Game Connect Asia Pacific

Two Moos is a service-based digital games studio based in Melbourne and New York. We collaborate with the world's biggest family brands to create games, apps and innovation prototypes in the education, health, and entertainment spaces. To win the work, we need to do lots of Business Development, aka BD!

In this fun and visual talk, Joey will share her story of what BD means in the kids' games space, how we win our work, write proposals, grow and maintain our client relationships, and most importantly - have fun doing it.

Neil Gaiman once said, "people get hired, because somehow they got hired." Mohammad Fahmi, formerly of Toge Productions and was the director of Coffee Talk, went through the same experience that left him with a portfolio one could call confusing, but useful to get into the world of indie game development.

In this talk, he will share about the said journey, and the reasoning behind each decision that led to where he is now.

Accounting is scary when you’re not familiar with it and knowledge of the basics is often assumed, which can make life stressful when you don’t know what you don’t know!

In this session, Fiona will go through some financial basics for newcomers to the games industry, from registering an ABN and creating a proper tax invoice to interpreting a Steam sales report.

Lots of people are studying up to be games designers, artists programmers, producers etc, but what happens if you don't get into the job /company you want? How and where could you still keep your skills honed and relevant while helping to contribute to some various aspects of change and education within Society.

This talk is for students looking into what options are there beyond the games courses when you have finished. Did you know you could work to better mining, education, cyber, space, defence, government, environment, charities, medicine? The world is continually looking for skill-sets and ideas that YOU HAVE to creating and build the next advancements in their industry.

We will be taking questions in the chat to see what would you like to know, and see some examples of people that have seen these opportunities and built on them to create various success stories.

Networking is the foundation for all future opportunities of your career yet somehow it seems that half of us have no idea what they’re doing and the other half very confidently have no idea what they’re doing.

In this session we’ll be breaking down the who, what and why’s of networking while actively and passionately destroying unhelpful networking myths along the way.

Participants should expect to walk away with a foundation of knowledge about Business Cards Strategy, Reciprocity’s Role in Relationships, Creating Memorable Interactions, Appropriate Engagement & Communication Dynamics.

Starting a studio is like walking a tightrope. To keep yourself in the air, you need to juggle a variety of responsibilities, and do it with flair.

Hear from one of Australia's most exciting young studios on the challenges of starting and sustaining an Innchanted adventure.

You've spent thousands of hours making your game and now you're finally ready to publish. But when it hits the app stores, will it top the charts or will it bomb?

In our highly competitive marketplace, great code, gameplay, and design are no guarantee of success. Turning your title into a hit takes an understanding of business fundamentals such as marketing, community, and monetization—plus a lot of testing.

Over the past nine years at Yodo1, I've had the privilege of working with hundreds of game devs to reach more than 1.5 billion mobile gamers around the world. My team and I have had to learn the business of gaming the hard way, and we'd like to share our findings with you.

We’ve distilled years of experience into one short course, the Business of Mobile Gaming (BoMG) Master Class.

From the beginning, my dream was to create a way for every talented developer out there to transform their games into profitable businesses. That's why we'll be premiering the full BoMG Master Class for free throughout the whole event, inside our Yodo1 virtual booth.

In this session, we'll be focusing on one of the main topics covered in the course: monetization. We’ll dive into the key principles of how to turn your game into a money-making business and discuss how to design a game economy for effective monetization, balance Ads and IAP in mobile game economies, and make money with games that are fully free-to-play.

Two years ago, I was writing my first game design doc on my final year project at uni. Fast forward to today and I’m working on live service event systems on ‘The Sims’ at a AAA studio. Not a bad start, but I can say that one of the hardest parts of being new to an industry and finding your feet, is that you don’t know what you don’t know. While I’m not an industry veteran yet, some things were still trial by fire, and there are some things I wish someone had told me earlier.

This talk is about all the things I’ve learned since writing that first design doc to now – including what the transition from student to professional life was like, and what I wish I had known earlier. This talk is for people interested in learning about what the next steps after uni are like, especially anybody struggling to see how they fit into an industry workplace, the steps I took to secure my internships, networking and contract negotiation basics, insight into what working at a larger studio is like, what design looks like in a practical setting, how to bring value as an individual to a studio, and general things that I found helpful as a baby game dev.

Live Chat recorded with Tim Watts MP, Member for Gellibrand, Victoria - Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications and Cyber Security

Interviewer:

Roger Clarke, MD - Koch Media Australia

MC:

Ron Curry, CEO - IGEA

Bio:

Tim has been the Federal Member for Gellibrand in Melbourne’s west since 2013.

Since being elected, Tim has been an active advocate on issues ranging from family violence, Australian aid, cyber security, refugee and asylum policy, cycling and Australia’s engagement with Asia.

Before entering Parliament, Tim worked in the Australian telecommunications and IT sectors for the better part of a decade.

Tim has a Masters of Science from the London School of Economics, a Masters of Public Policy and Management from Monash University and a Bachelor of Laws from Bond University.

Tim lives in Footscray with his wife and two children.

This panel will explore investment structures from international territories and how they have created a thriving game development ecosystem and what that could look like for Australian developers.

Bio:

Ron Curry, Moderator

Since joining IGEA in 2008, Ron has played an instrumental role in tackling the emerging issues surrounding interactive entertainment, and demonstrating the positive influence of computer and video games in the broader community particularly within the education and health sector.

Ron often appears in the media or fronting government to discuss the power of games to connect, empower, educate and inspire. Issues which he supports passionately include trade and export, funding, child safety, health, diversity and education. Ron has sate on many working groups, boards and roundtables including an Advisory Committee Member on the ALRC’s Classification Review and holds a seat on the government’s Consultative Working Group on Cyber Safety.

More recently, Ron took the lead in the merger between the GDAA and IGEA in 2020, which saw the two associations coming together, ensuring that there was a single unified voice representing the video games industry.

Prior to joining IGEA, Ron spent 15 years in the interactive entertainment business working for platform holders, publishers and distributors in areas as varied as sales, marketing, operations and general management. In this time Ron was also one of the founding Directors of IGEA, which was then IEAA.

Tim Scott

I joined the Ukie team as Head of Policy and Public Affairs in March 2017. Prior to this I spent twelve years in the UK Civil Service leading on Creative Industries and tech policy in the Cabinet Office and Department for Culture, Media and Sport where I was instrumental in the development and implementation of the UK’s Video Games Tax Relief and the NextGen skills report.

Samuel Berthiaume

Samuel Berthiaume is Project Director for the Asia-Pacific region at Montréal International. His role is to promote the Montréal business environment to foreign companies, supporting their set-up or expansion in Greater Montréal. Since joining Montréal International in 2018, Samuel has supported multiple international expansions in Montréal in the technological, video game, VFX, mining and life science sectors.

Previously, Samuel was a Project Director at Investissement Québec, the financial arm of the provincial government of Québec, in the tax incentive group, with a focus on technological and video game companies. Samuel holds a Bachelor of Arts from Laval University and a Master in Public Administration from the National School of Public Administration.

Christian Fonnesbech

Christian Fonnesbech, Head of IP Development @ Leverage + Narrative Director @ Deck 13.

Christian Fonnesbech has been working with game investors and developers for a decade. His main focus is IP & franchise building in games.

At Leverage, he consults on building IPs and Brands for games, and at Deck 13 he is Narrative Director, building a new IP from the ground up. Previously, he was Head of IP Development at Nordisk Film Games, the game investment arm of Egmont. In his earlier career, he was a game entrepreneur, producing and directing 35+ game projects for advertising, learning and entertainment.