Who We Are

Chloe Appleby is a dynamic games curator and community advocate currently working at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. Chloe’s notable curatorial projects include the Powerhouse Late x Gaming series, Fuzzy Ghost in the World Pride exhibition Absolutely Queer and was part of the curatorium for the Good Design Award winning Pride at Play. She explores the multifaceted layers of games, delving into themes of identity, representation, and cultural heritage while inviting audiences to experience new perspectives of games in a museum setting. Chloe loves talking about games, museums and community featuring at GDC, SXSW Sydney, PAX AUS, GCAP and various media outlets.

Dr James Manning is an experienced educator, researcher and Lecturer at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. Having taught film and screen media, cultural studies, animation, and game design for over two decades, James has developed a strong passion for preserving digital play and for approaching gamemaking as a cultural practice. He has authored numerous publications, ranging from videogame design to livestreaming to archiving digital play, and continues to make small videogames. James recently submitted his PhD thesis on Super Mario Maker and serves as a Managing Editor for the Journal of Games Criticism.

Joel Davison is a Dunghutti and Gadigal technologist who currently works at Thoughtworks, in the First Nations Delivery Centre, leading Agile software delivery teams for clients. When they’re not consulting Joel writes poetry which is published through Red Room Poetry, and collaborated with Midnight Oil on the Makaratta Project as well as teaching Gadigal language classes throughout Sydney.

Arieh Offman is a public programmer and videogames curator at ACMI, Australia’s national museum of screen culture and is lead on the ACMI+RMIT Audience Lab beta-testing program. He has curated the Games Lab within ACMI’s award-winning Story of the Moving Image exhibition as well as the Big Games Night In, a centrepiece program throughout Melbourne International Games Week. He is a member of the MIGW Steering Committee and has been a judge for the Australian Game Developer Awards and the Gee Awards. Arieh also speak about all things videogames, featuring at PAX Aus, mPavillion, Play It Again, MuseumNext, ABC Radio, Good Game, RRR, SIFTER, Gameplay Podcast and more. 

Travis Jordan floats around the government working in legal, media and strategy teams. He’s a governance and communications professional and – regrettably – a lawyer. He’s worked for MPs, political parties, governments and NGOs around Australia. Travis is a keen supporter of the arts, having worked on projects to bring together creative industries, academics, governments and civil society to help grow the sector. He brings a wealth of boards governance, campaign planning and policy advocacy experience to the Freeplay team.

Jason Imms is a founder and board member of Tasmanian Game Makers, Head of QA at Keywords Studios Australia, and formerly a games and technology journalist for a wide range of Australian and US publications (GameSpot, Giant Bomb, Kill Screen, Hyper Magazine, PC PowerPlay, and more), and managing director of The Machine QA. His varied career and experience in the Australian games scene has led to him sitting on the Film Victoria digital media assessment panel, and the Tasmanian Ministerial Arts and Cultural Advisory Council.

Jason is a father of five, a husband to one, and a firm believer in the power of video games as art, entertainment, education, and for social change.

@jasonimms

Darcy Smith is a game designer and director who specialises in games that make you think. As the co-founder and game director of Studio Folly, he is polishing off their wild debut title, Gubbins. With seven years of experience at League of Geeks working on Armello, lecturing at the VCA, and starting his own studio, Darcy has a long history of crafting weird and wonderful content in and around the games space. Darcy is committed to making atypical games for people to love, and never shutting up about it.

@darcywsmith

Taylor Hardwick (she/her) is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Sydney, currently working with the Games and Play Lab on a project on the monetisation of children in digital games. Her PhD research examined safety, inclusivity and community at digital games events in 2020. Taylor was a co-author of the ‘Australian Music & Games Benchmark,’ funded by Creative Australia, and also recently published a report on SXSW Sydney 2023 and its contributions to the NSW games development industry. Outside of her research, Taylor teaches media and communications at several universities, and plays an embarrassing amount of Minecraft.

@darthtayrah

Pete Foley is an artist and storyteller. Throughout his career he has worked on an eclectic range of visual media, he has been an Animation Director Disney Junior, co-directed a theatre show at Queensland Theatre Company, and has hosted several solo drawing exhibitions.

Now, as half of indie games making duo, Fuzzy Ghost, he creates narrative-driven games that are bold, colourful, joyful, very Australian, and very queer.

Their first two games, Pebble Witch and Queer Man Peering Into A Rock Pool.jpg were AGDA nominated for Excellence in Emerging Games. In 2023 Queer Man Peering was acquired by Powerhouse Museum for their permanent collection, and it was nominated for the IGF Nuovo Award. It won the AGDA Excellence in Emerging Games in 2022 and the Freeplay Award in 2024.