2024 Archive Program | Festival Exhibition News | Screen Queensland Awards
This is an archive of the 2024 Queensland Games Festival website. Our current website can be found at QueenslandGamesFestival.com
The Queensland Games Festival returns to the Brisbane Powerhouse for its 11th year!
The festival is a community celebration of Queensland made games – digital and analogue – and a chance to discover the rich creativity of our local game-making industry. With some of the world’s most played games coming out of Brisbane and Southeast Queensland, the local game-making industry is an important part of our community. This one-day event will allow you to get involved with hands-on workshops, play locally made games, chat with developers, and discover more about the folks who are leading this important local creative industry.
The Queensland Games Festival is proudly supported by the Queensland Government through Screen Queensland.
We have a wonderful range of locally made games this year, both digital and analogue. You can find over 30 games on the Turbine Platform, the lobby area around the lift and beside the platform, and in the Mosquito Foyer. Jump to the exhibition news section for some sneak previews of who is bringing their games to the exhibition!
We advise registering for workshops in the Graffiti Room as space is limited (links in the related drop downs below). The Emerging Developers Room is an open ‘drop-in’ event although there may be some waiting – that can be spent playing exhibited games!
Photo Gallery
2024 Program
Queensland Games Exhibition ( 10.00am – 4.30pm )
On the Turbine Platform and Mosquito Foyer
The Queensland Games Festival exhibition presents locally made games – all presented by their creators and studios. From VR to table-top, PC and console, and mobile. Come and play and meet the developers. The exhibition is free public entry and open all day from 10.00am – 4.30pm. Get to know the people who make the games as they share their stories, ideas and ambitions and chat about the process of game development.
A Game Dev Hot Seat will be running on-stage throughout the day presented by local 4ZZZ radio show Zed Games.
Emerging Developers Room ( 11.00am – 1.00pm | 2.00pm – 4.00pm )
In the Park Mezzanine Room
Are you an emerging developer, game design student, or solo dev who would love to chat with an industry mentor? Do you have a portfolio or resume, but you have no idea whether it would get you work in the industry? Come along to the Emerging Developer Room to meet some of our local experienced game developers, receive answers to your questions, and chat with our awesome Queensland game makers.
Gameloft Creative Workshop ( 10.00am – 12.00pm )
In the Graffiti Room
Join Gameloft Brisbane’s very own Gamelofters in the Graffiti Room for creative hands-on activities created by the studio’s Art team for kids of all ages. Meet and chat with the artists behind the multi-award-winning titles; My Little Pony: Mane Merge and The Oregon Trail. [Registration via Brisbane Powerhouse]
Ages: All
“So you have an idea for a game… now what?!” ( 12.30pm – 2.00pm | 2.30 – 4.00pm )
In the Graffiti Room
This workshop is designed for High School students who are considering careers in the games industry. The workshop will give valuable insights from game industry veterans on the creation of new ideas and how they are pitched.
Outcomes of the session include:
- Understanding of effective communication and collaboration practices within the industry.
- Critical thinking about game features and mechanics to help anchor your idea.
- Critical thinking about what the hooks are in your idea to help get people’s attention.
- Being able to create and present an idea to your peers. Each attendee will be supported to workshop and pitch their own idea within the session.
- Tips on breaking into the industry, and how you can be upskilling now.
- Understanding Higher Education, and work placement opportunities, available in SE QLD.
These sessions will be run by Dan Vogt, Scott West, and Sean Druitt, local industry legends who have accumulated over 50 years’ experience in the games industry and have pitched, created, and launched countless titles throughout their careers! Two sessions available – registration via Brisbane Powerhouse
- Workshop 2A: 12.30pm – 2.00pm
- Workshop 2B: 2.30pm – 4.00pm
Ages: 13-17
Screen Queensland Awards (4.30pm – 5.00pm)
On the Turbine Platform
Our inaugural Queensland Games Festival Awards proudly supported by Screen Queensland.
Followed by
The traditional Festival End Game event: Come and support local industry darlings as they duke it out in a light-hearted game of trivia.
Networking hosted by Cam Rogers Legal ( 6.00pm – 8.00pm )
Join your ever-loving Game Dev community for networking on the Turbine Platform to round off the day!
Cam Rogers Legal is a Queensland Games Festival Gold Sponsor
Screen Queensland Awards
This year, Screen Queensland is sponsoring two awards as part of the festival — Best Emerging Game and Best in Show. With something for everyone, you can test drive new games, meet like-minded people and say hello to the Screen Queensland Games team who will also be in attendance!
Festival Exhibition news
Plan, Build…Prosper? As mayor, it’s up to you to breathe life back into this rundown town. Construct shops, hire staff, automate deliveries with couriers, and attract tourists to town, all while managing infrastructure and avoiding catastrophes! Who said being mayor was going to be easy… Go-Go Town has just been released on Steam – come and play it in the exhibition!
Martin Wallace and the team from Wallace Designs are bringing two or three of their recent titles – you can find them and play the games in the Mosquito Foyer!
Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar – we love cats! This little beauty’s Steam page describes it as ‘Portal with cats’ – a puzzle heist adventure with a quantum flavour! Mittens the cat stumbles into a quantum experiment and gains incredible new powers – the ability to be in two places at once. Explore, solve logic puzzles and evade capture by pest control robots to ultimately save the day!
Catto’s Post Office – Deliver mail as Catto, the town’s dedicated Postcat, while meeting unique friends in a vibrant cozy town filled with kitty residents. Come and play and wishlist on their Steam page!
Or maybe you need to be a bear – in space! Come and play Broadside Games’ Bears in Space! Unleash your inner bear in this over-the-top bullet-hell FPS! Embark on a zany retro-futuristic adventure and destroy oil-thirsty robots with an outrageous arsenal. Transform into a bear, wield unique powers, and embrace the absurd fast-paced action of Bears in Space!
Leap into Frogreign! Join frog prince Rill in this amphibious adventure where your tongue is your grappling hook! Come and play Frogreign in the exhibition and leap over to their Steam page to wishlist!
In Isopod, you’re a tiny pill-bug in a big world! From the creators of Webbed. Roll, zip, and slam your way through the gorgeous landscapes of the Australian bush, unite your fellow bugs, and fight back the greedy Fire Ant Conglomerate!
We have another cat in the starring role! In Bravest Coconut, you’re a little cat named Coco and you’re off on a big adventure. Get to know the locals, solve puzzles, fight monsters, find treasure, and explore the beautiful valley in this classic action RPG
Key Fairy by Owl Machine is a hand-drawn, pacifist, folkloric, bullet-hell. Dance around beasts, collect strange treasures, and help lost creatures. Use your wits, wiles, and grappling thread to collect the shattered stars of lost monsters. Find your way through a hand-drawn forest, encounter strange folk, uncover ancient magic, and evade forgotten gods. Key Fairy is currently under-development, with grant funding from Screen Queensland and Screen Australia.
Exhibition Gallery
