GCAP 2021: Raising The Bar has ended

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GCAP 2021: Raising The Bar

GCAP 2021 will run online from Monday the 4th of October, to Wednesday the 6th.

The theme for Games Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) 2021 is Raising the Bar.

The Australian game development industry is poised to go beyond their established limits. United, we can raise our potential, reach for success and smash expectations both professionally and personally.

We are ready to ‘Raise the Bar’ – to grow, mature, move forward and build on our reputation as both a highly creative and skilled sector, as well as a thriving community.

Please join IGEA at GCAP 2021 as we connect and support the Australian games industry. We will share knowledge, education, and best practice, plus facilitate connection and communication as we all aim high and Raise the Bar.

9:30am AEDT

Welcome & Keynote from Chandana Ekanayake TBADavid Parkin • Chandana Ekanayake

11:00am AEDT

The Australian games industry in 2020: survival sim, couch co-op, or battle royale? TBAEdmond Tran • Jini Maxwell Fortnite Cinematic Effects Breakdown and Sequencer Best Practices TBAJuan Collado • Luke Tannenbaum Working at Firemonkeys! TBAAlan Venegas • Danielle Walker • Jesse Neave • Nigel Kay

12:00pm AEDT

Live chat (Design + Art Talk) TBAHeath Smith • Stephen Honegger Curiosity, Communication and Compassion; How to Become a Better Programmer. TBATony Albrecht Gameloft Brisbane Culture TBADylan Miklashek • Sarah Jordan It's The Little Things: Two Small Concepts with Big Impact TBALeigh Harris • Ally McLean Taking the ‘taboo’ out of leadership TBALucy Megginson Now You’re Speaking My Language — Bridging The Contractor-Client Communication Gap TBAZander Hulme Your Indie Game Doesn't Need to be Pixel Art TBAAtticus McNaughton Building the Open World of Submerged: Hidden Depths TBAAndrew James Falafel, Hummus, and Baba Ghanoush: A Middle Eastern Perspective on Cultural Engagement Through Video Games TBAMeena Shamaly

1:00pm AEDT

Lunch Break TBA The importance of diversity and inclusion in videogames made at Firemonkeys Studio. TBASean Reynolds • Darren Yeow • Danni Hindi

1:30pm AEDT

Design: Live Q&A with Scott West and Rowan Ryder TBAScott West • Rowan Ryder

2:00pm AEDT

Concept Art: Live Q&A with Liz Ballantyne and Dustin Spence TBALiz Ballantyne • Dustin Spence Live chat (Engineering Focus Talk) TBARae Forbes-Richardson • Darcy Sandall • Chris Fowler • TBA How nodes make everything better. Unity Bolt for coders and technical artists. TBAEdward Blanch Pipeline Analysis and Improvement: A How To TBAElizabeth Blythe What A Fruit Shop Taught Me About Being A Better Leader TBAMeredith Hall When Game Developers Are Your Customers TBAJune Rhodes Art Direction: Defining and Communicating the Vision TBADean Finnigan Unreal Engine 5 Early Access Guided Tour TBAChris Murphy Distilling design and tutorials: increase usability, empower players TBASimon Boxer

2:30pm AEDT

User Interface: Live Q&A with Paul Clancy and Emmanuel Vasquez Jr TBAPaul Clancy • Emmanuel Vasquez Jr

3:00pm AEDT

Remote Controls: Creating reliable shared-screen games with multiple input devices TBATim Nugent Preparing your game (and schedule) for multiplatform development. TBAAnthony Wood “Critical Communication” - How to Roll the perfect feedback check TBASorcha Millican-Nagle • Ceri Hutton It's like Advertising, but Free: How to write press releases that get results TBACalliope Ryder Pipeline Practices for the Growing Studio TBAPhoebe Shaw The Unreal Trail to Oregon: Reimagining The Oregon Trail for Apple Arcade TBAGameloft Brisbane Team Deserts, Desserts, and Deserted Islands - Design Deepdive into Evolving “The Sims” Mobile Title Features TBAPenelope Davison • Jack Sinclair

3:50pm AEDT

Deserts, Desserts & Deserted Islands - Main Stage Presentation Follow Up TBAJack Sinclair • Penny Davison

4:00pm AEDT

Unreal Engine for Mobile Games: Live Q&A with Andriy Doroshchuk TBAAndriy Doroshchuk Live chat (Studio Talk) TBAGreg Palstra • Alayna Cole Bringing Frostbite to Live Service TBALewis Strudwick Combining Jira & Confluence - How to develop project synergy between tasks and documentation. TBACarl Leducq Emotional Intelligent Leadership in a Pandemic TBAAidan Millot How to survive the future. TBAPhilip Mayes Space Switching - A New Approach To Character Rigging TBAMartin Binfield Accelerating Your Unreal Engine Builds With BuildGraph TBAJune Rhodes The Player and the Pentacle: Folkloric Motifs for Narrative Design TBANick Jones

4:30pm AEDT

Production: Live Q&A with David Macminn and Mara Ingham TBADavid Macminn • Mara Ingham

4:50pm AEDT

Adopting Frostbite to support live service games - Main Stage Presentation Follow Up TBALewis Strudwick

5:00pm AEDT

Sponsored: NFTs, Blockchain and the Metaverse: Critically Relevant for Gaming TBAYat Siu

9:40am AEDT

Day 2 Welcome with Paul Fletcher. TBADavid Parkin

10:00am AEDT

Live chat (Quality Assurance Focus Talk) TBACassie Hill • Bernard Ockerse Machine Learning plus a Game Engine... endless possibilities! TBAParis Buttfield-Addison Build Games Faster by Automating TBAKeirron Stach You Contain Multitudes: Applying Game Design Skills Outside Traditional Games TBAKirk Nicholls • Avi Moore Making Games that extend Kids TV shows TBAJohanna Egger • Bertrand Thomachot • Harry Kaloyirou • Brent Heslop Making the most of a small art team - working smarter not harder in Unreal TBAHannah Crosby Thinking in Libraries: Empowering Real Time Skills TBAJulie Lottering Giving Life to a Dead Language - A Unique Approach to Worldbuilding TBAAlex Butterfield Pipeline Analysis & Improvement - Main Stage Presentation Follow Up TBAElizabeth Blythe

11:00am AEDT

3D Art: Live Q&A with Liz Ballantyne, Hannah Crosby and Nancy Paulin TBAHannah Crosby • Liz Ballantyne • Nancy Paulin Live chat (Engineering Focus Talk) TBAJosh Caratelli • Alex Griffin • Charlie Cassidy Avoiding performance and design pitfalls with Unity TBABrendan Ragan Release Management Metrics & Building Quality into the Dev Schedule TBASam McCully Early Access done right: How to promote your game and keep your community engaged during your Early Access phase TBAMichal Napora Cohesion is Key: Art Direction for Indies TBAWren Brier From Mod to Metacritic Hit: 10 Lessons I Learned Making The Forgotten City TBANick Pearce

11:30am AEDT

User Interface: Live Q&A with Paul Clancy and Emmanuel Vasquez Jr TBAPaul Clancy • Emmanuel Vasquez Jr

12:00pm AEDT

Panel: Is fun more important than realism? TBAMichael How • Iain Heap Empowering Your Team With Automation TBAJoe Park • Matthew Deline Gameloft Brisbane Studio Directors: Live Q&A with Dylan Miklashek, Andriy Doroshchuk, Liz Ballantyne, David Macminn TBADylan Miklashek • Liz Ballantyne • Andriy Doroshchuk • David Macminn Project Management Plans: What are they and do I need one? TBAJessi McNally Managing Underperformers - a way to succeed doing what nobody wants to do TBARoberto Vieira Creating a humanised culture in the individualised world: Gaming company edition TBAPauline Puay Post Processing and Rendering in VR with Unity URP: A Shooty Skies Overdrive case study TBARyan Keable Queerbaiting: Once Bitten, Twice as Shy TBASamara-Jade Sendek Working at EA Frostbite! TBAAlan Venegas • Jaimi Rayside • Nick Stonoga • Andrew Crawford Unreal Tips & Tricks - Epic Mega-Hour TBAChris Murphy • Alex Stevens

1:00pm AEDT

Lunch Break TBA Working with realtime at Frostbite TBAJason Bright • Michael Young

1:30pm AEDT

Design: Live Q&A with Scott West and Rowan Ryder TBAScott West • Rowan Ryder

2:00pm AEDT

More Players, Fewer Servers: Getting The Most Out of Your Infrastructure TBABen Cooper Raising the Bar for Narrative Game Development: A Software and Workflow Walkthrough TBAMelanie Taylor Lessons in Leadership - Tales from the Trenches TBAChristopher Clay How I learned to stop worrying and love the Blockchain TBALo Maslen Lighting The Oregon Trail in 4 Dimensions TBABruno Gohier Polish in Prototyping TBALuke Ledwich Frostbite Australia Leadership Q&A TBALewis Strudwick • Jonathan Runting • Michael de Graaf • Emily Campbell

3:00pm AEDT

Tech Art: Live Q&A with Andriy Doroshchuk and Bruno Gohier TBABruno Gohier • Andriy Doroshchuk Indigitek: Indigenous representation in Tech and Gaming + Yarn with 4Phase Games TBABen Armstrong • Celeste Carnegie • Morgana Watson Build Tools Without Code: Editor Utilities in Unreal Engine TBAAlex Stevens

3:30pm AEDT

Production: Live Q&A with David Macminn and Mara Ingham TBADavid Macminn • Mara Ingham

4:00pm AEDT

A Fireside chat with Lyndsay Pearson & Lisy Kane TBALisy Kane • Lyndsay Pearson Pre-Flight Check: Preparing for Unreal Engine 5 Migration TBAChris Murphy • Alex Stevens

9:30am AEDT

Welcome Day 3 with Trent Kusters TBATrent Kusters • David Parkin

10:00am AEDT

Character Art: Live Q&A with Liz Ballantyne, Ruan Van Der Westhuizen and John Aitchison TBALiz Ballantyne • Ruan Van Der Westhuizen • John Aitchison GCAP Invest Keynote: A Fireside Chat with Tom Davies and Ben Lee: Equity Investment and Acquisitions TBATom Davies • Benjamin Lee GCAP Loading Keynote: A Fireside Chat with Guy Blomberg and Nika Nour TBAGuy Blomberg • Nika Nour Making the Zone: Online Events and the Experience of Being Somewhere TBAJae Stuart • Cecile Richard Up-skilling Voice Actors for Australian Video Games TBAAimee Smith Extended Tools Development in Unreal Engine TBAAlex Stevens Game Design: Live Chat TBAJack Sinclair • Penelope Davison • Ashleigh Delgado • Tina Chiang • Mauro Fiore • Matt Judge

10:30am AEDT

User Interface: Live Q&A with Paul Clancy and Emmanuel Vasquez Jr TBAPaul Clancy • Emmanuel Vasquez Jr

11:00am AEDT

Design: Live Q&A with Scott West and Rowan Ryder TBAScott West • Rowan Ryder Australian Funding Success Stories TBACheryl Vance • Scott Reismanis • Tony Lawrence Cultivating conditions for serendipity: What Google calendar and 100 interviews with game developers taught me about about curating my time. TBAJaviera Cordero Mental Jam: Video Game Co-creation for Young People with Lived Experiences of Depression and Anxiety TBAMichelle Chen A Fireside Chat: Meena Shamaly and Narayana Johnson TBAMeena Shamaly • Narayana Johnson An Artist’s Guide to Blueprint in Unreal Engine TBAChris Murphy Revolutionising game design docs! Communicate your vision and level design in SpaceDraft. TBALucy Cooke • Ben Cossy Meet Frostbite’s User Experience Team TBACatherine Rendell • David Biggs • Alex Andreadis Recruitment Q&A TBAJefferson Blinco

12:00pm AEDT

The Digital Games Tax Offset - 2022 and beyond TBAJo Sharp • Tim Phillips • Ben Au How Not To Tank Your Career In 280 Characters Or Less TBAZhia Zariko Lessons Learned while Building The Friendly Dialogue System TBAJon Manning Fireside Chat: Austin Wintory and Kevin Penkin TBAAustin Wintory • Kevin Penkin Leveling Up: Simple C++ For Blueprinters TBAAlex Stevens Shipping Your First Game TBAKathy Smart • Jacob Leaney • Alisha Stone Tips for Starting in the Games Industry: Live Q&A with Sarah Jordan, Miles Hatcliff, Amaya Kabel and Christian Milicevic TBASarah Jordan • Miles Hatcliff • Amaya Kabel • Christian Milicevic Fostering our Global Communities across Mobile & Triple A Games TBAMegan Webber • Sean Reynolds • Alana Cuce • Liam McClure

1:00pm AEDT

Lunch Break TBA

2:00pm AEDT

Production: Live Q&A with David Macminn and Mara Ingham TBADavid Macminn • Mara Ingham Live chat (Engineering Focus Talk) TBADarcy Sandall • Alex Griffin Get to know your Screen Agency: Presented by Film Victoria TBAJoe Brinkmann • Paul Callaghan • Leena van Deventer Exploring Possibilities: Building Your Real-Time Career TBADean Finnigan • Natalie Robinson • Markus Graf Indie Finances – invoices, ABNs, GST, costs – how do we do this stuff? TBAKathy Smart If you can see it, you can be it! TBACatherine Rendell • Amelia Fletcher • Erin Joselin • Laura Pepper 99 Problems, so Leading Ain’t 1 TBAEmilie Poissenot

3:00pm AEDT

Audience Is Everything: Finding and Securing Project Investment TBANick Pearce • Sam Ramlu • Andrew James The Animation Skill Tree TBAJoe Toole Unreal Engine for Absolute Beginners: What You Need to Know and How to Get Started TBAChris Murphy From Zero to Studio - lessons from creating DragonBear Studios TBABen Boyd The Unreal Trail to Oregon: Reimagining The Oregon Trail for Apple Arcade TBA

4:00pm AEDT

Programming: Live Q&A with Andriy Doroshchuk and William Docherty TBAAndriy Doroshchuk • William Docherty How to Fund Your Studio in 2021 And Stay Sane TBATima Anoshechkin Rise From Your Grave - Another Shot at Games TBAMitch McCausland Technical Art Fundamentals in Unreal Engine TBAChris Murphy How to break into game composing TBARussell Hodges

5:00pm AEDT

Closing Keynote with Wan Hazmer and Trent Kusters TBATrent Kusters • Wan Hazmer