A Disturbance in Melbourne...

"I felt a great disturbance in Melbourne, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear MIGW has come."
―"Old" Ben, sensing the coming of Melbourne International Games Week

Yes, that's right, Melbourne International Games Week (or MIGW) is here again! Starting tomorrow, and going until the 7th of November (yeah, I know, that's more than a week), this is a string of amazing events happening in Melbourne, Australia that surrounds the games industry.

Where the US has Con Season, we've decided to have Con 10-Days, and jam everything together because we a) hate ourselves and b) love each other so much we can't bear to let go so we hold on and never let go!

This year I'll be attending three of the billion things happening:

Game Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) Loading, a one-day conference for students of game development on the 30th of October. Granted, I'm now in the games industry proper so you might be wondering what the hell are you going to a "student focused" event for? Fair question. It's student focused, but broad in topic - covering things like getting into AAA, Indie, and Freelancing. Whilst I am currently AAA, I have a great interest in going Freelance in the future, and want to squeeze as much knowledge out of Freelancers as I can - so that's my plan for the first Sunday of MIGW.

Game Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) 2016, a two-day conference for games industry professionals beginning on the 1st of November, and ending with the Australian Game Developer Awards (AGDA). This is the big one, in Australia, and is basically our GDC. This is also my first year attending, which means I get a chance to rub shoulders with some of the Greats in Game Development, both home-grown and from-afar. I am insanely excited for this!

Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) Australia, a three-day exhibition for everyone interested in games, the games industry, and pop-culture. This starts on the 4th of November. I've been every year that it's come to Melbourne, and I'm not stopping now... However, this year I'm not planning on running around like crazy as I have previously - I'm going to be more relaxed, and spend more time with friends. I've met a lot of people in the industry this year, but most of them haven't been face-to-face. PAX is going to change that. I'm going to get to meet one of my favourite designers ever, and some really cool people who I look up to a lot. I'm also going to get to reconnect with some friends I've made previously, which I am very much looking forward to!

In all, that means I'm attending 6 days of MIGW, which is enough of a week for me. I'm excited, but it's also a bit stressful, and insanely busy.

Which, unfortunately, means I won't have much time for versamus! I've already felt this, with not having time to write up my last Curse of Strahd diary as I have been madly preparing. Further, I don't know if I will have the spoons to do my two This Week posts during, nor my weekly Ameshirel: A World Reforged snippet. However, if I can't, I'll be making up for this in the following weeks... I'm sure MIGW will give me plenty to talk about, and I'll be looking to write as much of it down as possible. I might even be able to do some write-ups of panels that I see - who knows?!

For those of you that I will see during MIGW, I can't wait! 

For those of you going to MIGW, but I haven't yet talked to you about meeting up - PLEASE SEND ME A MESSAGE! I want to catch up everyone who is attending, whether we know each other or not. A difficult task, I know, but I'm determined. You can also follow along my exploits on Twitter, where I'll most likely saying where I am at any given point, so feel free to track me down.

For those of you not going to MIGW, I look forward to talking to you again as soon as possible!