Delights Deli is a 2D visual novel that takes place in a bodega in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. As the cashier, you are given contextual conversation choices to choose from, based on the customer who enters the store, choosing to speak in a variety of different languages and dialects.
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Damage Dealer
by Gil Lawson
Damage Dealer is a narrative simulation game set in an exploding desert. The pylons are failing, the future is rotting, and time is running out.
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Mind over Manam
by Team Coconut – Krishan Rajaratnam, Viji Rajaratnam
Walk through the dreams of a Tamil-American girl named Gayatri as she remembers how to speak. Talk to lingering spirits in a lost homeland and recover a story about a mother, a daughter, and a forgotten first language.
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Nainai’s Recipe
by Fan Fang, Mai Hou
Step into the savory experience of a grandchild continuing her family’s food tradition, learning to cook remotely, and bonding with her Chinese grandmother across distances, in this relaxing, heart-warming take on the cooking simulation genre.
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Rewilding
by Spencer Bernstein, Sammy Chuang, Parker Darren Crandell, Martin Nayeri, Rowan Wood
Rewilding is a meditative ecology game about growing a forest between long stretches of cryogenic hibernation. The story follows Syd and their mandated AI companion Geva through the centuries as they work to interface with a recovering ecosystem and foster a new normal.