December CGDA Meetup - Ben Maher

Welcome to the December 2025 Christchurch Game Developers' Meetup!

Location:
EPIC Innovation, 106 Manchester St, Christchurch 8011

The meetup will also be streamed online:
[Link to be added!]

Don't forget to check us out at:
Website: chch.gamedev.co.nz
Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/chchgamedev.bsky.social
Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/christchurch-game-developers-new-zealand
Discord: discord.gg/68YqqFZ
If you like our meetups, consider supporting us on Patreon:
patreon.com/CHCHGameDev
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Speaker - Ben Maher
Ben Maher is a Game Designer here at CerebralFix and his talk will share his experiences and insights from over a decade working in games: "We often build an image of people in our heads based on their job descriptor or labels like "creative."

6:15 PM - KICK OFF
Welcome to the Christchurch Game Developers Meetup, with news from around New Zealand!

6:30 PM - Puzzles, Puzzles, Everywhere
Puzzles have been around for thousands of years, but what makes a puzzle good? In Puzzles, Puzzles, Everywhere, we'll go through the key parts of puzzle design, take a look at some examples of good/bad puzzles, and examine where modern puzzle games are taking the genre.

7:20 PM - PIZZA
Enjoy some refreshments (AKA pizza) and catch up with/meet other game dev enthusiasts.

Event Photography Notice: The CGDA occasionally takes photos and/or videos at our events for promotional purposes. If you would prefer not to have your image recorded for marketing purposes, please make your wishes known to the photographer, and/or reach out to a committee member, and we will accommodate your request. Thank you!
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Massive thanks to all our supporters for making our meetups possible!
Our Corporate Supporters:
Yoobee College of Creative Innovation - a tertiary institute committed to developing creative and technical talent across New Zealand.
https://www.yoobee.ac.nz/courses/

HIT Lab NZ - a multidisciplinary, Human-Centred Research environment that collaborates with industry.
https://www.hitlabnz.org/

CerebralFix - a Christchurch-based game development studio specializing in work for hire from some amazing companies.
https://cerebralfix.com/

Screen Canterbury NZ - a Canterbury-based film office helping creatives get their projects delivered to the screens of their choice, providing fantastic resource-sharing & advocacy for our screen production industry.
https://www.christchurchnz.com/screen-canterburynz

And our awesome Patreon Supporters:
Matt Barton
Leith Caldwell
Samantha Cook
Nik Scarr
Carl de Visser
Alexander Swords