Industry Day

Join us for a panel exploring the intersection of education and gaming. The discussion will explore how game design fosters student agency, making learning more engaging, relevant and connected to their experiences.

Featuring:

	Troy Merritt I've spent my career helping people learn to use technology to make their lives better.  I spent a decade working in home automation, learning how people like to live with technology. As a director of Bitink, I have created award-winning STEM resources and co-created the web series Makers Treehouse. With Soma Lumia, I make immersive artworks that have been experienced by over 100 thousand participants in festivals across Australia. I've completed a Masters in Creative Media Technology and I'm currently a PhD Candidate, where I study the ways we can raise children's awareness about the privacy implications of Internet of Things devices. I love exploring the possibilities that technology can create for education and for art.
	Dr Kristy de Salas Dr Kristy de Salas is Producer for the local Tasmanian Games Development company – Giant Margarita, that has released entertainment games with Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Kristy also runs the Games and Creative Technologies Research Group at the University of Tasmania, and helps local business create games and apps to support and bring about behavioural change. Kristy has helped bring change to over 300 organisations, in diverse fields such as early childhood learning, stroke rehabilitation, energy conservation, and industry development.
	Daniel Edwards Daniel is a multi-award-winning STEM teacher with a proven ability to lead innovative, relevant and engaging STEM learning opportunities that inspire and transform education for all students. As a direct result of his teaching and support, Daniel's students consistently achieve nationally unprecedented success in STEM. This has seen the development of a culture where students understand that, despite the barriers they may face, STEM empowers them to achieve anything that they aspire to. Daniel's unwavering belief that all young people deserve equitable access to the best possible learning opportunities led him to establish GreenSTEM Education.
	Dr Paris Buttfield-Addison (moderator) Dr Paris Buttfield-Addison is a creative technologist, author, and entrepreneur with a PhD in Computing. He co-founded Secret Lab, creating award-winning games, and has authored over 20 bestselling tech books. Paris serves on industry boards, speaks globally, and recently co-founded Yarn Spinner and the West Coast Space Centre, advancing game development and STEAM education in Tasmania.

Looking to score funding for your next project? Screen Australia will discuss tapping into government grants and funding opportunities to bring your next game to life.

Featuring:

Amelia Laughlan Amelia is a games business specialist raised in Newcastle (Awabakal and Mindaribba lands), and currently residing in Melbourne (Naarm). Her work spans game production, marketing, product and investment management. She entered the field of games casually from 2015 while completing a history/Japanese degree and full-time from 2017 with indie adventure game studio Tin Man Games. She has since worked for Nintendo Australia, Canadian indie studio Snowman and Fortress Esports. She was a mentor for the Limit Break program and a graduate of the Joan Kirner Emerging Leaders Program. In 2022, Amelia was appointed Games Investment Manager for Screen Australia, where she helps design and execute programs to elevate Australian gamemakers.

Dakoda Barker Dakoda is an educator, writer, consultant, and game developer. As a games writer and critic, his work has been published in a range of print and online publications. Dakoda has taught game design at several universities across Queensland and Victoria and has completed a doctoral thesis researching representations of chronic health conditions in videogames. Rise, one of several games developed as part of his doctoral research, won the Freeplay Micro-Game Award in 2018. In 2020, he co-authored Games as Texts, an introductory guide to examining videogames through common textual analysis lenses. Dakoda is a former director of Represent Me, a not-for-profit that championed intersectionality in the games industry, advocated for and supported marginalised game developers, and provided a diverse slate of consulting services for game developers, ranging from large studios to solo practitioners. He brings these past experiences to his role at Screen Australia as a Games Investment Manager.

What does it take to stand out in game development? Join us for a deep dive into Stray Gods, the critically acclaimed musical RPG. We’ll hear from Meredith Hall and Liam Esler in conversation with Jason Imms, as they discuss finding your niche and creating games in unique genres.

Featuring:

	Meredith Hall Meredith Hall is a multi-award-winning business developer, marketer and producer. She is currently the Business Development and Marketing Director at Summerfall Studios, and creator of the Australia/New Zealand focused developer newsletter, Indie Dev Digest. Meredith has worked as Lead Producer at international studios Aconite & Strange Scaffold, spent three years at VicScreen funding local independent games, and was named Rising Star at the 2020 Australian Game Developer Awards.
	Liam Esler Liam Esler is a multi-award-winning game developer specialising in studio management, narrative design and production. With over 15 years experience making games, in addition to his game development experience as a producer, designer and writer, he has a storied background in numerous non-traditional roles including conference management, sales, lobbying, and entrepreneurship. This broad focus led him to co-found Summerfall Studios with David Gaider and Elie Young in 2018, where he works as Managing Director to build and support the next generation of kickass game developers. Summerfall Studios, based in Melbourne, released its multi-award winning and Grammy/BAFTA nominated first title Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical in 2023.
	Jason Imms (moderator) Jason has been working in games and enterprise software QA for, well, a long time. He took a break in the middle during which he became a games journalist, working for most of the major mastheads including GameSpot, Giant Bomb, IGN, PC PowerPlay, Hyper, and many others. He is a board member of the Freeplay Independent Games Festival, and truly passionate about helping emerging game makers find opportunities to grow into the field safely, and sustainably. He's a father of five, staunchly Tasmanian, and despite working on them for so long, still weirdly enjoys playing videogames.

Paris and Jon co-founded Secret Lab in 2008, after deciding it would be fun to make video games. Since then, they’ve worked for everyone from Apple, to CSIRO, to Google, to Marvel, to Play School. The project with the biggest impact has been Yarn Spinner, an internal tool they built when working on Night in the Woods, a game that went on to win a BAFTA and multiple IGF awards. Yarn Spinner was designed to make it easier for people to tell stories for games, and less technical people to write those stories.

In this talk, they’ll tell you how and why they built Yarn Spinner, why it’s been so successful, and give you an introduction to game development story telling with this free, open-source tool. This talk is a little bit technical, a little bit journey! Learn about this tool, built right here in Hobart, and how it powers thousands and thousands of games around the world.

Featuring:

Dr Paris Buttfield-Addison Dr Paris Buttfield-Addison is a creative technologist, author, and entrepreneur with a PhD in Computing. He co-founded Secret Lab, creating award-winning games, and has authored over 20 bestselling tech books. Paris serves on industry boards, speaks globally, and recently co-founded Yarn Spinner and the West Coast Space Centre, advancing game development and STEAM education in Tasmania.

Dr Jon Manning Dr Jon Manning is the co-founder of Yarn Spinner and of Secret Lab, a pair of independent game development studios that build Yarn Spinner, the narrative tool that powers games like Night in the Woods, Dredge, Venba, and A Short Hike. Jon is also the co-author of a number of books on Unity, Swift, and machine learning.

What makes a game funny? This panel will explore the art of comedy in video games, from writing dialogue to gameplay design, how comedy enhances the gaming experience, and what keeps players coming back for more.

Featuring:

	Josie Fletcher Josie has a degree in "weird internet stuff". With over 6 years of social media experience from multiple game titles to Full-time streaming. Her goal is world domination but she will settle for a bowl of Shin Ramyun with cheese.
	Jacob Janerka Jacob Janerka is a video game developer who made the point and click adventure game Paradigm, co-pitched the Seinfeld Adventure game and is now working as the lead with the Bone Assembly to create The Dungeon Experience. Some say he is the second fastest game developer in the world (by physical speed).
	Jason Imms (moderator) Jason has been working in games and enterprise software QA for, well, a long time. He took a break in the middle during which he became a games journalist, working for most of the major mastheads including GameSpot, Giant Bomb, IGN, PC PowerPlay, Hyper, and many others. He is a board member of the Freeplay Independent Games Festival, and truly passionate about helping emerging game makers find opportunities to grow into the field safely, and sustainably. He's a father of five, staunchly Tasmanian, and despite working on them for so long, still weirdly enjoys playing videogames.