In a first for Melbourne International Games Week (MIGW), billed as Asia Pacific’s largest digital games celebration, a Steam Festival is now live on the popular PC marketplace, highlighting the work of videogames made in Victoria on a global stage.
As part of the MIGW 2021 Steam Festival, the event gets highlighted on Steam, including a dedicated page hosting various panels available to view live or on replay, in addition to a range of games exhibited by local developers.
Among the local games on display is the upcoming story-driven Wayward Strand by Ghost Pattern, roguelike card dungeon-crawler Ring of Pain from Simon Boxer’s Twice Different studio, and brilliant time-looping mystery The Forgotten City made by Modern Storyteller. To coincide with the MIGW Steam Festival, many of the included games are either discounted or feature free demos to try.
Read: Game Review: The Forgotten City epitomizes the storytelling power of games
16 digital panels will rotate throughout the Steam Festival, including a range of discussions, game presentations, and concerts, all from local industry professionals. Some of the highlights include:
- Games Made in Victoria: featuring Completely Stretchy and Uncomfortably Sticky, Dap, Kardboard Kings, Conscript, JUSTICE SUCKS: Recharged, Spies & Soldiers, and Wayward Strand.
- Developing JUSTICE SUCKS: Recharged: an exclusive panel with Samurai Punk members Cyrian Guillaume, Mitchell Pasmans, Nicholas McDonnell and Winston Tang.
- The Music of Knuckle Sandwich and Songs from Video World concerts: performances by beardy and Monster Mansion.
- NEXT in (Video Game) Fashion: with Benjamin Ee (Summerfall Studios), Izzy Gramp (game developer and photographer), Jenny Windom (Soft Not Weak), and Joel Davison (coder and content creator).
- Every Game in This City: From Escape Rooms to Esports: with Alexandra Lee (PlayReactive), Chad Toprak (Freeplay director), Goldie Bartlett (Ghost Pattern), Harry Shang Lun Lee (PlayReactive), Patrick LeMieux (University of California), Stephanie Boluk (University of California), Will Partin (University of North Carolina), and Yang Jing Allison (City University of Hong Kong).
There will also be exclusive new gameplay footage shown of Mars First Logistics, Broken Roads developer Drop Bear Bytes hosting an ask-me-anything (AMA) session, and Massive Monster streaming their upcoming game Cult of the Lamb.
Anyone keen to support local talent can also pick up The Handcrafted in Victoria Bundle on Steam, which includes five games from Victorian developers – Hot Brass, Armello, Feather, Paperbark, and Frog Detective 1 – for less than $30.
The MIGW 2021 Steam Festival will run until the early local time of 4am AEDT Tuesday 5 October, while the discounts on featured games will continue for an extra few days, until 3am AEDT 8 October.
