The Melbourne Queer Games Festival (MQGF) has today been announced, set to celebrate queer games over two days this October.
Described as a “relaxed, lofi, online event… by a small team of volunteers who love queer games,” the festival will coincide with Melbourne International Games Week and takes place on 22 & 23 October 2018. The event will include a livestream, itch.io games bundle and awards programme.
The festival’s mission statement says it has been designed “to inform, entertain and challenge LGBTIQ players by reflecting their lives in games,” bringing “the best of world queer culture to Melbourne” and to “enhance the reputation of Australian game developers.”
The Melbourne Queer Games Festival’s website is now open, allowing developers of queer games made (or substantially updated) within the last 18 months to submit their work. Submissions will be accepted from Australia and all around the world until 15 September, at which point a 3-5 person jury will begin to shortlist titles to be showcased as part of the festival and on its website.
“We’re really hoping that every type of LGBTIQ developer, including people who do it as a hobby or perhaps those that aren’t confident in their game dev skills, will share their games with us,” MGQF organiser (and developer of The Beat: A Glam Noir Game) Luke Miller told Stevivor.
“We love uncommercial games and games from the heart,” Miller continued, mirroring the website’s call for “big games, small games, fun games, serious games [and] trash games.”
The MGQF looks to award several honours to a variety of titles, with Gold and Silver categories recognising games of the year alongside a special Jury Prize for the title that “best embodies the spirit of queerness.”
Moreover, an in-festival livestream will showcase local and international titles alongside an event called Bring It Back, which will highlight an older queer game in hopes of bringing it to new audiences.
Stevivor is proud to have signed on with the MGQF as its official media partner and will be bringing the latest on the festival as soon as details are announced. Other partners include Chantilly Studio Inc and Miller’s own Up Multimedia.
Expect further details shortly.
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