Technically Games has announced its Lightning Talks event will return at Melbourne International Games Week (MIGW) 2025, with developers now encouraged to submit talks or purchase tickets to attend. As announced, the annual show – nicknamed ‘Game Dev Open Mic Night’ – will look a bit different this year, with new opportunities for developers to chat in short, or at length, about their speciality subjects.
In addition to the usual five-minute lightning talks, there will also be 25-minute deep dive sessions this year, with these designed to illuminate more about a central theme: Getting Technical About Studios. There will be four speaker slots available for these longer talks, and anyone in the games, audio, IT security, art, or animation industries, and other adjacent industries, can apply to share their knowledge, and in turn, hear from other specialists.
Notably, the usual five-minute lightning talks don’t have to follow this theme – they can be about anything. As noted, ‘attendees will get to see first-hand what game dev professionals would like to talk about when they only have five or 25 minutes.’ While the purpose of the Lightning Talks remains education and connection, developers are encouraged to think creatively about the most impactful and fulfilling use of their time on stage.
Those keen to attend without submitting a talk will still find plenty on offer. The Lightning Talks event doubles as a networking opportunity for games industry professionals, and a nice breath of fresh air and relaxation during the hubbub of MIGW.
This year’s event takes place on 11 October 2025, which is right in the midst of PAX Aus. While that weekend does tend to be a bit chaotic for developers, the better news is Lightning Talks will be more central to Melbourne CBD this year – taking place in Port Melbourne Town Hall – making it easier to attend. That’s thanks to the support of Creative Victoria and the City of Port Phillip, which have stepped up for this year’s event.
To learn more about Technically Games and its latest Lightning Talks event, you can now head to the Technically Games website for more. Notably, while the event is paid and requires a ticket, those facing financial hardship are able to claim free entry, so everyone is able to attend if they wish.
Also on ScreenHub: Screen NSW calls for responses to Digital Games Industry Survey
Screen NSW has released its Digital Games Industry Survey, which is designed to help shape the dedicated NSW Digital Games Strategy for the next three years. While the survey will take between 7-10 minutes to complete, that’s down to its complexity – it aims to ask deep questions about the needs of developers, to better shape the support provided by Screen NSW in future.
‘This is the first time Screen NSW has put together a survey specifically asking questions of the games industry and is a meaningful step forward in considering the voices of local game studios and developers,’ Ryan Penning, Screen NSW Games Investment Manager said on Bluesky.
As noted, the survey will inform the NSW Screen and Games Digital Strategy 2025-2027, a creative policy focussed on elevating storytelling and the arts in NSW. Currently, the survey broadly serves the local NSW arts community through various initiatives and funding. The focusses of this strategy are on ‘creating stories, building sustainable growth, improving capacity and capability, and developing audiences to increase demand.’ In future, Screen NSW plans to create a standalone NSW Digital Games Strategy that takes survey results into account, with tailored goals for NSW-based game development.
