Heard about the OMSI Mini Maker Faire?

Wired‘s Geek Dad Jonathan Liu advised parents last year, “it’s definitely worth your while to take your kids — you’re sure to find some excellent activities, and I guarantee you’ll find at least one thing (most likely many more) that will amaze you.”

At OMSI 2102, the Portland Indie Game Squad provided some of those tasty treats.  When kids let them, even adults tinkered with a bevy of locally made game projects.

They could make an “exquisite corpse” of pixel art on Yono (above), create space ships using the touchscreen iOS app MakeSpaceShip and make your own trading card game (below).  The way kids threw themselves into making new things is always inspiring, and we’re happy to say kids gifted us some of their cards.

The faire was also Pixel Arts Game Education’s first outing where we announced our new non-profit. We met great kids and adults; some even became volunteers for our Youth Game Camp this past July.

We took great inspiration from the faire, and it’s still driving our work and imagination. We had the chance to hang out with Dorkbot and played with 3D printers; we saw trebuchets, etched circuits and made new friendships. Of course, lots of community members came by to share in the fun, and we got to see kids come back again to the exhibit and play more.

In all, OMSI mini maker faire is great for parents and kids, and it is just as great for our communities to meet each other and create inspired works together.  With OMSI support and generosity, Portland’s vibrant indie game community has amazing venue to meet and reach many communities.  We’re excited to do it again this year with a greater selection of neat game projects.  We hope to meet you there, so stop by the PEPCO building for our installation at the 2013 OMSI Mini Maker Faire.