Sorry for the little radio silence here, but I’m in the midst of packing for a big move — I’m leaving tomorrow to spend the next six months or so in London, and I’m really excited to get to know the games development community in the UK.

I really love the New York scene. There’s the forward-thinking veterans of design and academia and their brilliant students at NYU’s Game Center — I was lucky enough to get to meet some of Eric Zimmerman’s MFA students and see their projects when I guest-taught a class on how indie developers can work with the games press. I recently interviewed Eric and his fellow local colleague Naomi Clark on the relaunch of iconic Sissyfight 2000, and there’s a lot on the community, heritage and ethos of New York in games dev in Sissyfight‘s history.

And we have an incredible indie scene here thanks to our students along with superstars like Zach Gage and Andy Nealen, and to Babycastles, the DIY collective that’s focused on bringing innovative indies from around the world to handmade arcade cabinets here in the city. I had the great privilege of curating a Babycastles exhibit myself a few years back.

There are also great design conferences here, from PRACTICE (check out a little of my past PRACTICE coverage here) to visits from guest lecturers like Tim Schafer and Richard Lemarchand, and we just recently played host to Different Games, for what I hope will be the first of many years.

I’ll be back in the city in June to give a keynote at Games For Change, along with Ian Bogost, Robin Hunicke, Brenda Romero and Jesse Schell, which is fantastic company to be in.

But as much as I love it here, I’m curious about other scenes. If you work in games in the UK, please get in touch — I’d love to meet you and see what you’re working on. My usual output might be somewhat diminished until I get properly settled, so please bear with me!

One of the exciting things about such a big move is that I can really only keep what fits in one big suitcase. Quite cleansing, really! But I happen to own a plush Companion Cube, from that first official run Valve produced around the time Portal fever first hit. I can’t fit it in my suitcase, but I can’t bear to throw it away, either.

The result was me clutching the little thing, hovering anxiously between my full suitcase and an open trash bin, trying to find some other way to solve the puzzle besides to dispose of it. Felt familiar, if you get my drift. I still haven’t been able to consign it to death.