Melbourne International Games Week is basically a conglomeration of international people and local people coming together to celebrate games, to have fun, and to discuss games as a culture and as an industry.

It's kinda like the GDC of the southern hemisphere, I guess.

GCAP is about a gathering of game developers from the local community, but also people who've been coming in from other countries to visit the game devs here and to talk about a lot of wonderful topics related to making video games. It has been a week of bonding, a week of meeting wonderful kind people, and it has been absolutely fantastic.

I go to a lot of events around the world. I listen to a lot of talks and the talks here were something else. They're the next level. Every single talk I went to was incredible. I had two keynotes that had me either laughing to tears or crying.

For the first time this year we had the Locomojam, which is a game jam that takes place on a train that goes from Brisbane down to Melbourne, to arrive at the very start of Games Week. 50 or so developers get together and they make games on the train. This year we've brought on board Meet to Match, which is this excellent opportunity for businesses to come together and meet with other businesses.

You've got all the big studious, but also not just that, you've got people who worked on The Stanley Parable, you've got people who've done these iconic indie games that have been cult classics. So, regardless of what it is you're in to, if you wanna work in TripleA, these people are here. If you wanna work in indie, those people are here as well.

After hours, there are always parties. There's one every night. Some of them more networking events, some of them just to have fun. There's the Australian Games Award and there's quite a few just game developers event.

This is the highlight of the Australian games industry's year. You get not just game developers, but you also get the public come in at the end for PAX. It just really reignites the fire for me as a developer to see people coming here, and see how excited they are to play games. And you're like, "Oh, yeah. That's right, this is why we do this."

There are a lot of scenes around the world that have good games, but the games that are made here, they're clearly made with heart. They're artistic endeavours, they have meaning. One thing that I really loved about Melbourne is it's visually really appealing, it's multicultural, it's like you're walking through the entire globe in terms of all the food that you could eat. I had quit coffee before coming here and I think I started again because of how good the coffee is here.

After I flew in yesterday, I did a walk around Melbourne using an App that's part of Games Week where you do a little treasure hunt and there's things to scan, and it was loads of fun for exploring Melbourne.

There's people at the top of their field who are smart enough to want to come here and then just spend a lot of time relaxing, and chatting with great people, and having excellent food.

I would definitely come back to Melbourne Games Week next year.

If I had the opportunity, I'd be here in a heartbeat.

I mean, I haven even left Melbourne yet and I'm already trying to find out how I'm gonna get back here.

The community is so warm, and welcoming, and kind. It has been an absolutely amazing experience, and I will really go home feeling like I've made many new friends.