It’s no secret that getting a game published in this day and age is a black art. In the current economic climate, publishers are more reluctant to invest in new, bold video games, particularly those considered innovative and unproven in the market.
In recent times, developers have been forced to go it alone, charting their own path through bespoke marketing or rare government support opportunities, attempting to gather enough wishlists and interest to be considered by publishers at all. These modern trends are why Play Now Melbourne 2025 felt like such an important and necessary event.
Held on 9 October in the heart of Melbourne during Melbourne International Games Week, the one-day games market invited upcoming developers to meet with an array of publishers – including ID@Xbox, PlaySide Studios, Akupara Games, WINGS Interactive, Fellow Traveller, Massive Monster and Devolver Digital – to show off their latest projects.
Play Now 2025 – quick links
How Play Now Melbourne 2025 worked
Across multiple booths, developers shared presentations about their latest builds, allowing publishers to get hands on with each game and understand its unique value. In a way, the now-annual process is a lot like speed-dating. Developers set up at a booth, meet with publishers, show their heart – and then move onto the next pitch.
Some developers popped in to court specific publishers, with only one or two meetings throughout the day. Others had a full day of meetings.
With the nature and process of game publishing becoming more exclusive and obfuscated, Play Now Melbourne 2025 provided a stage where conversations could be held openly, under the right circumstances. Developers and publishers can meet on an even field, and there is an understanding of goals and intentions on both sides.
‘The event is incredibly helpful, incredibly useful for us,’ says Nico King, the co-founder and Executive Creative Director at Chaos Theory Games. ‘We’ve done a lot of pitching over the past couple of years – we were at Gamescom, we were pitching at GCAP – but I think the structured nature of Play Now Melbourne, the matchmaking that’s gone into it…everybody knows that we’re aligned and have projects to talk about.’
Chaos Theory were at Play Now Melbourne 2025 to pitch the new cosy, solarpunk management game Rusthaven. They had around half a dozen meetings during the event, sharing ambitions with an array of publishers. As veterans of the industry, the team has built up a network of avenues for pitching but as King notes, the ‘concentrated’ nature of Play Now Melbourne allowed for more valuable conversations.
‘At an event like this, both parties are here to do business so it feels like a very even playing field,’ King tells ScreenHub. ‘The alternative of encountering a publisher at a networking event can feel a bit like you’re ambushing them and you don’t know what status they are – are they looking for projects?’
More than providing a space to do business, developers also noted there was a positive air to Play Now Melbourne 2025, with uplifting conversations inspiring hope for a more sustainable future.
‘I think it is positive and hopeful,’ says James Lockrey, co-founder and Managing Director of Chaos Theory Games.
‘[Publishers] are looking for those funding opportunities, for what’s coming next, trying to make it work amidst more challenging times,’ Lockrey says. ‘I think everyone’s looking for the next best game to fund, or the right partnership.’
Pitching Buru and the Old People at Play Now Melbourne 2025
Among the local Australian developers pitching was the team behind Buru and the Old People – developers Ben Armstrong, Brooke Collard, and Emma Sjaan Beukers. This is a narrative-driven adventure game set in an anthropomorphic world of animals, inspired by the culture and stories of Indigenous Australians.
At Play Now Melbourne 2025, the team aimed to connect with like-minded publishers keen to support their ambitions, with the care and understanding required to elevate a modern, Indigenous-led narrative.
‘I think the vibe is really good,’ Creative Director Ben Armstrong says. ‘We’ve come in, we’ve spoken to a whole bunch of developers [and publishers], people we know from the industry…we’re having good yarns.’
This was his first time at Play Now Melbourne. Going into the event, he didn’t know exactly what to expect in terms of pitching but he notes the event was far more relaxed, and meetings felt far more friendly, casual, and approachable, than he expected.
‘There’s nothing like this,’ Armstrong says of Play Now. ‘Before today, I had a very different expectation of what a [games] market really meant.’
‘It’s a lot more casual and a lot more friendly. Everyone’s just here to have a really low pressure time.’
A significant amount of work went into joining the event, Armstrong says. It required a very refined pitch covering narrative, artwork and character concepts. While the team already had a pitch, which they had initially prepared to secure funding from Screen Australia, preparing for Play Now meant going into a greater degree of detail. Following an iterative process, which included ample feedback from third parties, the team eventually ‘felt really good’ about what they had to show.
‘The expectation is just to have a chat,’ Armstrong says, acknowledging there were some nerves about the process. ‘It’s much lower pressure than walking in with the expectation that we have to do something. We’re just here to see if we can find a cool publisher who’s a potential partner – I say to everyone else, they’re interviewing us as much as we’re interviewing them. The kind of partnership we want to have, it’s a two-way thing.’
Creating an equal playing field
What was most clear, being a fly on the wall at Play Now Melbourne 2025, was how unique this event is in the games landscape. As Armstrong says, there’s nothing quite like this forum where developers and publishers can meet each other on an equal playing field, in a space with minimal expectations.
While tension is inherent to pitching, developers ScreenHub spoke to described each conversation as being casual and friendly, with the structure of the event allowing for freeform discussion, without the anxiety and pressure that pitching in an alternative space may bring.
In the increasingly complex landscape of modern game development, Play Now Melbourne 2025 was a salve, providing the connections and space needed for developers to learn more about themselves and create networks of support that will allow them to continue creating great games into the future.
