I’ve never worked so hard to earn a t-shirt.
The plan was simple: Arrive at PAX as a group as early as possible on Sunday, its quietest day. Make a beeline when the doors open at 10am for the Final Fantasy XIV stall. Get to the front of the queue. Beat the boss, win a shirt.
The execution however was fraught.
Early, 9am in this instance, wasn’t early enough. The queue hall into the event was already three-quarters full with thousands of people. What ensued could best be described as a fever dream.
A collage of repeated ads for Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Amongst Thieves, mixed in with trance music. A DJ was hired to entertain the 9am crowd while they waited for the gates to open.
This was all topped off by the looping soundtrack of John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads; a song that’s been co-opted by the event to spruik its recurring theme of PAX being a “home” for Australia’s gaming community.
The wrinkle: Many others had the same idea. In hindsight, it was hilarious watching a swarm of gamers — including my friends and I — power walk to this stall when the gates opened. No running is allowed at PAX, a rule enforced by an army of volunteers for the event.
We just managed to squeeze into the end of the queue before the cutoff. What ensued was a nearly three hour wait to beat a boss we challenge almost weekly at home anyway. By midday, we were donning our highly prized t-shirts – and perhaps questioning our life choices.
The T-Shirt in question.
This is one of the more obscure memories I have in attending PAX Australia as part of the broader Melbourne International Game Week (MIGW) for the better part of a decade. It launched back in 2014, and is expected to draw a crowd of over 125,000 this year. To put that in perspective, that’s more than this year’s AFL Grand Final which pulled in just under 100,000 spectators to the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
It’s an incredibly diverse week of events. It starts with the region’s major game developer conference, GCAP. A number of other industry talks and events run throughout the week, including High Score – a game audio focused event – and the Australian Game Developer Awards right in the middle of the week. Finally, it’s topped off with PAX Australia, the country’s largest gaming expo over the weekend.
And that’s excluding so many other smaller events, developer talks and pop-ups in between.
For plenty of Melburnians, it’s perhaps the most confusing and misunderstood week of the year. Thousands of people, including many from overseas, descend on the city wearing all sorts of gaming paraphernalia.
Some are in full costume (or cosplay as it’s known), others simply donning a t-shirt or accessory sporting one of their favourite games. Though many dress plainly. You couldn’t tell they were heading to PAX or many of the other events scattered across the city.
I’ve been asked countless times across multiple years: So what character are you dressing up as? And while cosplay is huge – and growing every year – it’s not the reason why everyone goes to these events. Nor is it about the giveaways. Though it is true: If you are at the right place at the right time, you can walk away with an expensive gaming PC or bag of accessories.
I like to think of Melbourne International Gaming Week as an event that really brings together the country’s gaming community, in all of its forms. It’s where developers meet with fans, where the industry shares ideas that spur on the next generation of games. It’s a week that unites what is a disparate group of people that wouldn’t interact otherwise.
Gaming itself is a very broad church. Some may be into esports, others into roleplaying, some may only vibe tabletop games.
Call it kitschy marketing, but PAX Australia perhaps has done their homework with their positioning of the event. It does in fact feel like “home”, being among my people. A place where you meet others with a simple question: What are you playing?
But one thing is for certain: I think I’m done trying to earn any more gaming t-shirts.
Everyone has their own story with Melbourne International Games Week.
So to underscore just how diverse and interesting it is, I reached out to a number of people in the games industry or who regularly attend its events.
I asked what they are most looking forward to during the week and why.
Here’s what they had to say:
Elliot Lamb, Composer and Musician
Among the myriad events that make up Melbourne International Games Week, the game audio conference High Score is a particular favourite of mine, a potent collision of all my interests in one jam-packed weekend.
As a musician, a composer and a gamer, the bringing together of innumerable sound designers, composers, developers, voice artists and audio professionals makes for an enlightening and inspiring event.
The conference, hosted by the legendary Angharad “Rad” Yeo, and taking place this year at ACMI, is loaded up with keynotes, panels, masterclasses, demos – endless opportunities to pick the brains of some of the incredible artists working in the game audio space on topics from composition, to implementation, to networking and development.
Beyond all these flashy conference elements, however, is the most important aspect of the event, and the one that keeps me wanting to come back each year – the game audio community in Melbourne is a deeply welcoming, encouraging and supportive group of artists who want nothing more than to spend a weekend chatting to anyone who is interested in this world.
For an aspiring game composer, there’s never a dull moment as the delegates bounce around sharing insights and advice over coffees and snacks with emerging and established artists alike. It’s become a staple calendar event for me, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store in 2025!
Chad Habel, Bad Plan Studios
I can’t wait to show our game, this is gonna be great! I’ve been to almost every PAX Aus since they started, usually as a punter, occasionally on panels, and sometimes on the AIE booth showing student games, but this is the first time I’ve attended with a studio to show a game we are working on.
End of Ember is in the pre-demo phase and although we’ve done SAGE and AVCon in South Australia (twice), it’s perfect timing to show to the public at the biggest event in the gaming calendar. The team is working hard on a big new mechanic (swappable weapons!) and we are hoping to have this ready for a build for PAX.
It’s so exciting to think of thousands of people seeing the game and playing it, and we are also hoping to catch up with some investors and publishers to progress the business side of the studio as well. Finally, it’s the first time all three of us (Chad, Dan and Eli) are going to PAX together, so that’s a bit of a bromance moment. Hope to see lots of folks there!
Jasmine Wilson, Nova Games
PAX Aus will be the first big event where we showcase our games, Ooble Gardens and Teeny Tidy, and with both of them going from only a few months into development to being able to showcase at one of the biggest events in Australia, it’s a huge milestone for us!
We’re still wrapping our heads around this opportunity, all we’ve done is work on what we love and put ourselves out there. It feels like our first real step into the industry we’ve always dreamed of joining, and we can’t wait to meet people at MIGW and see them experience the games we’ve poured our hearts into.
Renee O’Flynn, freelance writer and The IndiEXP
Unfortunately, due to me being a full-time carer I’m only able to attend PAX, although I would love to go one day and experience it all in its hectic glory. I have actually managed to attend every PAX since its inception, with the last four years being privileged enough to go as media!
The thing I love about PAX the most is the indie video games. You can often see the large players online and find heaps of reviews of them, but it’s these small gems hiding in plain sight that really excite me.
Seeing the passion the developers have for their projects makes them interesting, even if it’s a genre I normally don’t play. It’s here the really creative stuff happens! In a similar vein, I do enjoy tabletop but never have the time or (local) friends. PAX is the one time that I get to play a bunch of board games and discover small ones that you’d never hear of otherwise!
It’s basically a time of discovery for me.
Briar Francis, Thomson Geer
As a games lawyer who plays games, I always expend all of my energy at GCAP (usually in the Local Lounge – no regrets), then my husband drags my weary body around PAX.
MIGW is often the only chance I get to see my clients in the flesh, so I’ll be taking in all that invigorating energy you can only experience by getting amongst industry, and making that feeling sustain me for another 12 months!
I’m on a roundtable on GCAP Day 2 discussing AI in games and really looking forward to getting some different perspectives on such a hot button topic.
Ben Schuster, Qualbert and Gameloft
While there’s nothing quite as thrilling as stepping onto the show floor and playing your most anticipated game, it’s actually the sense of community that keeps me coming back to PAX.
In an industry that operates online, the chance to genuinely connect with many people who you might only interact with over social media or Discord is an incredibly special moment.
I’ve had the pleasure of running the #GamersofAUS community meet-up the last three years, and nothing quite beats the feeling of being able to bring people together from across Australia. Few other events can achieve that.
Kate Hall, PlayIndies
I’m attending GCAP, PAX Aus, and several other events during MIGW. What excites me most is how MIGW brings together such a diverse mix of indie developers, publishers, and creators.
The networking opportunities are invaluable for sharing ideas and building collaborations. I’m also looking forward to spreading the word about my new company, PlayIndies, and connecting with industry professionals, indie devs, and creators who might benefit from it.
As a GCAP speaker, I’m eager to share my experiences in game marketing while learning from others tackling similar challenges.
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