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.

11:00am AEDT

Safety by Design as a tool to enhance user safety and brand loyalty

There is no doubt, the gaming sector is evolving at an unprecedented speed! As we hurtle towards the metaverse and web3.0, integrating online safety as part of your culture and brand ethos is critical – this session will highlight the importance of a safety by design approach, to help you to protect users, and in turn your brand reputation.

Drawing on examples and insights from industry giants, the session will walk you through ways good product management can help you succeed and how you can work with your audience to create safe and collaborative environments for all.

Speakers

Richard Meech

eSafety Commissioner

Richard Meech is the Financial Entities and Start-ups Engagement Assistant Manager for the eSafety Commissioner. Richard gained an expanse of experience managing stakeholders, risk, compliance, and regulatory contacts in the private sector over an eight-year period, receiving awards... Read More →

Katherine Sessions

eSafety Commissioner

Katherine Sessions leads on eSafety’s world leading Safety by Design initiative, working with industry to ensure users have safer experiences online. In this role, Katherine works at the frontline of emerging tech, ethics, human rights, responsible technology, inclusive and human-centred... Read More →

Monday October 3, 2022 11:00am - 11:50am AEDT
Room 110 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Brand & Marketing

12:00pm AEDT

Traps in investment & publishing agreements

With the recent introduction of the DGTO investors are clamoring to funds Australian Dev teams. In this talk we will explore some of the common funding arrangements we have seen and how to address complex tax matters that commonly arise.

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 →

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 →

Sponsors

LDB Accountants & Advisors

Monday October 3, 2022 12:00pm - 12:50pm AEDT
Room 110 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Business & Investment brought to you by Creative Victoria

2:00pm AEDT

From Good to Great: Elevating your Production

We often discuss the basics of production, and how to get yourself a role in the industry. But what do you do once you get there? These producers take you through how they levelled up their skillsets, and the techniques and lessons that helped them grow as both producers and professionals in the industry.

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 →

Meredith Hall

Summerfall studios

Meredith is a multi-award winning producer, business developer and marketer. Formerly at VicScreen funding local independent developers, she is now the Marketing Director at Summerfall studios. She is also cofounder of Accessibility Unlocked, Lead Producer at studios Aconite & Strange... Read More →

Cass Gray

PHORIA

Cass Gray is the Digital Producer for Melbourne XR studio PHORIA. Working in the industry for five years Cass has worked as a Producer and Events Manager at studios across Australia and New Zealand, including Weta Workshop, Dinosaur Polo Club and Samurai Punk. In addition to her work... Read More →

Ashley van Wyngaard

Ubisoft

Ashley van Wyngaard is a Producer at Ubisoft Sydney, working on XDefiant a unrealeased free to play fps game. Ashley is passionate about leading the growth of the team as well as the culture, ensuring a diverse and supported environment for team.

Elizabeth Blythe

Summerfall Studios

With one of the more colourful paths into the videogame industry, Elizabeth is a project delivery master who honed her career at well known companies such as NAB, IBM, and EA. She originally joined Summerfall Studios in 2018 while on sabbatical from a small consulting firm, which... Read More →

Monday October 3, 2022 2:00pm - 2:50pm AEDT
Room 110 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Production brought to you by EA

3:00pm AEDT

Queer Games: A hopeful future

A panel of game developers asks ‘how can we play with queer narratives, and can queer narratives influence how we play? How can the games industry explore queer experiences further?’ In this panel, we will discuss topics such as the progress made in recent years, the ways developers can explore queer narratives, themes and mechanics. Significant events that have influenced approaches to queergaming will serve as touchstones for the conversation.

Speakers

Xavier Ho

Monash University

Xavier Ho is an interdisciplinary creative technologist, designer and researcher at Monash University with seven years of industry experience as a visualisation specialist. He is a recipient of the inaugural CSIRO Medal for Diversity and Inclusion for his contributions in raising... Read More →

Lauren Clinnick

Lumi Interactive

Lauren is the CEO at Lumi Interactive, a game development studio working on Kinder World. She’s out as a queer game developer, with games that explicitly invite queer players into a moment of respite and connection. Her background is in marketing and PR for a diverse range of game... Read More →

Jess Zammit

Mighty Kingdom

Jess is a writer, freelance journalist, researcher and diversity advocate whose work primarily focuses on promoting inclusion, accessibility and representation in games. She is a director of not-for-profit organisation Represent Me, through which she has collected and presented research... Read More →

Luke Miller

Melbourne Queer Games Festival

The Melbourne Queer Games Festival (MQGF) is a lofi event held by a small team of volunteers who love queer games. Its mission is to inform, entertain and challenge LGBTIQ players by reflecting their lives in games.

Monday October 3, 2022 3:00pm - 4:30pm AEDT
Room 110 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Design & Narrative

10:00am AEDT

Workshop Design and Facilitation for Game Studios

Whether you have a daunting design decision to make, an organisational problem to solve, or your team just isn't singing from the same hymn sheet - finding the right way to have the right conversations with your team can feel overwhelming, and the idea of a "workshop" sounds like time you don't have.

Workshops can be powerful tools for harmonious and effective game development - but they can also be messy, "forced fun" rabbit holes. Getting the intention, design and execution just right is an art.

This talk will draw upon years of experience in creating workshops for development teams, stakeholders and external partners to suggest a system of modules for designing and facilitating the right session for your game team's needs. Covering design principles, tools and technology and facilitation techniques, this talk is all about helping you design the conversations your team needs.

Speakers

Ally McLean

League Of Geeks

Ally is a game developer specialising in practices that foster healthy, sustainable teams based in Sydney, Australia. Ally is the founder of The Working Lunch, a collection of initiatives to make the games industry a better place to work, and is the Development Manager at Mighty Kingdom.Ally... Read More →

Tuesday October 4, 2022 10:00am - 10:50am AEDT
Room 110 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Leadership & Career & Culture

11:00am AEDT

Building and Leading Inclusive Teams in a Hybrid and Evolving World

There is a global battle for the best talent, and an evolution of what it means for people to be the best talent. This session will explore lessons learned in the transition from in office to remote first during Covid, and what it takes to retain global and local talent when there are more options and opportunities available than ever before.
We’ll also dive into the many challenges of leading a team in a Hybrid world where some are in office, some are overseas, and everyone has many calls for their time and attention.

Speakers

Chris Clay

Immutable

I started my career in Technical Art before it was defined as a role where I was on the bleeding edge of using Maya to develop assets for games. I published the first character setup tutorial for Maya on the web way back in 2000. I made the transition to Game Design while working... Read More →

Tuesday October 4, 2022 11:00am - 11:50am AEDT
Room 110 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Leadership & Career & Culture

12:00pm AEDT

Building A Better Industry – Australia’s First Union For Game Workers

Game Workers Australia (GWA) is a dedicated group that has been established in Professionals Australia, the union for Australian information technology and software development workers. The establishment of GWA is a vital first step in building a better industry – one which delivers higher wages, better working conditions and greater job security for game workers. In this session, you will hear why workers are organising both here in Australia and internationally, how GWA grew from a volunteer group into a union and how GWA will help to create a stronger, more inclusive and sustainable industry.

Speakers

Tim Colwill

Game Workers Australia

Tim Colwill is a former game developer and game journalist, who now works as an official in Australia’s mighty trade union movement. He is one of the founding members of Game Workers Australia and is currently elected co-convenor of the community.

Jill McCabe

Professionals Australia

Jill McCabe is the CEO of Professionals Australia – a union representing the industrial and professional needs of over 20,000 professional employees across Australia, including game workers. With a background in industrial relations and health and safety, Jill has extensive leadership... Read More →

Tuesday October 4, 2022 12:00pm - 12:50pm AEDT
Room 110 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Leadership & Career & Culture

2:00pm AEDT

It's Not About The Plugins: Building a game career in 2022

There is an irony that building a career in the game industry is much like starting the grand quest storyline of many games. There is often little guidance, the end goal is nebulous and it is hard to tell who might aid and who might prey on you. But like many games, success is often less about the tools you have stuffed in your pack and more about the knowledge and skills to get the best of those tools.

Ambition is a tool, wield it poorly and it is likely to cause more harm than good. There are far more aspects to growing and maintaining a successful career than simply getting a job. Recognizing and optimising potential opportunities is far more valuable to your future than an endless supply of plugins, instruments and toys which can distract us from what we should be focussing on.

This session will explore, explain and encourage attendees to use their ambition to focus their careers on longevity rather than getting lost on the side quests. This session will focus on building a career in game audio, but much of the advice will be applicable across all disciplines.

Speakers

Stephan Schutze

Sound Librarian

Stephan Schutze has worked in game audio production for over 20 years on nearly every available platform in that period. He wrote the first book on audio production for VR and AR and has presented conference sessions on a broad range of subjects around the world.Stephan has always... Read More →

Tuesday October 4, 2022 2:00pm - 2:50pm AEDT
Room 110 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Leadership & Career & Culture

3:00pm AEDT

Why the Why Matters

Decision making is hard, even though it’s something we experience every day. Often criticised, and rarely understood, a strong idea, when told poorly will struggle to gain traction. This talk dives into building strong justification for your ideas, using data to back up your assumptions, and building an overall narrative around your decisions. Mastering the Why will allow you to build strong visions for your games, and even greater buy in from your teams.

Speakers

Harry Rex

Immutable

Harry Rex is a Producer based in Sydney who cut his teeth working on mobile games, now thrust into the world of developing blockchain games, leading the mobile development team on Gods Unchained.

Chris Clay

Immutable

Tuesday October 4, 2022 3:00pm - 3:50pm AEDT
Room 110 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Leadership & Career & Culture

4:00pm AEDT

Don't quit your day job: How to survive making games on the side

Making games is hard. Making a career in games is harder. This talk proposes an alternative approach: not making a career in games at all. If games are art, then it stands to reason that game developers are artists, and most artists support their art through other means. Why do we think games would be any different? Drawing from extensive research with Australian developers, as well as his own experience developing and releasing Brendan Keogh's Putting Challenge, Brendan Keogh argues that rush to turn game development into a day job can sometimes hinder, rather than enhance your ambition. He will outline the arguments for and against keeping game development as your side gig, and outline the benefits and challenges of doing so.

Speakers

Brendan Keogh

Queensland University of Technology

Brendan Keogh is a part-time game developer and a full-time academic from Brisbane, Australia who has been active in the Australian game development community for over a decade. He is the author of Killing is Harmless: A Critical Reading of Spec-Ops The Line, A Play of Bodies, and... Read More →

Tuesday October 4, 2022 4:00pm - 4:50pm AEDT
Room 110 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Leadership & Career & Culture

10:00am AEDT

Growing Your Team Without Sacrificing It: Intentional Team Design

Growth is a difficult tightrope. Working out what your team should look like WHILE you’re growing? Virtually impossible.

How do you decide when to hire? What to hire for? How to hire? What should you prioritise?

Most importantly, how do you support all of your people, current and new, as you expand?

In this talk, we will discuss the question: Are we designing our teams as carefully as we’re designing our games?

You will leave this talk with a renewed understanding of how business strategy, game development and hiring intersect and how to balance risk, effort, and results.

Speakers

Liam Esler

Summerfall Studios

Liam is an experienced games entrepreneur, writer, and producer from Melbourne, Australia. He has worked as a producer and writer with some of the biggest brands in gaming, including Beamdog, Obsidian Entertainment, PikPok, Surprise Attack Games, and many others. In addition to game... Read More →

Wednesday October 5, 2022 10:00am - 10:50am AEDT
Room 110 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Leadership & Career & Culture

11:00am AEDT

Slacking Off: Running a remote international, asynchronous studio

Studio Drydock is a 3 year old studio that has developed and shipped their first game: Wylde Flowers for Nintendo Switch, Steam and Apple Arcade. The game was developed by a fully remote, international, asynchronous team of 25, including people working from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA and Costa Rica.

As the beginning of this work predates the rise of COVID, we needed to develop our own procedures, practices and culture to operate effectively.

This talk will cover some of the advantages and challenges to this structure and outline the solutions that have helped it to be successful.

Speakers

Amanda Schofield

Studio Drydock

Amanda is the managing director at Studio Drydock and creative director on their recent release Wylde Flowers. Amanda has worked in the games industry as an Engineer, Creative Director, Game GM and Senior Producer for Australian games studios EA Firemonkeys and IronMonkey. Her most... Read More →

Wednesday October 5, 2022 11:00am - 11:50am AEDT
Room 110 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Leadership & Career & Culture

12:00pm AEDT

Nintendo Switch – An Introduction for Developers & Publishers

Get a basic understanding about Nintendo Switch, its capabilities and tools to create and release games for the platform.

Speakers

Christopher Heck

Nintendo

Chris has been in the games industry since 2001. He worked for Konami in various positions on brands such as Castlevania, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Metal Gear Solid. He joined Nintendo in 2013 to support publishers and developers with bringing their content to Nintendo’s platforms.

Ulysse Richert-Botté

Nintendo

Ulysse has been working in the Developer Relations and Support department of Nintendo of Europe for almost ten years. From Junior to now Manager, he has been providing all kinds of technical support to developers bringing their titles to Nintendo Switch.

Wednesday October 5, 2022 12:00pm - 12:50pm AEDT
Room 110 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Engineering & Technical brought to you by Sledgehammer Games

2:00pm AEDT

Diversity Isn’t Enough: Crafting a Psychologically Safe Environment

There are many reasons having a diverse staff can help your studio to be more effective in making great games, but merely bringing a mix of people to the table won't guarantee you'll reap the benefits. If someone isn't comfortable sharing their criticisms, concerns and mistakes, they'll disengage and hold back, you won't get their best, and you run the risk of groupthink.

This talk will introduce the concept of psychological safety as one of the key things that can make the difference between polite conflict-avoidance and an engaging, inclusive, rich environment bursting with passionate creativity. A large body of research tells us how we might create an environment where people are able to take their mask off and bring their whole selves to work, including their experience, ideas and creativity. This talk will teach you how to cultivate this environment for your own studio.

Speakers

Dominic Gurto

Wargaming Sydney

Dominic has been working professionally in the games industry for over a decade, most of which has been spent leading teams. He is currently the Development Manager and Director of Engineering of Wargaming Sydney's Games Unit, where he leads a large co-development effort on a new... Read More →

Wednesday October 5, 2022 2:00pm - 2:50pm AEDT
Room 110 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Leadership & Career & Culture

3:00pm AEDT

The Meta-Game of Leadership

A lot of valuable leadership advice exists. Like power-ups, these tools help as soon as we use them, but they have the biggest strategic impact if we understand the leadership meta-game.
When we boil it down, our ability to lead hinges on our credibility in the eye of the team. Do they trust that we are the right person to chart the course towards our ambitious goals?
In this talk, we dive into a framework to understand and analyse our credibility, find areas where we can improve, and make the best use of our management tools and tactics.

Speakers

Emilie Poissenot

Mighty Kingdom

Emilie is a Senior Product Manager at Mighty Kingdom, recently joining the team to contribute to all their amazing projects. Her career spans 14+ years, 3 continents, a few shades of blue and a wide variety of games. Before Mighty Kingdom, she led the design team at League of Geeks... Read More →

Wednesday October 5, 2022 3:00pm - 3:50pm AEDT
Room 110 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Victoria 3006

Leadership & Career & Culture