Upcoming Events
Past Events
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!
Poster Art Gallery at Night City – Opening Reception
Join us for the Opening Reception, where we’ll be showing off the winning posters from our Art call for the very first time, along with additional works from each artist. This is your chance to meet the artists, hear about their creative process, and learn what inspired their designs. This is also a perfect opportunity to connect with other local creatives and community members! There will be light refreshments to enjoy while you mingle and network — and yes, Night City’s weird Unrolled toilet paper arcade game will be there too, only playable in-house.
Featured Artists
- Ri Davenport
- Donnie Gardner
- BlueStylus
Event Info:
Saturday – November 22nd
5PM-7PM CST
@ Night City HQ
3650 West Wrightwood Avenue
RSVP REQUIRED!
Game Design Workshop with Eric Zimmerman: Finding a Balance
We’re thrilled to welcome special guest Eric Zimmerman to host this hands-on, interactive workshop! The workshop will use a simple tabletop game as the occasion to think deeply about how the same system might be balanced in different ways, how choice and chance interact in a system, and how the rules of systems can express their content.
This workshop is relevant for a wide range of designers, artists, technologists – whether you are working in games, in another creative field, or you just want to better understand how games and designed systems work. Please come prepared to participate and collaborate.
Space is limited so be sure to RSVP!
Event info
Saturday 11/8/25
7PM @ Night City
RSVP Required
Chicaghoul 2025
It’s the third annual Chicaghoul, our Halloween game jam collaboration with Indie City Games. Visit our showcase of spooky games created for the game jam. Costumes encouraged!
Special thanks to DreadXP for once again generously donating prizes for the developers.
Event info
Saturday 10/25/25
6PM – 9PM
@ Night City
Free event, suggested donation at door
RSVP Required