Freeplay goes in a new direction with Parallels

"Ultimately, I think the one thing which everybody wants to see regardless of what particular bent they bring to gaming (critic, gamemaker, the general public) is seeing people talk about what they’re making and why," said Festival Director Daniel Golding of the intention of the event.

It showcased a specific kind of indie title, with the gamemakers showing their work-in-progress (largely experimental) games to an audience not restricted just to other developers or to the public, and with no particular agenda to educate or to sell, but just to talk and to show.

On display at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) were nine games which ranged from arcade to abstract. As the first of the new format events for Freeplay, it was a good start and a sold-out event.

"It was almost an attempt to distill the essence of a lot of what we see at games events," Golding continued. "Yes, you’ll get amazing talks about how people have worked on games technically, or how they’ve put stuff together in terms of funding, but I think it was impressive to see them all next to each other like that – to see interesting games that are starting to come together in different ways working in different ways. It highlighted that."

A trailer showing the games lineup is available here, and the Freeplay and the ACMI is releasing a full video of the event shortly.