Tūhura Tech

04/05/2026

Less than a week to go until our free, all-day game design workshop (for ages 10-18) at NZ Games Festival ✨

The workshop will run from 10am-4pm on May 10, at the Michael Fowler Centre. We still have space in both our beginner and advanced sessions, but we can only take a maximum of 30 participants in each - so, sign up now if this sounds like your jam!

🌟 Sign up for Game Design using Godot (beginner workshop): https://sessions.tuhuratech.org.nz/signup?session=019d46a6-a70a-7ef3-83d1-8113b677162a

🌟 Sign up for Game Design using Godot (advanced workshop): https://sessions.tuhuratech.org.nz/signup?session=019d46ac-bbb2-7522-ad89-30329a13af99

Note: The advanced stream is best suited for kids and teens who already have some experience programming and making games.

01/05/2026

Reminder that we'll be running free Godot game workshops on May 10 for NZ Games Festival this year!

✨ Sign ups are on the Play by Play website: https://nzgamesfest.com/level-up-workshops/

23/04/2026

With term 2 officially underway, we're excited to say that sessions are officially about to start up again!

We're all back on from the 28th (cheeky reminder that Monday 27th is a public holiday). And! We still have some spaces left in our shiny new sessions at the Te Matapihi makerspace on Mondays and Fridays.

So, if you want to sign up, there's still time!

💫 Sign up for sessions: https://tuhuratech.org.nz/mahi/

17/04/2026

You may have noticed we've been posting a little more than usual. Well, this is because we now have a staff member dedicated to running our communications and social media channels! 🧑‍💻🎉

We'd like to welcome our new Community Engagement Lead, Dani Yourukova

Dani is a poet, literary critic, and book reviews editor for Heritage NZ (and also the new Community Engagement Lead for Tūhura tech). They don't know anything about robots, but they're really passionate about making education accessible, and supporting others to do the stuff they’re good at. They like doomed arctic expeditions, children's picture books, and necromancy.

16/04/2026

If you're one of our subscribers, you'll already know this, but our newsletter is hot off the presses! 🎉

For the rest of our lovely followers: our newsletter is a monthly summary of what we've been up to, including feature articles (this month it's an intro to our new staff members!), and a sneak peek at our upcoming events.

So if you want to make sure you're on top of all of the cool events and opportunities we've got coming up, why not subscribe? 💫

✉ Subscribe to the Tūhura Tech newsletter: https://blog.tuhuratech.org.nz/newsletter

✉ March newsletter:
https://blog.tuhuratech.org.nz/newsletter-march-2026/

16/04/2026

We're very excited to share that one of our Lead mentors, Zelle Marcovicci, is going to be speaking at Play by Play this year!

Zelle is a Creative Media Production graduate specializing in video games and interactive technology. They teach immersive storytelling and programming at Massey University alongside her Tūhura Tech work.

(She's also hilarious, smart, insightful, and one of the best public speakers I've ever seen. Come see this.)

🥳 Introducing more of our wonderful speakers at the Play By Play conference! 💁

👉Anna Lezhikova | CyberFern, Founder
“Side Quests in Security: Keeping Your Game (and You) Safe”

Cloud storage, AI tools, Discord, npm packages – each is a potential vulnerability. Security isn't just for corporations. Simple, practical steps to protect your game, data, and sanity.

👉Jevon Wright | Stormcloak Games, Director
“Why I didn't use generative AI in my game, and you shouldn't either”

In 2026 companies are still trying to convince us generative AI needs to be in everything– it doesn’t and is actually extremely dangerous. In this talk Jevon will be drawing on her experiences, data, and research to explain why.

👉Zelle Marcovicci | Lead Mentor, Tūhura Tech
“Pay to Lose! (The Death of the Microtransaction)”

Video games are getting too comfortable asking us for cash, and lots of it, too. These games may be called "Pay to Win," but are any of us winning? Zelle takes a tour through the hilarious history of "microtransactions" in games. You'll laugh, cry and cringe at the money we burn.

Join us at the Play By Play Conference from May 8-9 at the Michael Fowler Centre!

Tickets available via link in bio. 🔗

13/04/2026

Good news! We'll be running a couple of game design workshops on March 10 at Play by Play (thanks to Games Festival, you absolute beauties 💞)

In this all-day workshop, we'll be introducing rangatahi (ages 10-18) to the Godot game engine, and helping you to put together a simple two-dimensional platforming game.

You'll learn the basics of the Godot editor, how to create a playable character, movement, and making levels. It's a taster course for game development, using all-free tools, and with plenty of resources made available.

Aimed at ages 10-18, with no previous programming/game creation knowledge needed. BYOD if possible, but limited devices will be provided by Tūhura Tech.

Sign ups are now live on the play by play website: so get in quick!

https://nzgamesfest.com/level-up-workshops/

As always, our workshops are completely free to attend, but spaces are limited. And if you want to help us keep our services free, we are always grateful for donations or support.

https://donate.tuhuratech.org.nz/

13/04/2026

The whole team got together - in person! - today for a super productive strategy meeting 🏋

On top of our regular sessions (and some new ones), we've got lots of events, workshops and special stuff coming up next term. We are soso excited to share them with you.

Thank you, as always, for supporting us to do this work.

And thank you also to Te Matapihi (Wellington Central Library) for lending us a lovely meeting space. We love you, librarians x

Ka kite anō!

08/04/2026

We're thrilled to welcome Riley to our teaching team at Tūhura tech! 🎉

Riley is a third year electronics science and computer science student at Victoria University. She tells us:

"I love the intersection between electronics and computer science, how computers work at the most basic level. I also enjoy robotics and electromechanical engineering, and designing parts 3d print for practical applications."

Welcome Riley! We're so excited to have you on board xx

05/02/2026

🎉 Announcing our Wellington after-school senior tech sessions for Term 1, 2026!

We’re excited to be running free, hands-on tech sessions across Porirua this coming term.

This is your final chance to sign up before sessions kick off from the 9th. Spaces are limited!

👉 Sign up on our website: https://tuhuratech.org

04/02/2026

🎉 Announcing our Porirua after-school tech sessions for Term 1, 2026!

We’re excited to be running free, hands-on tech sessions across Porirua this coming term.

This is your final chance to sign up before sessions kick off from the 9th. Spaces are limited!

👉 Sign up on our website: https://tuhuratech.org