Join us in Melbourne and online as we kick off Freeplay 2015! At The Channel at Melbourne’s Arts Centre, we’ll be on stage and online to welcome you all to the biggest Freeplay Festival ever—and to announce the finalists in the 2015 Freeplay Awards.

Speakers: Ben McKenzie, Dan Golding, Cherie Davidson

Australian developers living and working overseas give their perspective on what Australia’s games culture looks like from afar.

Speakers: Alex Hutchinson (Canada), Bennett Foddy (USA), Siobhan Reddy (UK)

From Let’s Plays to livestreaming, video is often touted as the future of games journalism, criticism, and curation. So why do we love to watch people play?

Speakers: Prescription Pixel, Emma Graham, Brendan Keogh

Making games can be hard – technically and financially, certainly, but also personally. In this panel, we’ll explore how to look after yourself and your health while being a game developer.

Speakers: Leena van Deventer (chair), Natasha Katopodis, Francis Fitzgerald, Laura Crawford

What do independent game festivals look like around the world? Our global panel of festival directors and curators talk international games culture.

Speakers: Celia Pearce (IndieCade – USA), James Mielke (BitSummit – Japan), Sarah Schoemann and Mariam Asad (Different Games – USA), Thorsten Wiedemann (A MAZE – Germany), Andrea Hasselager (Lyst Summit – Scandinavia) Dan Golding (Freeplay)

Join journalist and critic Katie Williams as she interviews Adelaide-based developer Chris Johnson inside his own games.

Speakers: Katie Williams (USA) and Chris Johnson.

Today, more and more game developers are looking for a third path between the commercial studio and the informal community to find collaboration. So what is the collective, and what can its benefits be?

Speakers: Andrew Brophy (chair), Matthew Gatland (NZ), Maize Wallin, Amani Naseem, Chad Toprak

From All Quiet on the Western Front to Catch-22, from Dr Strangelove to Saving Private Ryan, literary and cinema history is full of great war stories that speak powerfully about the ethics of war. Our games are also full of war, but where is the moral critique? Our panel discusses the whys and hows of giving meaningful ethical impact to war games.

Speakers: Dr. Malcolm Ryan (chair), Hugh Davies, Dr. Helen Berents, Dan McMahon, Stephen Coleman [apologies: Cory Davis, Nikki Coleman]

In 2004, Katharine Neil and Marcus Westbury created what was then called “Free Play: The Next Wave Independent Game Developers Conference”. Ten festivals later, Katharine and Marcus will talk about what the world of games and festivals was like all those years ago, and what’s changed since.

Speakers: Katharine Neil (France), Marcus Westbury