Katrina Irawati Graham talks about the power of bystanders to create grassroots cultural change and shift the discussions around gendered violence in the games industry.
Scrum is a team-oriented framework that relies heavily on building team synergies, trust, and communication.
This presentation is a deep dive into the Scrum Rituals - why they are done, what the team needs to get out of them, and some best practice techniques to help do them well in the games environment.
Making games is hard! Making games with multiple teams spread across the world is... also hard.
Now try making games with large teams spread across the world AND fostering harmonious working relationships to make your products and your people sing.
Working as Product Manager and Development Manager in WG Sydney on co-development of a new AAA title, Ally & Stefano have learned a lot about what works (and what doesn't work) to create a happy and humming production environment.
In this session, they will share their top findings on planning methodologies, agreements and continuous team improvement to help game developers plan for the bigger picture.
Have you ever wondered what a producer does? What about human resources, recruitment, or operations? Some days I do too, and I am a producer.
Studio support roles are incredibly varied, and sometimes it can be hard to keep up. Join me to find out more about what we do and how we do it. You’ll leave with some new tips and tricks for multitasking in your work (and life).
Talk: Don’t Get Shipwrecked - Production for Small Indies
Speaker: Matthew Dyet
There is a common misconception among many small independent studios that they simply are not big enough to require any sort of project management on their games. After all, why would you ever need project management when you only have a handful of people working on your small project? But this sort of thinking is a trap that result in overworked teams and the never-shipping game.
Whether you are a team of 10 working with a government grant or a solo indie creating your passion project, having a plan and a process is going to be an essential tool in ensuring you don’t overwork yourself and actually deliver a product at any point in the foreseeable future. But don’t go rushing out for that Agile certification just yet!
In this talk, Matthew Dyet will lay out the strategies and techniques that you can make use of in your small teams to implement some production process and maintain control of your projects, all without needing to go and hire somebody else to do it for you. It doesn’t need to be over-complicated!
Game Connect Asia Pacific 2019: Lighting The Way
Game Connect Asia Pacific is Australia's premier games development conference and a part of Melbourne International Games Week.
Situated in Melbourne, Australia during October, GCAP is world-renowned for its talks, collaboration, expression, networking and inclusive environment.
Video courtesy of GCAP and the Game Developers' Association of Australia.
Talk: Zen and the Art of Team Maintenance: A Producers Guide to Getting Sh!t Done
Speaker: Amy Dallas
As Producers, our jobs often revolve around expectations, whether it's setting them, managing them, or meeting them. That all sounds straightforward, until you start to factor in how the individual members of your team may respond to those expectations. Some people are going to be great at meeting deadlines on their own, while others may require more hand-holding and accountability.
Some will have no problem setting effective boundaries, while others might take on too much and burn out. Some are going to be happy carry out an assignment as requested, while others may need to understand the reasoning behind the request before they can truly engage. And, of course, some need to do things their way, or not at all.
In other words, there is no ""one-size-fits-all"" solution to ensure that the people on your team are meeting deadlines, doing great work and achieving project goals as well as their own. Which means, sometimes, we as Producers have to get a little creative, when it comes to getting sh!t done.
In this session, Amy will talk about how to apply Gretchen Rubin’s “Four Tendencies” framework to working with teams. Through it, you’ll better understand how your individual team members could respond to internal and external expectations, as well as some strategies to improve their efficiency and overall happiness, while reducing stress and burnout.
Game Connect Asia Pacific 2019: Lighting The Way
Game Connect Asia Pacific is Australia's premier games development conference and a part of Melbourne International Games Week.
Situated in Melbourne, Australia during October, GCAP is world-renowned for its talks, collaboration, expression, networking and inclusive environment.
Video courtesy of GCAP and the Game Developers' Association of Australia.
Talk: What Unionism Adds To Your Workplace
Speakers: David Haidon & Morgan Little
Game Workers Unite presents a look at how collective bargaining builds a better workplace for everyone. Learn about the role of unions across history, how working together creates trust, improves standards, and builds a safe place for vulnerable people. Representatives from GWU Australia and from Australia’s trade union movement will answer questions on pay standards, worker co-operative ownership, and workplace health and safety issues.
Game Connect Asia Pacific 2019: Lighting The Way
Game Connect Asia Pacific is Australia's premier games development conference and a part of Melbourne International Games Week.
Situated in Melbourne, Australia during October, GCAP is world-renowned for its talks, collaboration, expression, networking and inclusive environment.
Video courtesy of GCAP and the Game Developers' Association of Australia.
Talk: I can't get no (client) satisfaction
Speakers: Jo Ann Tan & Jerry van Koppen
Whether you are AAA doing co-dev, a mid sized studio doing work for hire or an indie working with a publisher or investor, wouldn't it be nice to know exactly where you stand with your client and what you could do to maximise the chance for future work?
It can be hard when these people are busy and difficult to reach so we've developed a minimally intrusive way to measure their current perception and highlight what already going well and areas to improve upon. We will take you through our journey, looking at the research, current best practices, and lessons learned in implementing these findings in Wargaming Sydney.
Covering challenges, like cultural/personal differences, limited availability of clients and also effectively measuring trust, loyalty and advocacy to develop meaningful metrics for client satisfaction.
Game Connect Asia Pacific 2019: Lighting The Way
Game Connect Asia Pacific is Australia's premier games development conference and a part of Melbourne International Games Week.
Situated in Melbourne, Australia during October, GCAP is world-renowned for its talks, collaboration, expression, networking and inclusive environment.
Video courtesy of GCAP and the Game Developers' Association of Australia.
Talk: Thank U, Next: Embracing Change in Stormy Weather
Speaker: Ally McLean
If there's one thing that's certain in the games industry, it's that everything changes. Companies rise and fall, new technologies and business models emerge, and "the way things are done" is in a constant state of flux. What was true when many of entered the industry or started degrees is no more. This dynamic environment isn't settling any time soon, so how do we learn to embrace the chaos?
In a year of particularly turbulent change in the ANZ games industry, this talk will present advice, strategies, stories and questions from people in our community impacted by change, and those making the change, to how we make games. This talk will dig into our community definitions of game development success, and reflect on what remains meaningful in an ever-changing environment. Also, there will be Ariana Grande.
Game Connect Asia Pacific 2019: Lighting The Way
Game Connect Asia Pacific is Australia's premier games development conference and a part of Melbourne International Games Week.
Situated in Melbourne, Australia during October, GCAP is world-renowned for its talks, collaboration, expression, networking and inclusive environment.
Video courtesy of GCAP and the Game Developers' Association of Australia.
Talk: Evolving Together
Speaker: Stefano Martincigh
Collaboration is the heart of our industry and as such is worth a lot of effort. Nowadays there are a number of well proven frameworks which should help us find the way; however, in the gaming industry we often struggle to find the balance between producing the next big hit and equipping ourselves for a sustainable production. In this talk I will give a number of examples of good and bad implementations of Scrum, its evolution and Lean Kanban. I will analyse how best practices were applied, or not, and I will show the consequences of our choices.
Game Connect Asia Pacific 2019: Lighting The Way
Game Connect Asia Pacific is Australia's premier games development conference and a part of Melbourne International Games Week.
Situated in Melbourne, Australia during October, GCAP is world-renowned for its talks, collaboration, expression, networking and inclusive environment.
Video courtesy of GCAP and the Game Developers' Association of Australia.
Talk: Can I Have That in a Spreadsheet Please?
Speaker: Cherie Davidson
Collecting, tracking and communicating complex relational data is the everyday work of producers and leads in teams. “What's the status of our game? How does our workload track against our timeline? Are my team members working effectively towards a shared goal? Is another play test cycle feasible before release?” What tools and processes can we use to make the answers to critical questions like these tracked, visible, and easily digestible?
In this talk, Cherie will leverage her production experience from Media Molecule and as a Melbourne-based freelancer to propose various tried and tested methods of collating and viewing this interconnected data.
Game Connect Asia Pacific 2019: Lighting The Way
Game Connect Asia Pacific is Australia's premier games development conference and a part of Melbourne International Games Week.
Situated in Melbourne, Australia during October, GCAP is world-renowned for its talks, collaboration, expression, networking and inclusive environment.
Video courtesy of GCAP and the Game Developers' Association of Australia.
Talk: More Cards Against People Mismanagement
Speaker: Emilie Poissenot
With the right tools, leaders help a team navigate the tumultuous waters of game development and stick together until they reach their destination. You can be that guiding light!
In last year’s talk, I condensed some of my favourite people management tools into cards that help empower team members, bond with them and troubleshoot tensions. This year, I want to further
build your deck with techniques focused on communication, motivation and coaching, so you’re better equipped to lead the way for your team.
Whether you’re currently in a leadership position, aspiring to be or needing tools to better your relationship with your manager, this talk will give you practical tips to improve your team interactions as soon as you’re back in the office.
Game Connect Asia Pacific 2019: Lighting The Way
Game Connect Asia Pacific is Australia's premier games development conference and a part of Melbourne International Games Week.
Situated in Melbourne, Australia during October, GCAP is world-renowned for its talks, collaboration, expression, networking and inclusive environment.
Video courtesy of GCAP and the Game Developers' Association of Australia.
Talk: What to Expect When You’re Expecting (A Producer)
Speaker: Lisy Kane
When considering bringing on a producer or if you're in the throes of onboarding ones, what are the considerations and questions you should be asking yourself and the team to ensure they are the given the best opportunity to level up your studio?
Lead Producer from League of Geeks, Lisy Kane is going to talk through what production looks like at LoG as well as exploring what types of production roles are out there and how they can fit (or not!) for your team.
Game Connect Asia Pacific 2019: Lighting The Way
Game Connect Asia Pacific is Australia's premier games development conference and a part of Melbourne International Games Week.
Situated in Melbourne, Australia during October, GCAP is world-renowned for its talks, collaboration, expression, networking and inclusive environment.
Video courtesy of GCAP and the Game Developers' Association of Australia.
Talk: Production Process, Publishing & Platforms: A Simultaneous Release Crash Course
Speaker: Samuel McCully
Shipping games is hard, it gets harder when managing a simultaneous release across multiple different platforms. So what happens when you discover a week before launch that you're missing localisation on two platforms? Or you've announced your release date with one platform having still not passed certification?
This talk is designed to offer some best practices on how to manage different platform releases and mitigate some of the risks involved, using personal experience as to where things have been less than ideal before launch of past projects.
Game Connect Asia Pacific 2019: Lighting The Way
Game Connect Asia Pacific is Australia's premier games development conference and a part of Melbourne International Games Week.
Situated in Melbourne, Australia during October, GCAP is world-renowned for its talks, collaboration, expression, networking and inclusive environment.
Video courtesy of GCAP and the Game Developers' Association of Australia.
Talk: Ensuring the Quality of your Quality Assurance: the studio guide on getting the most out of your QA team
Speaker: Callum Harrington
Whether you’ve just started your own studio, about to launch your first game or you’re a big name company with multiple projects under your belt, there’s one thing that will never change: your game needs testing. Probably more than you thought you would. But who should be testing?
And when?
And how?
And why?
In this talk, we’ll be covering what are the best practices when it comes to hiring QA roles and what steps studios can take to better support their QA teams. Whether your considering contractors or employing a new member to your team, it’s best to have a firm understanding on the different QA roles and what preparation will be required when bringing them onto your project.
To light the way, we’ll dive into the day-to-day tasks, the month-to-month plans, and the year-to-year goals of QA, to ensure your studio can facilitate a high quality QA team.
Game Connect Asia Pacific 2019: Lighting The Way
Game Connect Asia Pacific is Australia's premier games development conference and a part of Melbourne International Games Week.
Situated in Melbourne, Australia during October, GCAP is world-renowned for its talks, collaboration, expression, networking and inclusive environment.
Video courtesy of GCAP and the Game Developers' Association of Australia.