Welcome, this is a quick list of meets, conferences and links to communities of game development in Portugal, feel free to contribute. This list is a WIP, anything missing (most likely a lot) please help by adding with pull requests or new Issue.
Don't be shy, grab your game, (or not, up to you) and come meet other developers.
| Area | Frequency | Location | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lisbon | 1st Friday of each Month | O Bom O Mau e O Vilão | https://www.facebook.com/groups/gamedevmeet https://www.facebook.com/pg/aludoteca/events/ |
| Porto | Last Friday of each Month | Pólo Zero | https://www.facebook.com/NeCGM.FEUP/ |
The quickest way, go say hi and introduce yourself!
| Service | Link |
|---|---|
| https://www.facebook.com/groups/592806634072201 | |
| Discord | https://discord.gg/huMjq9F |
| GameDev Lisbon Discord | Sign up form |
| Slack | (PS: Most Slack members moved to Discord Server) |
Communities dedicated to a specific engine or thematic!
| Name | Theme | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Game Audio PT | Audio | https://www.facebook.com/groups/573464019459832/ |
| Utilizadores de Unity | Unity Engine | https://www.facebook.com/groups/unitypt/ |
| Utilizadores de Game Maker PT | Game Maker | https://www.facebook.com/groups/gamemakerpt/ |
| Unreal Engine 4 PT | Unreal Engine | https://www.facebook.com/groups/650134295088239/ |
| A Ludoteca (Jogos 1.0) | Game Dev Events | https://www.facebook.com/groups/um.ponto.zero/ |
Conferences that have game development talks or focus.
| Name | About | Location | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Dev Camp | Yearly conference fully focused on GameDev, with talks and game expo area | Lisbon | Site: https://2018.gamedevcamp.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/gamedevcamppt |
| Lisbon Games Conference | Yearly games conference, hosted by ISCTE, usually has tech talks | ISCTE (Lisbon) | https://netiscte.pt/lisbongameconference |
| IPCA GameDev Week | Yearly tech conference, usually has GameDev, Animation and VFX talks | IPCA (Barcelos) | http://www.gamedevweek.ipca.pt |
| Name | About | Location | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| SINFO | Yearly tech conference, usually has GameDev talks | Instituto Superior Técnico (Lisbon) | https://www.sinfo.org/ |
| Software Engineering Week @ UMinho | Yearly tech conference, hosted by the Software Engineering Student Group | UMinho (Braga) | https://seium.org |
| pixels.camp | Yearly tech conference and hackathon, usually has GameDev talks | Lisbon | https://pixels.camp/ |
Exhibitions that have an area for indie game developers to showcase their games.
| Name | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| IberAnime | Japanese culture Expo | https://www.iberanime.com |
| Lisboa Games Week | Yearly, focused on gaming | https://www.lisboagamesweek.pt/ |
| Comic Con Portugal | Yearly, pop culture in general, includes gaming | http://www.comic-con-portugal.com |
First time or regular, doesn't matter, pick a team and have fun making games.
| Jam Name | Frequency | Link | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ludum Dare | April, October, Yearly | https://ldjam.com/ | Online, but some devs get together |
| Global Game Jam | January, Yearly | https://globalgamejam.org/2019/jam-sites?country=PT | Local |
| Games for Good | April, Yearly | http://www.gamesforgood.pt/ | Local (Lisbon) |
| Mad Game Jam | February, Yearly | https://www.facebook.com/madgamejam/ | Local (Porto) |
| IPCA Game Jam | June, Yearly | https://www.facebook.com/ipcagamejam/ | Local (Barcelos) |
Other links that don't necessarily fit any of the previous but could still be useful!
| Name | Description | Links |
|---|---|---|
| GameDev Lisbon | From Lisbon based developers, for the game industry everywhere, connecting the portuguese gaming scene to the world. | https://gamedevlisbon.com/ |
| Associação de Produtores de Videojogos | Association looking to foster the videogame development industry in Portugal | https://www.facebook.com/APTVJ/ |
| Sociedade Portuguesa de Ciências dos Videojogos | Association looking to foster scientific discussion around videogames | http://www.spcvideojogos.org/ |
| Event organization and portuguese game industry envagelism | https://aludoteca.org/ |
Add Local Game Meets- Add more development focused events (or that usually has a GameDev component)
- (?)Add a tech section maybe with links to good resources, such as articles, forums or Youtube channels, international or otherwise
Notes
This list was born because I thought it would be nice to have a one place landing page with links and resources that can be useful for anyone working in game development in Portugal, or moving here. The idea is that anyone thinking in starting game development, join the community or simply just chat online to quickly find other developers, conferences and meets. There are several places and groups, sometimes when I mention that a Facebook group exists some people get surprised, so I thought it would be cool to have a landing page that is quick to edit and anyone can contribute with a pull request. I hope in the future we can have a list of gamedev meets listed by cities.
Why make this page in English if this is for the PT Community? No particular reason but I think it makes it easier to share with a developer visiting the country and wanting to know the community.