Festival 2025

Three days exploring the transformative potential of digital games, bringing together developers, educators, researchers and change-makers to show how interactive storytelling and immersive gameplay can solve real-world problems.

Summit

Wed 8 Oct 2025

Showcase

Tue 7 & Thu 9 Oct

Venue

ACMI, Federation Square, Melbourne

The Summit

Summit program

A full day of keynotes and panels at ACMI Cinema 2, Wednesday 8 October 2025.

8:30 am

Registration

9:15 am

Welcome

Welcome remarks

Games for Change Australia & ACMI

9:30 am

Keynote

Sustainability

Dr Ben Abraham, Sustainable Games Alliance

10:00 am

Session 1

Behavioural Change

Prof Gillian Vesty (RMIT University) · Richard Salter (Hojo Studio) · Nico King (Chaos Theory)

11:15 am

Session 2

Mental Health

Jake Truman (Entropy Interactive) · Dr Michelle Chen (Mental Jam) · Dr Vasileios Stavropoulos (RMIT University)

12:30 pm

Break

Lunch

1:45 pm

Session 3

Education and Training

Dr Spyros Schismenos (RMIT University) · Graham Hannah (UNSW) · Garry Westmore (ACMI)

3:00 pm

Session 4

Accessibility and Representation

Jess Rowlings (University of Melbourne / Next Level Collaboration) · Neema Iyer (STEMtoto) · Kasey Gambling (The Honeytrap)

4:15 pm

Keynote

Empathy

Dr Susannah Emery, University of South Australia

4:45 pm

Closing remarks

5:00 pm

Social

Drinks

The Showcase

Showcase

A free public showcase of impact games across two evenings, Tuesday 7 and Thursday 9 October at ACMI, Federation Square. Full showcase line-up announced closer to the event.

Free entry

Presented with

2025 partners & supporters

ACMI · RMIT University · Chaos Theory · Playful Thinking

Games for Change Australia acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we live, work and play, and pays respect to Elders past and present.