Coming Attractions
GLITCH’N’GAMES Day 2: Morning at Night City
GLITCH’N’GAMES at Night City is the beginning of the second day of this multi-day exploration of Glitch Art, video games, and playable experimental media across Logan Square, Chicago.
This free event features presentations from multiple artists and ends with a collaborative discussion game for everyone. Registration is required as there is limited capacity.
If it fills up and you’re willing to stand, reach out — we’ll try to make room. Doors open at 11AM.
🟠 11:15 AM – Allen Riley will discuss his dissertation, The Imagination Synthesizer, through a presentation exploring the history and future of video as a social medium.
🟣 12 PM – RezidualVizualz will present an in-depth demonstration of ProjectOBJ, exploring his process of creating swappable OBJs, PNG textures, customizable controls, and other experimental worldbuilding tools for the PS2.
🔴 12:45 PM – jonCates will give a flash talk centered on his new《 glitch.school 》publication, Glitch Art at the heart of Kentucky Route Zero.
🔵 1:15 PM – Discussion Game facilitated by Nick Briz and Bee Nix. Using cards and string, participants in this experimental discussion format will connect stories and ideas into a branching network of relationships.
The day continues with a 6-9pm evening gathering centered around the work, influence, and continued experimentation of programmer and digital artist, Jamie Fenton, over at Chicago Gamespace.For more information visit: www.suture.blue/glitchngames
Highlights: All ages – Street Parking – Needs Registration – In Person – Free – Limited Seating
Arts in the Dark 2026 After Party
Night City will be curating a pop-up arcade featuring games by Columbia alumni, faculty, and other Chicago artists, including past hits from the annual Indie City Games Chicaghoul game jam!
Other attractions include a haunted house, photobooth, painting battle, and live DJ.
Event info
10/24/26 | 7:00PM – 11:00PM
@ Columbia College Chicago Student Center, 754 S Wabash Ave
Free with RSVP
Past Events
Night at the Races
The Bulls and the Bears have the Dunkin’ Race. The Sox have the Buona Beef Race. Well, here at Night City we’re topping them all with…
🐎 NIGHT AT THE RACES 🐎
Join us for a night at the races, an in-person party game where tonight’s lineup is a cast of ridiculous meme, fast food, and gaming inspired racers and bets are placed with fake cash.
Can you end the night with the most fake money and be evening’s BIG WINNER? 🏆🐴
How it works
📺🏇 Ten races take place throughout the evening on a big shared screen.
📱💰 Everyone bets right from their phone using play money.
🕵️ 💬 Mingle between races, have a beverage, groom the racers, work the black market, hit up the commissioner’s office, and dig up intel on the racers… then decide what secrets you share, who you mislead, and who you keep in the dark.
Let’s Play *LIVE*
Join us for an evening of *LIVE* Let’s Plays! Our in-person lineup of featured presenters will share hot takes, epic wins, hilarious fails, and interpretive criticism as they play and commentate live on a curated selection of videogames.
Featuring
- Seb Galvez playing Betrayal at Club Low
- Kellie Lu (Filament Games – Designer & Writer) playing Outer Wilds
- Warren “Scrumbo” Hernandez playing Goosebumps – Attack of the Mutant
Open Projector!
Want to share a gaming moment you love (or love to hate…)? We’re kicking things off with an “open projector” session where you can bring your own game to play and commentate on for the live audience. Open projector signups are first-come, first-served, with signups beginning at 7PM. Five minute playthroughs with live commentary required. Must bring your own HDMI output capable device! We reserve the right to veto any NSFW or discriminatory content at our discretion.
Seated event
This will be a seated event with limited standing room. RSVP and arrive punctually to ensure you get a spot.
Chicago’s Famous Mystery Tournament – Night City Edition
We’re hosting a Night City edition of Chicago’s Famous Mystery Tournament, as made famous by the Chicago fighting game community.
Watch players square off in a curated selection of classic, offbeat, and local games they’ve potentially never seen before in… Or enter the tournament to test your mystery mettle in a friendly competition! The games will be randomly selected from our mystery pool before each bout.
🏆 The winner gets braggin’ rights and maybe a homemade mystery title belt!
Are you a developer of a competitive game for two players? Submit it for use in the tournament!
Manifest at Columbia College Chicago
A note from David:
In addition to my role at Night City, I teach game development at Columbia College Chicago.
Manifest, Columbia College Chicago’s student-driven event showcases graduating students’ work, as an annual tradition and defining ritual.
I invite you to check out our showcase of over 10 student games, which will be hosted near the south end of the festival grounds in the 916 S Wabash building.
In addition to games, this vibrant arts festival features the creativity and accomplishments of our graduating students across all majors, and promises to have something for everyone!
Event info
05/16/26 | 10AM – 4PM
Free RSVP Required
@ 916 S Wabash
Chicago, IL 60647
Chaos on Night City Isles (multi-game randomizer night)
🏝️ 🌀 🎮 Join us on a quest to save the Night City Isles by working together to beat eight video games in one evening!
But there’s a catch! The key items have been randomly shuffled throughout each game using the Archipelago multi-game randomizer!
Players making progress in one game will unlock key items in another… beating a level in Kirby can unlock a new color in MS Paint! (yes, one of the challenges is recreating an image in Paint…)
We have a fun lineup of retro favorites and quirky surprises, including some chill casual options.
Come out and help disentangle the chaos that has descended on Night City Isles! 🏝️ 🌀 🎮
Event info
05/02/26 | 4PM – 8PM
RSVP Required – first come, first served; $5 suggested donation
@ Night City
Spring Cleaning Coworking! (portfolios, CVs, resumes, etc.)
Spend the day working alongside fellow creatives, tackling those overdue tasks and breaking out of your procrastination phase!
Join us for Night City’s Co-Working Day: “Let’s Do Some Spring Cleaning!” [CV + Portfolio Edition].
Been putting off updating your portfolio? Avoiding working on your CV, resume, or cover letters? Experiencing writers block with your grant proposal, pitch, etc.?
Come spend the day working alongside fellow creatives, tackling those overdue tasks and breaking out of your procrastination phase.
This will also be a good time to get new eyes on your works for feedback and questions!
Event info
04/18/26 | 10:30AM – 2:30PM
RSVP Required – first come, first served; $5 suggested donation
@ Night City
02/27: THE WEIRD ALGORITHM: robot karaoke
A karaoke night where we replace the lyrics to any SONG with words from any TEXT!
Back by popular demand, Night City is hosting Jamie Brew and THE WEIRD ALGORITHM for another round of robot karaoke.
This live music show features songs you know and lyrics no one has ever heard. Our songwriting system, THE WEIRD ALGORITHM, matches classic karaoke tunes syllable-for-syllable with bizarre text datasets from the internet.
Request any of the 100+ songs and 50+ texts in the catalog. Sign up to sing as an individual or a group…or sit back and watch the karaoke carnage.
Past combos include:
YELP REVIEWS OF PSYCHICS to the tune of TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART
CRAIGSLIST VEHICLE ADS to the tune of TAKE ME HOME COUNTRY ROADS
NEGATIVE REVIEWS OF PROFESSORS to the tune of VAMPIRE
BERNIE SANDERS EMAIL SUBJECT LINES to the tune of DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’
Hosted by Jamie Brew, a tech entrepreneur on a mission to make karaoke harder and worse.
Questions? Ask on our Discord!
Event info
12/13/25 | 6PM – 9PM
RSVP Required – first come, first served; $5 suggested donation
@ Night City
Bloodrage Summer Fight Club 2: Too Blood Too Rage
Join us for our first resident event of 2026: Too Blood Too Rage, a special presentation of Bloodrage Summer Fight Club at Night City!
Created by maybe maybe games, Bloodrage Summer Fight Club is an in-person interactive experience where combatants play a punching bag minigame, and general attendees wager in-game money on the outcome. While a victor will emerge in our tournament of fighters, the ultimate winner is the attendee who ends up with the most in-game money, earned by clever bets and stacking the deck by paying to sabotage fighters in key moments.
Also featuring a live DJ set from JUSTAWORM to keep the vibes going between bouts!
Free event, donation at the door suggested to support the artists and future events.
Event Info:
Saturday – February 7th, 2026
6 PM-9 PM CST
@ Night City
3650 West Wrightwood Avenue
RSVP REQUIRED!
Playtest Planet 2025
Celebrate local game developers at the fourth iteration of our annual end-of-year playtesting extravaganza. Playtest Planet highlights local projects while raising money for a chosen charity.
Playtest Planet seeks to break down gatekeeping and expand our community by highlighting new (to Night City) and unfunded developers. Developers that have shown work at Night City in the past are still welcome and encouraged to submit with the understanding that space will be prioritized for new artists.
Submit your in-development game!
Submissions close Monday, December 1st at 11:59PM CST
Event info
12/13/25 | 6PM – 9PM
RSVP Required – first come, first served; $5 suggested donation
@ Night City
Artist Talk: Annabel Sun on Technical Art in the Game Industry
Join us for an Artist Talk with Annabel Sun, presented by the Columbia College Chicago School of Design and Night City!
Annabel (any pronouns) is an environment technical artist specializing in procedural generation and worldbuilding tools. A 2024 graduate of DigiPen Institute of Technology, they currently work at Disbelief on AAA outsourcing projects and create indie games in their free time.
As an early-career professional, Annabel will share insights on breaking into the game industry and what it means to be a technical artist. This discussion will explore the various hats one may wear within this role
Event Info:
Tuesday – 12/02/2025
5:30PM – 6:30PM CST
@ Columbia College Chicago School of Design
916 S Wabash Ave, Room 150
RSVP REQUIRED!