Freeplay Games Festival is one of the gems of Melbourne Games Week. It’s occasionally swallowed up in the tumult of That Other Big Convention at the end of the week, but is nevertheless (in my view) unmissable. One of the festival’s most well-loved dates is the annual Freeplay Parallels event, a one-night-only series of presentations on some of the most interesting, experimental and culturally important games in production around the country.
This year’s Parallels showcase will be held at Melbourne’s beloved ACMI gallery. The show kicks off at 6:30 PM on October 5, and the schedule (direct from the Freeplay website) is as follows:
- Ben Koder presenting Beyond the Lens,
- Iris Anstey presenting Moss Island,
- Ally McLean Hennessy presenting Mystiques: Haunted Antiques,
- Chloe Kilroy & Billy Dent presenting Bells Beach,
- Jacob Janerka presenting The Dungeon Experience,
- Jessie Scott presenting Video Shop Algorithm,
- Cain Maddox presenting Proximate,
- Pete Foley & Scott Ford (Fuzzy Ghost) presenting Janet DeMornay is a Slumlord and a Witch,
- Plus special guest Andrew Brophy presenting Knuckle Sandwich, again!
Tickets are on sale now, and you can book through the ACMI website. Adults are $35 each, or you can throw the festival a little extra cash with the Friends of Freeplay Supporters ticket, which is $50. Concession tickets are $25, and ACMI members get in for $23.
Big fan of this year’s show art as well, by Melbourne artist Tim Sta-Ana, which evokes classic Sega Master System cover art.
Freeplay Parallels ’23 joins an increasingly stacked MIGW and PAX week. Just last week, PAX announced that voice actor and well-known TTRPG gadabout Erika Ishii will be helming the Storytime keynote address.
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