Melbourne Games Week
Filled With Freeplay, GCAP, Pax Aus, and a bunch of other little events which seek to bridge the gap between local game developers and the rest of Melbourne (as it seems to be with any festival). You can check out the full run of programs here.
It's a weird sort of program set between what local people are developing as independent studios or student groups, and the larger international entities which dip in and out of Australia with the dollar. It seems a strange beast, because of this and I don't think anyone outside of the industry can really tell what's occurring within. Some people might be excited about Armello, Framed, Hacknet or any other Australian game, but not necessarily know about the developers behind those games. I guess at the very least MIGW offers people a chance to meet those developers.
But is that it? Is MIGW making sure that we recognise successes that have occurred within our industry, or is it a way of encouraging more developments and discussions?
Going to the Freeplay Parellels event I was amazed at the game on offer there, but many of the audience were game developers or game academics who already travel in these circles and had some inkling of the games being developed. (Full list here). That didn't diminish what was being offered, especially in light of the fact that some of the games were well on their way to being published. It was more the fact that the community, while certainly bigger, didn't seem to be opening up to wider audiences. Though delving into game theory and discussing the intricacies of player agency might not be everyone's cup of tea, it would have been nice to see a bigger turnout, and with that a more definitive way of promoting Australian Games.
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| Project VeN See: https://twitter.com/projectven |
Which is another way of saying that there needs to be something more than hearing about local content from overseas news sources first, and then locally. Case in point this year both Hacknet, and Armello I only delved into after hearing about both on Polygon and Giantbomb. More shame to me, I guess for not finding out about these projects sooner. But it does seem strange that with all this local talent occurring that it's only after the fact of success that they're displayed at local game conventions, let alone talked about by people on the street. I think last year I had the opportunity to talk to Alexander Bruce about Antichamber at PAX 2014, and I was surprised that there was enough space and time to talk to him - a lot of people were lining up for the League of Legends display or waiting in line for a chance to play the (just released?) new Super Smash. Which all in all is fair enough, but it seems curious that the local talent that is prevalent, and even largely successful is only slightly noticed at these events.
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| Armello, which is a pretty great game, akin to Talisman the board game. |
It would be great to have a closer focus during these events on local talent, and production - something which has definitely picked up over the years, but needs to be nurtured even more to achieve the recognition it deserves. Part of that would be a wish to actively promote and publish works, or review works by Australian developers as an independent magazine/zine/web presence. Another would be to rely on the preexisting gaming communities that can comment and discuss on Australian developers (such as Kotaku, or Good Game). Though nothing really seems to have been produced that focuses exclusively on Australian videogames, or culture.
Well that's the dream anyway. Maybe after this week there might be more present (since from the look of things there's a large presence of Australian content this year (or perhaps I'm just more aware of it).
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