Leveling up: GridAKL drives Auckland’s gaming business ahead

Auckland Council’s innovation hub, GridAKL, places the highlight on the way forward for gaming with the return of its fashionable Indie Games Showcase.

Now an annual fixture on the town’s tech calendar, the occasion highlights how Auckland is actually game-on with regards to nurturing rising expertise and driving innovation in New Zealand’s rising gaming sector. It’s an important alternative for Aucklanders, from aspiring sport designers to seasoned professionals, even avid players, to expertise the following technology of interactive leisure and see firsthand how GridAKL helps the sector stage up. 

The Indie Game Showcase was based in 2019 by GridAKL’s Jennifer Smith and Coby Zutt, two passionate players who recognised the necessity for stronger help within the native gaming group. What started as a grassroots initiative has advanced right into a must-attend annual occasion that places native builders centre stage, connecting them with business leaders, buyers, fellow creators and players who present helpful suggestions. Strategic companions of the Showcase now embody Media Design School, Auckland University Gamers Guild and CODE.  

The Indie Game Showcase has already confirmed to be a game-changer for native builders like Sofia Kotelevskaya and Andy Burusphat of SOMETIMES LIMITED who showcased an early demo of their smash hit sport Bento Blocks. As a outcome, they gained helpful publicity and essential networking alternatives that helped broaden their business connections and switch Bento Blocks right into a success, with over 25,000 sport downloads thus far. 

SOMETIMES LIMITED are representing NZ video games in Japan this month and are at the moment engaged on a serious content material replace, plus a Switch model of their sport to be launched quickly. 

Shrikkanth Sreedharan from Astronaut Diaries, creator of the sport Denari, agrees GridAKL’s help and the Indie Game Showcase have paved the best way for Denari’s growth and success.  

“The Indie Game Showcase is a turbocharger of the Auckland sport growth group. The occasions convey the appropriate individuals into the room, from customers to builders to buyers, creating these sparks that we have to enhance our work, hyperlink with collaborators, and uncover alternatives which might be important to our progress.

Not to say the continuing essential help GridAKL offers, corresponding to gaining access to co-working areas and networking alternatives, all of which have led to us being a totally funded studio engaged on the discharge of our debut sport.” 

Read the Indie Games Showcase occasion itemizing for extra info. 

Auckland Council’s Pam Ford, General Manager of the Economic Development Office, says the gaming business represents a major alternative for financial and artistic progress. 

“The gaming sector is a high-value, fast-growing industry with immense potential. It’s incredibly exciting to see Auckland contributing to this space by nurturing emerging talent and providing pathways for innovation through GridAKL.” 

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown reinforces the significance of sustaining a powerful tech-focused financial system. 

“For Auckland to compete internationally, we need to back industries like gaming that create high-value jobs and export income,” says Mayor Brown. 

“This is a sector the place sensible concepts can flip into international merchandise, and we ought to be doing all the pieces we are able to to help that progress right here. The Indie Game Showcase is a sensible means of doing that, bringing funding, expertise and new alternatives into the town. It helps flip good concepts into actual companies and retains that expertise right here in Auckland, the place it belongs.” 

Auckland will additionally host the New Zealand Game Developers Conference (NZGDC) on the New Zealand International Convention Centre in September, for the primary time in practically a decade, with the help of Auckland Council, additional cementing its contributions to the ever-growing gaming business in Aotearoa. According to the New Zealand Game Developers Association (NZGDA), business survey outcomes of 2025 reported whole earnings of $759 million and a 29% enhance in job progress, signalling an ongoing optimistic trajectory for the sector and highlighting its significance and potential.  

GridAKL is run by Auckland Council’s Economic Development Office in Wynyard Quarter and offers startup founders with workspaces, mentoring, investor entry, and worldwide enterprise connections. Since opening in 2015, it has contributed an estimated $424 million yearly to Auckland’s GDP.