The first Perth Games Festival showcased the Perth games industry, highlighting the achievements of the local games devs and celebrating local gamer culture.
The inaugural Perth Games Festival was held at the Perth Town Hall on Saturday, with a selection of local games developers providing free demos and sessions to local gamers to promote the local games development scene.
Apparently it managed to surpass its own expectations, the organisers expected 500-600 people to turn up and actually got around 1600 through the doors.
Congratulations to the organisers, it was a great atmosphere, and fantastic seeing all those Perth games being played by people.
Update: Kate Raynes-Goldie, Director for Games & Intereactive at FTI (and wearer of the Yeti Hat) said of the event:
“I was really happy to see so much interest in games, but also not surprised! We’re at a really exciting and important time for the local industry right now with so much happening locally, but also a dire need for government support. The massive turn out (1600 rather than the expected 600) speaks to how much interest in games locally, which matches the enthusiasm globally (twas a $93 billion industry last year!)”
Update 2: Anthony Sweet, general manager at Lets Make Games and organiser of the event, commented:
“The event completely exceeded our expectations, the attendance numbers were much higher than we were estimating. Earlier in the planning phase we would actually chuckle at the thought of reaching the room’s capacity; on the day, we had lines waiting outside the hall within the first hour because we’d already hit it. The thing I’m most happy with though is how positive and cheerful everyone was. There were smiles everywhere the entire day.”
Now to get some of these games published and making money so we can see more Perth Games next year!
If you’re interested in local games development, check out the monthly Play Up Perth event, and head to gamecloud for lots of Perth games-specific coverage.
