The first week of Indie Allsorts was a blast! While we knew gamers would get a kick out of playing games on the Big Screen, we weren’t anticipating just how many people would stop by to join in the fun – we even had gamers setting up their own laptops, showing us even more awesome indie games in addition to our own setlist.

Due to a mix-up, we altered the day’s setlist to feature the games Pole Riders and Super Crate Box, and both proved a hit, encouraging some particularly crazy vaulting moves in our players. Ninja, which we ran in sessions alongside the two digital games, was also immensely popular, with impressive stances and hand-slaps all over the place. Chad Toprak was on hand with his camera, and you’ll find his beautiful photos on our Facebook gallery.

The fun’s not dying down, though. We’re now planning the second week of Indie Allsorts, which will see gamers playing Canabalt and a PC build of Aussie favourite Ski Safari on the Big Screen. We’ll also be running Freeplay favourite Lemon Jousting alongside the digital games, so don’t be sour – come get your fun on with us! We’ve got a Facebook event running, and it’s open to public, so invite your friends to drop by Fed Square to unwind after the workday. We’re playing this Wednesday the 6th, from 6 to 9pm.

You may remember that last year, we had some friends at Pop Up Playground help us out with the festival. Now the team’s running the international festival Fresh Air. If you enjoy physical games, or if you’re one of the ninjas from Indie Allsorts, Fresh Air is just your thing – three days of super-playful pervasive and social games. It begins at Fed Square, this Friday the 8th at 6pm, and lasts all weekend. Check out the Facebook event for a program of events and activities.

Finally, I just wanted to give a small shoutout to a couple of talented developers who’ve previously turned up in the Freeplay Awards. Firstly, Alexander Bruce, recipient of 2011′s X award, has finally released his four-years-in-the-making opus Antichamber, and it’s been doing excellently on Steam. Check it out, though be warned – it can get a little head-hurty at times (and I mean that in the loveliest way possible). Meanwhile, Christy Dena is now running a crowdfunding campaign for her unique web game AUTHENTIC IN ALL CAPS, which was both nominated for and highly commended in 2012′s narrative award category. Both Christy and Alexander are immensely talented developers, and we’re proud to see Freeplay alum doing so well.

That’s it for now. We hope to see you at Federation Square this Wednesday – and as ever, check out the official Indie Allsorts page for the coming weeks’ programs.

It was sad to hear that Paul Callaghan was stepping down as director. I’ve joked before that I’ve always seen him as “the Freeplay guy,” and it’s an absolute honour now that Harry Lee and myself have been appointed to take up his position, to pick up the reins and continue where he left off. It’s kind of crazy, and kind of scary – how do we take the cultural pillar that is Freeplay and make it into something even better?

Harry and I throw ideas at each other every day. We won’t be forgetting Freeplay’s roots, beginning back in 2004 with founders Katharine Neil and Marcus Westbury’s desire to discuss the culture of independent game creation outside of the studio world. Paul will still have heavy involvement in the festival, taking up a position on the board. Harry and I are committed to encouraging the growth of new thoughts and practices; Freeplay has always been a place for fresh and vital ideas, and we intend to continue being at the forefront of international discussion. In the coming weeks, we’ll be putting out a call for your feedback. We want to hear from you about what you’ve loved in the previous years, and what you would like to see more of. We want to shake things up – but we also want to continue to strengthen the community, and retain the playfulness that drew us all to Freeplay to begin with.

So with that said, we’re very excited to announce our first project of 2013 under the Freeplay banner. Beginning on the 30th of January, we’ll be hosting Indie Allsorts – the best of local and international gaming at Federation Square.

Each Wednesday evening will see us presenting independent games for visitors to play on the Big Screen. Simultaneously, we’ll be running physical games in the Square, allowing for different and exciting forms of participation and involvement. A mix of Australian and international designers’ games will be available to sample and to savour. Indie Allsorts will run for five weeks from 6 to 9pm on Wednesdays, with the final event concluding on the 27th of February. As the sun sets, join us in running, pole riding, skiing, drawing, jumping, and being a ninja. Indie Allsorts is set to be a sweet way to close out the summer, and we really hope to see you there.

Running a festival is a unique experience, and a games festival even more so. After 7 events over 9 years, Freeplay remains the only thing like it in Australia, and I feel incredibly privileged to have been part of it for the past 4 years.

For me, the most important thing about Freeplay has always been the way it pulls the process of game development away from businesses and studios back to a conversation about people making things. I felt that way in 2005 & 2007 when I came along as a speaker and an audience member, getting to sit and discuss my ideas and experiences with people thinking about a life outside of the studio system – a space which has become increasingly important as game development and what it means to be independent has changed around us.  As the outgoing director, I’m grateful for the challenges and inspiration I found every year in putting the festival on, in the people who so generously donated their time and energy to the whole thing, and in the way Freeplay was able to be part of what it means to engage with games as a maker, critic, educator, artist, or player.

I want to thank everyone who has been part of Freeplay in the past – founders, directors, and Next Wave; the Freeplay Board; all the volunteers and associate producers who’ve given up their time; everyone who has been part of the festival’s programming committee; the organisations who have worked with Freeplay over the years as sponsors and partners; and to everyone who has spoken at, attended, or even thought about the festival.  Freeplay is what it is because of your generosity, time, and energy.

After 4 years of urging people to go make things the time has come for me to do just that. I’m excited about what the future holds, and in putting into practice what I’ve learned at the festival – and I’m also excited about future festivals challenging me in ways I can’t predict under the direction of new directors Katie Williams and Harry lee. I wish them all the very best in the role, and I know that with them at the helm, Freeplay will remain unique, quirky, creative, experimental, personal, and inspiring to a new wave of people who want to go out and make things.

See you at #freeplay13!

Katie Williams is a freelance games journalist, writer, and critic. She has regularly contributed to publications such as PC PowerPlay, GameSpy, HYPER, Atomic, and Kotaku AU. As the holder of a games degree, she has had a long-term curiosity about the mental and mechanical processes that go into games development, and the discussions that games can spark in players as well as in the greater context of creative culture. She also maintains a personal blog, Alive Tiny World, in which she explores (or sometimes just plain rants about) the way game worlds echo or intersect with our own.

Harry Lee is an independent game developer passionate about play, puzzles, and surprises who creates elegant, minimalist videogames with his studio, Wanderlands. In 2011, he released Impasse to critical acclaim, then later went on to win the Ludum Dare 22 Jam with Midas, a mythology inspired platformer. He also makes non-digital experiences combining physical play and social dynamics.

On taking on the role, Katie said: “Freeplay has an important cultural as well as personal meaning for me. Freeplay 2010 was a turning point for me, cementing my path as a critic, journalist, and now co-director of the festival. Harry and I hope to inspire and influence attendees in the same way in 2013.”

Harry added, “I’m thrilled to be working with Katie and the Freeplay board to build upon the cultural foundation and community of the festival.  I’m looking forward to continuing Freeplay’s mission of promoting the values of independent game culture and its engagement with the wider artistic, creative, and critical community.”

Speaking for Freeplay’s board, Chair Hugh Davies said: “We have two exciting new leaders to take the festival into the future and we’re pleased to also retain the organisational knowledge of Paul Callaghan, Freeplay’s previous director, who has become a member of the board. Together, we’re all very much looking forward to the energy, insight, and growth of the festival under Katie and Harry’s leadership.”

Plans are already underway for the 2013 festival in September, as well as some exciting partnerships and events in the months ahead which will expand Freeplay’s unique mix of the independent, the artistic, the creative, and the cultural.

Sadly, we could only pick three finalists, and one eventual winner, but for the first time, our judges felt there were projects which deserved to be highly commended too – and here they all are, the finalists, winners, and highly commended games in the Freeplay 2012 Awards.

Best Technical Innovation

Automation – Camshaft Software

Runners up

• [tesseract] – Douglas Warouw, Jason Fernandez
• Lunar Flight – Sean Edwards

Highly commended

• Colour Bind – Finn Morgan
• Spirit Hunters – Nnooo

Best Audio in a Game

Lunar Flight – Sean Edwards

 Runners Up

• Expand – Christopher Johnson, Christopher Larkin
• They Love You – Zac Duff, Henrik Pettersson, Paul Annesley, and Nathan Antony

Best Concept Art

Peleda – Vishus Productions / Fiasco Studios

Runners Up

• DEATHSPUDS – Josh Sacco / Adam Taylor
• One Seed – Ariel Magnes

Best Art in a Game

Toybox – Barrel of Donkeys

Runners Up

• Little Things Forever – Matthew Hall
• The Last Stand: Dead Zone – Con Artist Games

Highly Commended

• Vector
• Puzzle Puppets – Byte Sized Wombat

Best Writing in a Game

Flatland: Fallen Angle – See Through Studios

Runners Up

• AUTHENTIC IN ALL CAPS – Christy Dena
• Gamebook Adventures 8: Infinite Universe – Andrew Drage

Highly Commended

• Muddle Farm
• Alone in the Park – Cheap Drunk Games

Best Design in a Game

They Love You – Zac Duff, Henrik Pettersson, Paul Annesley, and Nathan Antony

Runners Up

• escapeVektor – Nnooo
• Stickets – Wanderlands

Highly Commended

• Little Things Forever – KlickTock
• Beans Quest – Kumobius
• Rad Skater Apocalypse – MuzBoz

Best International Game

Splice – Cipher Prime

Watch their acceptance video.

Runners Up

• HUEBRIX – Yellow Monkey Studios
• The Fourth Wall – Logan Fieth

Highly Commended

• Nihilumbra – Beautifun Games

Best Australian Game

Stickets – Wanderlands

Runners Up

• Little Things Forever – Matthew Hall
• Toybox – Barrel of Donkeys

Highly Commended

• Flatland: Fallen Angle
• They Love You
• Vector
• escapeVektor

Tell us about yourself.

I’m Scott Reismanis, I run two social game development sites ModDB.com and IndieDB.com and have been doing so since 2002. These sites have since spawned Desura.com and IndieRoyale.com which sell games and bundles of games digitally.

What are you working on right now? 

Working on quite a few projects simultaneously, but the biggest (and still kind of a secret) is SlideDB.com a social development site for mobile games.
What’s a non-gaming entertainment / artistic highlight of the past 12 months for you?

Listening to Soundgarden perform “Beyond the Wheel” live at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl earlier this year.

What do you wished you’d worked on? Why?

Kinda wished I finished “gameinjector” which was going to be like Desura a digital distribution store I started working on way back in 2006.

What does being independent mean to you?

It means having the creative freedom to explore different ideas even when I’m not certain they will succeed, but I’m going to try because their cool and benefit the community we reach.

What do you think the biggest change with what you do will be in the next 5 years?

Wish I knew, a lot is going to change – how we buy games, where we buy them from, how we play them – all I know is we will keep innovating and remaining involved in this great industry.

Tell us about yourself and what you do.

I’ve had to settle on simply calling myself a writer, because journalist/commentator/blogger is a little unwieldy. I write about games themselves, but also the industry and culture around them.

What are you working on right now?

I’ve just left behind the security blanket that is a day job, so I’m currently working out how to make freelancing work.

What are you glad you never worked on?

I’m glad I’ve never worked for or with anyone who’s asked me to compromise my principles of journalistic objectivity. I’ve always felt free to express my own subjective truth.

What is your earliest gaming memory – digital or otherwise?

It’s very hard to say, but I suspect it was a local restaurant that used cocktail arcade cabinets for tables. Frogger, Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaxian… A close second would be the first generation of Nintendo Game & Watch.

What does being independent mean to you?

The freedom to choose your own projects, complete them in a way that feels right for you, and to then be able to sell your product through the channels and at the price you decide are appropriate.

If you didn’t do what you do, what sort of thing would take up your time?

I honestly can’t imagine it. Playing games, talking to others about games… These things are so integral to my life that an alternate universe me with no interest in them wouldn’t really be me at all.

Tell us about yourself.

Hey, I’m Katie. I’m a full-time freelance games journalist who writes regularly for HYPER, PC PowerPlay, and GameSpy, amongst other publications. I also run my own blog, Alive Tiny World, where I like to explore games and the culture surrounding them in ways you wouldn’t ordinarily find in mainstream publications.

What are you working on right now?

Currently, just a massive backlog of stories and interviews (my “article ideas” document is five pages long, and that doesn’t include the various interviews I’ve yet to write up). I’d like to find some spare time in between that to explore fiction-writing, and eventually, maybe even contribute some writing to a game…

What has been the biggest change with what you do in the past 5 years?

Five years ago I was simply a gamer, and gaming wasn’t something that I – or anyone around me – thought I’d be able to make a living out of. Secretly, I also always wanted to be a writer, but I didn’t think that’d be able to feed me, either.

Doing a games degree at uni made me think, “Hey, there really aren’t a lot of people out there who see games the way that I do.” I leveraged my constant desire to write to begin getting my thoughts on games out there – first through blogging, and then in magazines. Looking back on it, this has all happened in just a year and a half, so it’s been a crazy fast journey for me. What’s made it so fulfilling is when people write to tell me they appreciate my viewpoint, or thank me for helping them see a game in a way they hadn’t considered before. There is a lot of room for games criticism, see, and I believe it really does change the direction games are heading in.

If you didn’t do what you do, what sort of thing would take up your time?

I suppose I would have some sort of “real job”, one that would still involve writing in some capacity. I’d travel a lot. I also imagine I’d have more time to actually play games instead of just writing about them!

What do you wish you had worked on and why?

While I respect many writers and sometimes wish I’d written the entire back catalogues of certain journalists and authors, honestly, I’m more interested in contributing what little unique insight I can myself. It’ll probably take awhile before I come close to writing as well as those I look up to, though!

What is your favourite ever creative moment?

Showering. No, seriously. Despite getting to smell all peachy and clean, that’s also where some of the best ideas come to me.

Tell us about yourself: who are you and what you do?

I’m a web developer, librarian, knowledge manager, and broadcaster for Triple R’s Byte Into It program.

What are you working on right now?

Encouraging lawyers to use an enterprise social media application to share data and build knowledge. Mentoring year 11 students about career options.

What are you glad you never worked on?

Y2K resilience projects.

If you didn’t do what you do, what sort of thing would take up your time?

Combining my interests in music, dance and technology, to develop interactive musical experiences. With lasers.

What do you wished you’d worked on? Why?

It would have been fascinating to do the video editing for Sir David Attenborough’s Panet Earth series. I’ve always loved the sense of scale you can generate with judicious zooming.

What are you playing right now – digital or otherwise?

Nethack, Magic piano, Waking Mars, Gesundheit.

Tell us about yourself.

I’m currently Media Designer @ Firemonkeys, the game studio created by the merging of Firemint & Iron Monkey.

What are you working on right now?

Currently I’m hard at work on Real Racing 3 plus a number of other projects.

What are you glad you never worked on?

Any game that has the words “Ville” or “With Friends” at the end of the title.

What do you wished you’d worked on? Why?

Slender as it’s so simple yet really effective.

What does being independent mean to you?

Not having to compromise your vision.

What thing that you’ve worked on are you most proud of?

I always think everything could be better but I’m probably proudest of the work I’ve done with fashion as it was the most challenging and pushed me beyond my comfort zone.