Melbourne International Games Week is turning 10 in October with a next-level festival

MIGW 2024 is all about fostering connections – between games enthusiasts in the community, between students and the local games industry, and between the local and international games industries.

The 2024 program celebrates 10 years of MIGW and showcases Victoria’s thriving industry as a global leader in games, which is amplified by the Victorian government’s ongoing support and strategic investment in the sector.

What are the biggest events?

Flagship industry events – including Games Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP), High Score and Play Now Melbourne – offer local studios and developers an opportunity to connect with international games leaders and the community at large.

ACMI, the spiritual home of games, is once again a hub for MIGW in 2024 – with a dedicated, world premiere exhibition Honk! Untitled Goose Exhibition; an interactive commission Rotted Luck which critiques dark pattern game design; a showcase of Australia’s best new games; and lots of free opportunities to play.

Other exciting new additions to the program include the inaugural 2-day Education Symposium: Careers and Frontiers; a new exhibition Feminine Play, that celebrates femininity and subverts gendered traditions in games, plus a series of games-inspired shows presented in partnership with the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Big Games Night Out, the centrepiece of free, family-friendly events at MIGW, will transform Fed Square into a wonderland of games, music and cosplay for people of all ages to explore. To close out the week, fan favourite PAX Aus, including beloved indie showcase PAX Rising, returns bigger than ever for the ultimate celebration of all things games.

Dive into the full MIGW program

Education Symposium: Careers and Frontiers

• 3 – 4 October
• A two-day symposium for gaming education and employment

Education and careers in games will be in the spotlight at the 2-day Education Symposium: Careers and Frontiers (Thursday 3–Friday 4 October). This new addition to the program aims to build stronger connections and pathways between secondary and tertiary students, educators and the local industry. Highlights from the program include: the Great Debate: ‘Working in games is not a real job!’; an international keynote by George Osborn (UKIE) on games for social good; a hackathon for competing tertiary students; career mentoring and rapid fire sessions by leaders in industry; and a live session with a parallel conference in Denmark addressing global trends in games education.

MIGW Podcast

• 2–14 October
• MIGW’s beloved behind-the-scenes podcast returns for a second season

MIGW Podcast (Season 2, episodes uploaded between 2–14 October) is a backstage pass to the festival. This season is packed with exclusive interviews and live-captured ‘field reports’ where podcast presenter, May Jasper, takes you along for the ride to some of MIGW’s more bombastic events. Want to know what it’s like to be in the shoes of a game developer? Curious about the latest gaming trends? Want to know about pathways into games careers and what your options are? Subscribe via your podcasting app of choice or listen on GamesHub’s channels.

MIGW 2024 Steam Page Festival

• 3 – 10 October
• A showcase of Victorian made games

MIGW 2024 Steam Page Festival (Thursday 3–Thursday 10 October) is a curated digital showcase of incredible Victorian-made games; from exciting newcomers to nostalgic favourites. Featuring playable demos, sweet discounts on a huge range of titles and a vault full of recent MIGW live streams, developer talks and game presentations; this is a celebration of the Victorian games industry in all its glory.

Games for Change Asia-Pacific Festival

• 4 October
• A conference about using games as a platform for change
• ACMI

Games for Change Asia-Pacific Festival (G4C APAC) (Friday 4 October) will explore and showcase the transformative power of games to make the world a better place. Audiences will hear about games that make a difference in education, health and social change. Hosted by ACMI, the 2024 festival touches on neurodivergence, mental health, plant and wildlife education, human relationships, storytelling and the environment.

Co-programming with Melbourne Fringe Festival

• 3 – 13 October
• A co-programmed series of weird and wonderful gaming-themed events

Melbourne Fringe Festival and Melbourne International Games Week have co-programmed an exciting series of events (3–13 October), including Mafia The Game: The Show, where comedians work through a tale of murder and deception; improvised dating game show Dating Roulette; and theatre drinking game Comedy on the Rocks, featuring six short plays by comedy writers and performers. There’s also This World of Mine, an interactive digital theatre work bridging this world and the one inside your head; performed by teenagers and Rain: an interactive exhibition for young families to dive into together. Body of Knowledge prompts intergenerational conversations on bodies, sexuality and ageing; and The Book of Divergence is a high-energy choose-your-own-adventure DJ performance.

Honk! Untitled Goose Exhibition

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ACMI (@acmionline)

• September 17 until February 2025
• How a Victorian game took over the world
• ACMI

Honk! Untitled Goose Exhibition, showing now at ACMI until Feb 2025, explores the making of global-hit videogame Untitled Goose Game – Victorian developer House House’s 2019 critically acclaimed game of stealth and slapstick about a naughty goose on the loose in an unsuspecting village. This playful and quirky new exhibition gives audiences fresh insights into the game’s hilariously mischievous humour and development.

Rotted Luck

• 5 – 13 October
• A new game that takes you inside the dark patterns of slot machines
• ACMI

Specially commissioned by ACMI for MIGW, Rotted Luck (Saturday 5–Monday 13 October) is a playful new video game by Vidya Rajan and Ian MacLarty exploring the ‘dark pattern’ game design methods that some developers use to elicit compulsive and addictive behaviour in players. Communal, non-addictive and movement-based, it pokes fun at these techniques and subverts the familiar design and symbology of slot machines.

Feminine Play

• 4–18 October
• A free exhibition dedicated to feminity in games

Feminine Play (4–18 October) is a free exhibition of playable games and creative works that engage with femininity and its many interpretations. The exhibition highlights that games are not confined to boyhood culture, violence, and competition, and emphasises that femininity need not be attached to gender.

Go Live for Nature

• 4 – 13 October
• A live-streamed fundraiser for WWF

Go Live for Nature (Friday 4–Sunday 13 October) is a live-streamed fundraising campaign, hosted by WWF to raise funds and awareness for environmental conservation. By going live to protect nature, streamers from all over the globe can be part of the solution for a better living planet.

future play library.

• 4 October
• narrm ngarrgu Library and Family Services, 141 Therry St Melbourne

future play library. (Friday 4 October) is a day of play in libraries of the future now. Libraries are home to a quiet revolution connecting games and play to broader policy and urban development agendas. This event brings together librarians and gamers, people and place, designers and playmakers, families and communities to have a voice in social change for collective urban futures.

APRA AMCOS’s High Score

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Beat Magazine (@beatmagazine)

• 5 – 6 October

APRA AMCOS’s High Score (Saturday 5–Sunday 6 October) is where Australia’s game audio community gather each year to learn, network and celebrate music and sound design in video games. Curated by Tim Sheil and Amy McNickle, the program centres around the theme ‘Connection is Key’ with world-class local and international speakers including BAFTA award-winning audio director Richard Lapington (Remedy Entertainment), plus Montaigne and Yon Hall (Tripod), composers on critically acclaimed local game, Stray Gods.

Reworlding: Cardigan Commons

• 5 – 6 October
• A live-action role playing game at a village carnival
• Cardigan St, Carlton

Building on five years of experimental urban play, future play lab’s Reworlding: Cardigan Commons (Saturday 5–Sunday 6 October) is a story-driven live-action role playing game (LARP) where speculative fiction meets urban adventure at a village carnival. How do we live together in 2050? As Naarm Melbourne becomes a megacity during a global climate emergency, a weekend street party on Cardigan Street offers up competing visions for the future during this experiment in shared world building.

Games Week at the Table

• 6 October
• A Twitch-streamed event dedicated to tabletop games

Games Week at the Table (Sunday 6 October) presented by The Australian Roleplay Community is a one-day online event all about celebrating Australian creators and achievements in the world of tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs). Featuring a fantastic lineup of Actual Plays, engaging panels, and more featuring local Australian creators, there’s something for anyone whether you’re a seasoned designer or new to TTRPGs.

MIGW Launch and 10th Birthday Party

• 6 October

MIGW Launch and 10th Birthday Party (Sunday 6 October), held at Fortress Melbourne, is a ‘setting of watches’ moment for the industry to come together for a relaxed social, easing into the rest of the week’s madness. Celebrating MIGW’s 10th Birthday, attendees are encouraged to raise a glass and look forward to what the next decade might hold.

Games Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP)

• 7 – 9 October
• Australia’s premier gaming industry event
• Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

Games Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) (Monday 7–Wednesday 9 October) is the Australian games industry’s premier professional development and networking event, led by the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA). Experienced speakers from Australia and abroad will focus on workplace culture, sustainability for studios, and adapting to changing times, alongside networking activities to connect local attendees with their global counterparts and investment opportunities.

Australian Game Developers Awards (AGDAs)

• 9 October
• The Aussie gaming industry’s night of nights
• Forum Melbourne

The Australian games industry’s night of nights, the Australian Game Developers Awards (AGDAs) (Wednesday 9 October) is an opportunity to celebrate the outstanding games and individual achievements of the Australian games community. Members of the public will be able to try out nominated games at ACMI before voting for their favourite local game of the year at the AGDAs ACMI Audience Award.

Play Now Melbourne

• 10 October
• Australia’s major event for game developers to pitch their games to the market

After a knockout inaugural event last year, Australia’s pre-eminent games market, Play Now Melbourne (Thursday 10 October) returns for another round in 2024. Presented by VicScreen, Play Now Melbourne brings together local game developers, publishers, platform holders and investors, providing local creatives the unique opportunity to pitch their games to the international market. Leading global publishers attending include Devolver Digital, Raw Fury, Oculus Publishing from Meta, Team17, Massive Monster, Fellow Traveller, Akupara Games, Landfall, ASTRA Logical, UltraPlayers and PlaySide Studios.

Freeplay: Parallels

• 10 October
• Melbourne Town Hall
• The world’s longest-running independent games festival

Freeplay: Parallels (Thursday 10 October) is a one-night-only showcase of some of the most experimental, personal, and culturally significant work being made right now. Freeplay is pulling out all the stops to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Parallels, which coincides with the 20th anniversary of Freeplay – the world’s longest-running independent games festival. Parallels will be at the Melbourne Town Hall for ‘10 talks, 10 games, 10 years of Parallels’, followed by a special after-party to keep the good times rolling.

DEVCON2024

• 10 October
• The Australian tabletop game industry’s annual gathering
• Library at The Dock

DEVCON2024 (Thursday 10 October) is the annual gathering of Australian tabletop game designers, developers, artists, illustrators, and publishers. Attendees will partake in meet and greets, play testing, and attend informative presentations by industry experts.

Greening the Screen

• 10 October
• A brand new game and event promoting play in nature
• Royal Botanic Gardens

Greening the Screen is a drop-in/drop-out playful event where participants can spend time outdoors while exploring a showcase of resources that promote play in nature. The afternoon will include participatory games and activities, citizen science application demonstrations, and a chance to chat with RBGV team members and playmakers from Weird Flex Studio.

Big Games Night Out

• 10 October
• One huge night of games, music, cosplay and more
• Fed Square

Big Games Night Out is an immersive night of games, music, cosplay, and more, running from 3pm until late at Fed Square. A highlight of Melbourne International Games Week, this free, accessible, and all-ages event welcomes games fans from all walks of life. Visitors will have the chance to play and compete in a variety of games – from arcades to esports, tabletop, and roleplay. Also returning after a successful debut in 2023 is the Cosplay Runway, offering a glimpse into the local cosplay community with a catwalk of fashion, fantasy, and creativity. Enjoy live music, performances, prizes, and more at this dynamic event.

Mario King of Kart Tournament

• 11 October
• An action-packed Mario Kart competition
• Fed Square

Mario King of Kart Tournament returns for an action-packed night at Fed Square, showcasing the ultimate racing skills of 32 competitors vying for the title of King of Kart Champion.

Technically Games: Lightning Talks

• 12 October
• A technical deep dive into game development and design
• St Kilda Town Hall

Technically Games: Lightning Talks is an evening event for industry game developers to share knowledge on technical aspects of game development and design. This event will feature micro talks from passionate game industry workers at various career stages, providing opportunities to build technical knowledge and access professional development in a supportive and accessible environment.

PAX Aus

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by PAX Australia (@paxaus)

• Friday 11–Sunday 13 October
• The Melbourne edition of one of the world’s biggest gaming expos
• Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre

Pax Aus is gearing up for the ultimate celebration of gaming with major game developers already confirmed for the expo floor, the largest ever tabletop gaming area, and popular gaming talent being locked in. The jam-packed schedule features thought-provoking panels, entertainment, education, music, comedy, meet and greets, tournaments, comedy and much more.

PAX Aus Event Director, Lauren Luciani, said: “PAX Aus is proud to be part of Melbourne International Games Week and the growing Melbourne gaming scene. This year’s PAX Aus is shaping up to surpass expectations and we can’t wait to bring this show to our passionate community – we can promise you that it’s going to be a big one!”

Work in the gaming industry? These events are for you

There are also plenty of opportunities for people working in the game industry to connect and share ideas.

Taking Up Space brings women and gender-diverse game developers together, while Game Workers Group Up! will welcome Game Workers Australia members and non-members alike to learn about the union movement. Interactive Narrative Social will be the first-ever MIGW social for games writers, narrative designers and interactive storytellers.

Melbourne International Games Week runs from 3-13 October 2024. For full program details and more information visit gamesweek.melbourne

This article was made in partnership with Melbourne International Games Week.