Over three days this October, Games for Change Asia-Pacific Festival 2022 will showcase an array of videogames and emerging technologies that are helping to create a better world through innovative applications in health, education and community services.

Founded in 2004, Games for Change (G4C) is an industry champion for social impact gaming and immersive media. The Asia Pacific arm of G4C works with ACMI to bring together the games community – from as far and wide as New Zealand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and India – to foster the development and use of games that make the world a better place.

For the first time, the Games for Change Asia-Pacific Festival (G4C Asia-Pacific Festival) will take place both in-person at ACMI and online via streaming from 4-6 October, as part of Melbourne International Games Week 2022 (1-9 October).

Melbourne International Games Week (MIGW) is the biggest games event in Asia-Pacific and a fixture on the global calendar, connecting games, technology and culture, with a broad program for industry, educators, and game enthusiasts alike.

This year, the G4C Asia-Pacific Festival will feature games and research from across the Asia-Pacific region as well as experts presenting talks, panels and workshop sessions. Speakers will include Susanna Pollack, President of G4C (Global) and Arana Shapiro, Chief Learning Officer at G4C (Global).

Each day of the festival will be broadcast via the online meeting platform Hopin and free to watch online for anyone interested. In-person events will run in ACMI's Cinema 2 and Gandel Digital Future Lab on Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 October.

To demonstrate the educational benefits of games, on Tuesday 4 October the G4C Asia-Pacific Teacher Summit - co-presented with ACMI - will offer primary and secondary teachers a full-day of programming to explore the extensive teaching and learning opportunities videogames offer and their ability to foster student classroom engagement.

Highlights from the G4C Asia-Pacific Festival program include an on-the-street session with the developers at True Crime Games sharing their augmented-reality, app-based game using the city as a canvas to retell Melbourne's dark history; and special sessions presenting the incredible virtual reality work “On the Morning You Wake (At the End of the World)”, centred around the text sent to all Hawaiians in 2018 warning them of an impending nuclear strike.

An inside look at “Biik Bilik”, a game developed by the Dandenong and District Aboriginal Cooperative and based on the Streets of My Town platform, will show how local stories and familiar settings are helping to connect First Nations people with health and wellbeing services.

The winning games from ACER’s Australian STEM Video Game Challenge will also make a guest appearance at the Teacher Summit. The winning students and their teachers will demonstrate their games and the educational benefits game development offers to enhance STEM learning for all Australian students including those who are underrepresented in the industry.

Dale Linegar, Director of Games for Change Asia-Pacific, said “The Games for Change Festival is an opportunity for everybody who is using games or interested in using games to make the world a better place to connect, be inspired, and learn from one another.  It’s the only event of its kind in our region.”

ACMI Director & CEO, Seb Chan, said: “As the natural home for Games for Change Asia-Pacific Festival, ACMI continues to unite game developers, teachers and learners to harness the power of videogames for social good. This three-day hybrid program, including the exclusive one-day Teacher Summit, showcases how videogames and emerging technologies can be used by our health, medical, civic and education sectors in new and inspiring ways.”

ACMI Head of Education, Christine Evely, said: "ACMI is delighted that the Teacher Summit will enable primary and secondary teachers to connect meaningfully with colleagues and innovative creators to consider how use of games and other evolving technologies in the classroom can contribute to a better world - by enhancing growth in important student learning outcomes across the curriculum and supporting positive wellbeing."

The Games for Change Asia-Pacific Festival is a testament to the breadth and diversity of the games industry and the progressive impact it can have on the world around us.

Games for Change Asia-Pacific Festival 2022 is proudly presented by Games for Change and ACMI as part of Melbourne International Games Week 2022, with support from sponsors NBN Co and Chaos Theory Game.

MIGW is an initiative of the Victorian Government, delivered by Creative Victoria in partnership with VicScreen, ACMI and IGEA.

Games for Change Asia-Pacific 2022

More details are available here: g4capac.org
Follow and connect via @g4capac
Tickets available via the ACMI website