GCAP 2022: Ambition: Full Schedule

WELCOME TO GCAP

Games Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) is Australia’s premier professional development and networking event for the game development industry, focused on up-skilling and connecting the Australian sector via education, knowledge sharing and the provision of extended personal and business networks. GCAP caters to a range of disciplines and has grown and attracted an engaged audience and esteemed speakers from around the world.

The Focus For GCAP 2022 Is Ambition.

Australian game developers have found their voice in the world and that voice is ambitious. GCAP 2022 will challenge attendees to chase their ambitions and create world class products, experiences, studios, and businesses for an ever-expanding global games audience. GCAP 2022 will provide avenues for personal and professional ambitions to be realised and success to be achieved.

GCAP 2022 will run from Monday the 3rd of October, to Wednesday the 5th of October 2022.

10:00am AEDT

What can game developers do to help save the planet?

In this session, Dr Benjamin Abraham, author of the first book to examine the games industry's carbon footprint and other sustainability concerns, will outline the challenges facing the industry in getting to net zero. He will outline the current state of the industry, who the major players are and their goals, current best practice around reporting and offsetting, and how individual studios and developers can best align themselves with the climate science.

Speakers

Ben Abraham

Dr Benjamin Abraham has been involved in the digital games industry since founding the games blogosphere aggregator site ‘Critical Distance’ in 2009, and his games writing has been discussed by industry leaders like Clint Hocking, Antony Burch, Manveer Heir, and others. For the... Read More →

Tuesday October 4, 2022 10:00am - 10:50am AEDT
Room 103 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Business & Investment brought to you by Creative Victoria

11:00am AEDT

DGTO - application in practice

The Digital Games Tax Offset will be a boon for driving investment in Australian dev teams. We will take a deep dive into the three key areas of the legislation with a focus on how small and medium sized studios can position themselves to best access the offset, manage cashflows and enter a sustainable cycle of development.

Speakers

Luke Henry

LDB Accountants & Advisors

Luke has advised a range of tech and game studios on complex tax and business issues over nearly twenty years. His team assists over sixty studios of all different sizes from around Australia. They strive to bridge the gap between tax technical issues, industry language and the... Read More →

Amy Ellis

LDB Accountants & Advisors

Amy has advised a range of tech and game studios on complex tax and business issues over ten years. She leads a team which assists over sixty studios of all different sizes from around Australia. They strive to bridge the gap between tax technical issues, industry language and... Read More →

Sponsors

LDB Accountants & Advisors

Tuesday October 4, 2022 11:00am - 11:50am AEDT
Room 103 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Business & Investment brought to you by Creative Victoria

12:00pm AEDT

How to Raise Investment Funding for Your Games Studio

If you need to raise capital for your games studio, where do you start? Bobby Thandi from XR Games reveals the do's and don'ts of raising investment. Including what you need to get ready before investment, what to expect during the process, red and green flags regarding potential investors, the questions you need VCs to answer, and the questions VCs will be asking you.

XR Games is the studio behind hits such as Zombieland VR and Angry Birds Under Pressure VR

Speakers

Bobby Thandi

XR Games

'Bobby Thandi is the Founder and CEO of XR Games - an award-winning VR game development studio. Bobby secures contracts from key clients such as Sony Pictures, develops key relationships with global partners such as Meta, Microsoft, Valve, and others.Further, Bobby is responsible... Read More →

Tuesday October 4, 2022 12:00pm - 12:50pm AEDT
Room 103 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Business & Investment brought to you by Creative Victoria

2:00pm AEDT

Days of Future Past: A Journey Through Time to See the Future of Community

When did memes start? What is “brandjacking” and where did it come from? When was it decided that the person handling all online brand communication was for some reason “the intern?” How could knowing this possibly help us navigate the murky future of community management? Kelsey goes full Charles Xavier and tries to tackle the past, the present and the future.... AT THE SAME TIME.

Speakers

Kelsey Gamble

League of Geeks

Kelsey is a community management veteran of the industry, having spent more than a decade across Asia Pacific working on communities at Bethesda, EB Games, and now as the Head of Community on the game Gods Unchained with Sydney based studio Immutable. She has won numerous awards for... Read More →

Tuesday October 4, 2022 2:00pm - 2:50pm AEDT
Room 103 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Brand & Marketing

3:00pm AEDT

Logos for Games

A logo is a beacon for your community, an activator to unlocking funding opportunities, and where customer dedication to your game begins. Discover in this session the power of having a strong logo and how it can help define your game in the market, no matter what stage of development you're at.

Speakers

Ben Harmon

Gravy Stain Pants

Ben Harmon is a freelance graphic designer working alongside the games industry to design iconic logos, powerful brands and marketing content for games. Ben's most recent work includes designing the brand for the Melbourne-based studio Samurai Punk and a logo for their most recent... Read More →

Tuesday October 4, 2022 3:00pm - 3:50pm AEDT
Room 103 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Brand & Marketing

4:00pm AEDT

Braving TikTok: Creating Community & Running Ads

TikTok continues to rise as a key platform that should be part of your marketing strategy. The audience is very online, consuming a lot of content, leaving a lot of comments, and regularly discovering their next highly targeted trend on their For You Page.

Is TikTok worth the effort to figure out? In short, yes. It’s one of the only platforms right now where virality is a possibility. In this talk, I aim to help give you the confidence to start your TikTok account, start putting content out and share how to tackle TikTok advertising.

Speakers

Victoria Kershaw

Studio Drydock

Victoria is a passionate marketing and communications nerd living in Melbourne, Australia. She's been working with videogames for 7 years, and is currently the marketing lead at Studio Drydock, working with their cozy story game Wylde Flowers. Previously she has managed communities... Read More →

Tuesday October 4, 2022 4:00pm - 4:50pm AEDT
Room 103 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Brand & Marketing

10:00am AEDT

Getting the most out of your IP - enjoy the full fruits of your labour

You've put in the hard yards and you've got a product you're proud of. You're nervous about putting your baby out into the world - and rightfully so. So much hinges on making this project profitable, so it makes sense to do it right.

The industry talks about game IP all the time but there's barely a clue out there about how to leverage your IP for success.

In this session Briar, Senior Associate at HopgoodGanim Lawyers, will help you quantify your IP, identify the best ways to protect it, and then leverage it in your business.

Speakers

Briar Francis

HopgoodGanim Lawyers

Briar is a Senior Associate in HopgoodGanim Lawyers' Intellectual Property and Technology team.Briar has experience in both the intellectual property and information technology fields, advising on a wide range of matters from software and intellectual property contract negotiation... Read More →

Wednesday October 5, 2022 10:00am - 10:50am AEDT
Room 103 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Business & Investment brought to you by Creative Victoria

11:00am AEDT

INVESTMENT, MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS – WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN FOR OUR STUDIO?

This presentation is addressed at those studios looking to take on board investment from third parties or be acquired by third parties. The presentation will be focused on game development companies and the specific hurdles they face in completing a transaction. To do this the presenters will provide an overview of each stage of a ‘typical’ transaction.

Speakers

Cam Rogers

Cam Rogers Legal

Cam is a digital entertainment lawyer with over twelve years’ experience working in video game development and distribution. As a part of his practice Cam acts for game developers, based all over Australia, and has assisted international game publishers such as Epic and Wargaming... Read More →

Sam Cottell

Cottell & Co

Sam is a corporate lawyer with a wide range of expertise, particularly in relation to mergers & acquisitions and investment transactions. He has over 20 years of experience including many recent transactions acting for game developers who are either being bought out or are bringing... Read More →

Wednesday October 5, 2022 11:00am - 11:50am AEDT
Room 103 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Business & Investment brought to you by Creative Victoria

12:00pm AEDT

Using storytelling tools for your grant application

In narrative design, we talk a lot about conveying a meaningful story through a gaming experience. However, when you’re applying for a grant, conveying what makes your game’s story and its audience unique is just as important. This talk will explore using storytelling and narrative tools to shape your grant application, how to use these tools to narrow down your game’s core audience, and how to highlight its core selling points in the process.

Speakers

Lise Leitner

VicScreen

Lise is a games creative and writer based in Naarm/Melbourne. They’ve worked in marketing and communications for more than ten years and have worked for cultural institutions and museums in Australia and in their home country of Belgium. As a writer, they’ve contributed to game... Read More →

Wednesday October 5, 2022 12:00pm - 12:50pm AEDT
Room 103 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Business & Investment brought to you by Creative Victoria

2:00pm AEDT

Data is Art - How to Model for Visual Effects

With node based shader editors and visual effect tools now standard in many large engines, artists have the power to to take a central role in creating dynamic and impressive visuals. This talk is going to look at how images and models can contain more than just colors and shapes. By treating your assets as part of the visual effects process you can help unite your effects with your assets.

Speakers

Edward Blanch

Tin Man Games

Edward Blanch is a game developer formerly from Melbourne now hiding out on a farm in Boweya. He has been working on games for nearly 10 years and the last 6 for Tin Man Games. During that time he has worked on Mobile, Nintendo, Playstation, PC, VR and even BlackBerry games. Starting... Read More →

Wednesday October 5, 2022 2:00pm - 2:50pm AEDT
Room 103 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Art

3:00pm AEDT

Strapped for Cash, Not Style - Building a Strong Art Direction with a Tiny Team

While working on the comedic killer-robot-vacuum-cleaner title Justice Sucks, we had big ambitions to create a fresh, unique art style that would make for an eye-catching experience. With only two-full time artists.

This talk will focus on the lessons learnt along the way, more specifically what strategies were deployed to maximise a two-man team's output, both from a production and a technical standpoint. Our approach resulted in a roster of 50+ characters, hundreds of unique assets and one hell of a 90s inspired ride.

Speakers

Cyrian Guillaume

Samurai Punk

After starting his career as a 3D generalist for an architecture firm, Cyrian Guillaume worked his way to become the art director for Samurai Punk and has so far released 5 titles across multiple platforms, including: The American Dream, Feather, Screencheat: Unplugged and the upcoming... Read More →

Callum Williams

Samurai Punk

Callum is the Character Artist at Samurai Punk. He's worked on several projects for the studio, with experience ranging from the visual remastering of ScreenCheat: Unplugged, to creating the large variety of stylized characters and environment art in Justice Sucks. Callum is an artist... Read More →

Wednesday October 5, 2022 3:00pm - 3:50pm AEDT
Room 103 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Art