墨爾本國際遊戲週為該城市自2015年起,各類型遊戲產業關聯活動不約而同在接近時間內,於墨爾本協同舉辦的串聯行動,並自2017年起由維多利亞州、墨爾本市相關代表,與當地產業人士籌組正式委員會規劃整體活動方向,統整產業動能。2019年舉辦期間為10月6日至13日。
Since 2015, events and activities related to the games industry have been held around the same time in the city of Melbourne. In 2017, representatives from the state of Victoria and city of Melbourne formed an official committee with local industry professionals to plan out the overall direction of events, synergizing the industry's dynamics. Melbourne International Games Week was held from October 6 to 13 in 2019.
遊戲週當中代表活動之一即為GCAP(Game Connect Asia Pacific)大會,為澳洲最大遊戲產業研討會。在參訪會議的過程中,我們了解到澳洲遊戲產業整體規模其實較台灣小不少,且於金融海嘯期間受到非常嚴重的損失,至今仍在復甦的過程當中。但維多利亞州政府在發展影視產業有成之餘,過去十數年來也將重心擴張到所有與螢幕相關的載體內容,特別是在電子遊戲類別,大力扶持當地開發者社群,獲得顯著的成果。另一項當週重點,即為去年本會成員曾參訪過之PAX Australia盛會,除了前屆就已認識到PAX的標誌性特色,如「桌上遊戲」、「復古遊戲」區域之外,在獨立遊戲區所展出的數十家廠商當中,近半數皆有「墨爾本出品」與Creative Victoria字樣。透過從GCAP實際上了解當地產業狀況之後,更能理解到當地政府的投入,以及系統性推動產業發展之重要性。
One of the representative events of the Melbourne International Games Week is the GCAP (Game Connect Asia Pacific), which is the largest games industry conference in Australia. While attending the conference, we found out that Australia's games industry is actually much smaller in scale than Taiwan's. It is also still recovering from severe losses sustained during the financial crisis. However, with much success in developing its film industry, the Victorian government has been expanding its focus to all screen-related media content in the past decades. In particular, it has strongly supported the local developers' community for electronic games, achieving significant success. Another highlight of the Melbourne International Games Week is PAX Australia, which ARF members had participated in last year. Besides unique features of PAX, which the ARF has learned last year, including tabletop games and retro games, we found that majority of the vendors at the independent games area featured marks indicating "Proudly Made in Melbourne" and "Creative Victoria". After getting to know the local industry through GCAP, the ARF also has greater understanding of the local government's commitment and the importance of systematic promotion of industry development.