Freeplay | The Shape of Games to Come talks and games and friends

Announcing: Freeplay is here to stay. Parallels 2026 is coming and we're advocating for games to be funded as art. Read more and get involved: freeplay.net.au/posts/freepl...

Brother congratulations I love this for you

The Outersloth Contract | Innersloth - Creators of Among Us and The Henry Stickmin Collection! Hello!

💰THE OUTERSLOTH CONTRACT 💰

We just released the FULL contract and terms that all our games sign!

We hope this challenges the status quo of what you see out there.

In a nutshell:
💸 Pre-recoup 50/50
💸 Post-recoup 15/85
💸 Terms after 7 years

www.innersloth.com/the-outerslo...

CONTINUE: A Defiant, New Videogames Magazine Bringing together journalists, devs and artists, CONTINUE celebrates and interrogates videogame culture, creativity and community

I want to introduce you all to something myself and @jacksonwryan.com have been working on.

A PRINT MAGAZINE about video games and video game culture.

We know things have been bad for games writing recently. We're asking, "do you want to Continue?"

www.kickstarter.com/projects/con...

that sounds sick, mentally logging it

Steam message board thread "make local coop to play with wife"

make local coop to play with wife

pogging

I had no idea!! I would have come in

wtf you're in Melbourne?? WHERES THIS PANEL WHATS HAPPENING

lmao

Save 30% on Dogpile on Steam Dogpile is a roguelike deck builder about merging cute dogs into bigger dogs. Play dogs, get money, customize your dogs with special Traits, refine your deck, PLAY MORE DOGS! DOGS!

dogpile is on sale for $7 USD and it's 96% positive so you legally have to buy it I don't make the rules

store.steampowered.com/app/3839300/...

I believe you that it may have been similar 15 years ago, and I would question whether those formalities were worthwhile+appropriate for the scale back then, like I do now

The point I'm trying to make (as someone involved in other, scrappier endeavours) is that modern Freeplay is better situated and positioned to handle more formal endeavours.

The level of obsessive deliberation and care that goes into every decision we make is not optimal for small scale shindigs

Really sad to hear today that Freeplay Independent Games Festival is likely coming to the end of its adventure in 2026 after 22 incredible years. Freeplay has been pivotal to my own career and I have some complex, straight out contradictory feelings about the announcement I wanna try to articulate.

And finally, can I just say Freeplay is 100% run by volunteers atm. The board are volunteers. We have volunteers, they are us.

People keep talking about how leaning into less-formal volunteers is somehow the solution to running 500+, 1000+(!!!) ticketed events and that my friends, is not the way xx

And almost more importantly for me, I don't trust SOME other organisations hosting big events here in Australia. I don't trust them to make cool events, I don't trust them to curate a healthy community, I don't trust them to advocate for our needs.

ONCE AGAIN IF NOT FREEPLAY, THEN WHOMST

Parallels had 1100 seats in 2025, and has risen to be a critical part of Melb games week, and Freeplay has grown to be a responsible, formal organisation that can run it with grace. It's not perfect obviously, but it's mostly awesome.

The formalities, for a guy like me, are honestly frustrating. The idea of larping as some little indie punk rock "fuck it we do what we want" reads very "hello fellow children" and just isn't reflective of what's happening internally at all.

To me, it's a no brainer, because the "Old Freeplay" some of you are still asking for was long dead years ago.

We have insurance out the gills, every meeting is meticulously minuted, we have strategy days, an outrageously curated board with lawyers, government folk, educators, developers etc.

So should we "go back to the old days" and just host humble scrappy events in warehouses with borrowed TVs, or should we be a more formal organisation that considers growth, lobbies for change, and attempts to look out for the needs of the community.

That is to say, Freeplay means a lot of things to a lot of people. Funnily, I personally think people arguing, disagreeing about who we are and what we're doing has become a critical pillar of our identity now.

Other than making space to celebrate weird af games and their creators, of course.

We've found ourselves in the curious situation where Freeplay is actually well situated to move the needle in this regard. The org has a respectable history, our board has a ton of experience, we are well connected and know the landscape.

If we won't have the conversations, who will?

It's a huge problem, talk about it, especially if you're a prominent company who will be listened to by the suits, help us untangle this fuckery.

First and foremost, for whatever reason (likely oversight) games arts orgs and events seem to have no formal avenue for funding on the state level. This poses an imminent threat to organisations such as Freeplay, and likely means certain death for less established entities trying to find their way.

As one of Freeplay's 11(ish) board members, I want to add my personal 2 cents to a few things about Freeplay in these fried af times. It's important to know I'm just a meager part of the Voltron that is Freeplay, and these are my personal opinions + do not reflect the view of the org or the board

Dogpile is a wonderful game.

I think it's easy to play a little bit & say "yeah it's cool but it's not that strategic" but that's part of what makes it work. Every design choice creates this cohesively casual experience without sacrificing fun. Here's why you should play it:

accidentally introduced a bug to the game where all the text got replaced with "you"

I am pleased to announce that I have commandeered my neighbor's home. This home will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, to ensure it is used to benefit my neighbor and me! Thank you for your attention to this matter!

stranger things are just kinda like normal things for a guy like me