About Us

About the IGDA

The International Game Developers Association is the largest nonprofit membership organization in the world for people who create games. Like most professional associations, we are supported by paid memberships, but most of the resources, events, and services that we provide are usually freely available to anyone. If you appreciate the things we do here, please support us by joining the IGDA. 😉

The IGDA is generally composed of three types of communities:

  1. Local Professional Chapters — There are dozens and dozens of local IGDA chapters around the world. Professional chapters are often the main game development community for a particular city or region. For example: IGDA Finland, IGDA Los AngelesIGDA Melbourne, IGDA Taiwan; these are all professional chapters. See all professional chapters.
  2. Local Student Chapters — Student chapters are school clubs that are officially affiliated with the IGDA. These chapters are run by students, and they are the hub of game development activity for a particular university, college, or other higher-education schools. For example: IGDA MacquarieIGDA RyukyusIGDA GBC, and many more. See all student chapters.
  3. Special Interest Groups (SIG) — In addition to local chapters, the IGDA also has non-regional communities that predominantly exist online and are organized around specific topics and subjects. For example: the Game Design SIG, the Localization SIG, the Women in Games SIG, the Writing SIG, and of course, the Student SIG! See all special interest groups.

The IGDA is almost entirely maintained by countless volunteers from around the games industry who are passionate about building better game development communities. Whether you’re from a big city bustling with game developers or if you’re from a region where the local games industry is just starting to exist, the IGDA’s mission is to support and empower every game developer in achieving fulfilling and sustainable careers. Learn more.

About the IGDA Student SIG

We do a lot of things here in the Student SIG:

  • We maintain the global student community of the IGDA on our discord server.
  • We manage the IGDA Student Chapter program, and we help students run better game development clubs in their schools.
  • We host regular online events and post resources to help students prepare for a career in the games industry.

The Student SIG is one of the most active communities in the IGDA, because game developers love helping students! We often host multiple events per week.

Student SIG Board Members

The volunteers who run the Student SIG are a mix of industry professionals and students:

  • Jessica M. Vázquez

“Office” hours are: Tuesday/Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. North Carolina time (ends at 7:30 p.m.)

We’re in search of volunteers!

Interested in volunteering? Just contact us, and we’ll give you something to work on. 💪

Contact Us