Melbourne Travel Log

Day 3

The Goth and the Ultra-modern

In keeping with my jetlag trend, I had breakfast at dawn while reading the local papers and working on my laptop. The sunrises in Australia are beautiful.

Later, I walked 15 minutes to the conference and listened to a panel while eating an Aussie doughnut. I also went to an art-interactive installation called Faux CAVE, hosted by Adam Neykoff-Davies. Mostly, though, I just hung out on Day Three and chatted with gamers and developers, non-stop. Ian Shanahan is full of great ideas and is recovering his passion quickly, I think, after pouring himself into shipping the first episode of the Cassandra Project. I met lots of artists, designers and technologists who were full of good will and great ideas, confirming my finding that Melbourne really has major potential as a center for game development; many different energies in one place.

Later, after the last panel/speech, we moved all the chairs out of the way and started setting up for an expo of demos and games. (Half-jokingly referred to as "E3.1b.") Around this time, I almost single-handedly demolished a snack tray-being ravenous, due to missing lunch-fully conscious that I must look like a pig to nearby Fiona Maxwell, leader of the brains and muscle team behind Free Play. By the time evening rolled around, I was wiped out. After many more conversations, I headed back to the hotel for a "nap." But of course I was unconscious until 4am, so I missed the last night's activities entirely.

Conclusion

As the games/interactive branch of Next Wave, Free Play is an interesting and meaningful conference. It feels like a stripped-down GDC seen through the lens of DIY independence. I had a great time and I appreciate the invitation to contribute.

I met students, developers, modders, organizers and artists…enough to convince me that Melbourne has a thriving game dev culture. Hopefully, an IGDA chapter will be forming there soon. I saw no kangaroos, crocodiles or koala bears…just a very livable city and bunch of fascinating people expressing themselves through interactive media.