The Indies Workshop crew (Image: CHS)

Indies Workshop, a coworking space for video game developers, is reopening after being shut down since the pandemic in a new location in Capitol Hill on 12th Ave. It is the company’s second tour on the Hill.

“Energy levels are high,” said Christopher Floyd, founder and owner of the space now making its home in Capitol Hill’s Ballou Wright Building.

With the new location, Floyd is hoping to continue doing what has been done before – providing a space for video game developers – and more social events to bring people from the industry together.

Floyd created the workshop after seeing a need for the gaming industry in Seattle to and build community through in-person collaboration. He saw a lot of the gaming industry was located in Seattle but people weren’t connected to each other.

The majority of people utilizing the space live in the area and the atmosphere allows them to connect beyond work, Floyd says.

CHS visited Indies Workshop five years ago as the business moved to E Pike after getting its start in SoDo. Back then, rent hikes put the workshop on the move. It can be part of life for coworking organizations that tend to find new centers around the city has commercial rents and demand ebb and flow.

Work on the popular game “You Will Die Here Tonight” is part of the workshop’s productions. The cute little dogs are safe, we’re assured. (Image: CHS)

Having a specific coworking space for the gaming industry has allowed collaboration to foster. Since Floyd has been very intentional about creating a community driven environment, it has allowed people working in the space to become closer to one another, he says.

“We have a very tightly knit friendship group now, like we’re all colleagues who work together but we basically almost exclusively socialize with each other,” Floyd said. “We’re our own little group.”

As an independent artist for his entire career, Logan Fieth found a coworking space necessary for his motivation. He had previously been working from home and found he needed an in person space to improve his workflow.

“There’s a lot of serendipitous stuff that happens that you can’t predict or account for that happens in person that you can’t replicate online.” Fieth said.

There are currently many projects being developed at the Indies Workshop. Jon Williams and Fieth are working on a video game called “You will die here tonight.” Phil Fortier is working on a video game called “Cascadia Quest.” Han-Han Zhang is working with a company called Spry Fox. And Eric Zinda is working on “Perplexity,” a natural language AI experience that uses deep linguistics processing to fully understand every word you type.

“We are here of course to do our job but it’s also like we’re here to support each other and help each other out.” said Zhang, the newest member of Indies Workshop.

Indies Workshop is located at 1517 12th Ave. Learn more at indiesworkshop.com.

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