You could look into joining a gaming/film/anime club at any of the local universities, as far as I know you don’t have to be a student to join (at least true for the WPI film nights, but this was long ago before COVID so YMMV, also WPI is your best bet in general because engineering schools by nature tend to have nerds, and they have a respectable game design program). Keep in mind you’ll be older than most of the group but at least you’ll be with likeminded people