The Tasmanian game community is the best in the world! That’s the whole post! We are truly blessed here with not only talent but also a system that believes in us and it’s this system that resulted in the creation of Level Up Tasmania. The event was the first ever video game showcase in Tasmania.
This event couldn’t have come together without the amazingly talented team at Screen Tasmania (more on them later), our local government and Screen Australia. Level Up Tasmania showed exactly what Dean, Smash Attack Studios owner and Game Director, had known after years of being a part of the scene: That there are some truly talented and passionate creators just needing that extra hand getting into the spotlight.
The event began with some local media
So before we gush about our fellow creatives, let’s look at what we got up to at Level Up Tasmania!
Nullstar: Solus and ShapeVS were in attendance and, wow! What a reception. For ShapeVS, this had been its first convention since PAX Aus 2022 after its release into early access. To see people to this day still enjoy and love the game (despite Dean’s conflicted relationship with it) was an awesome sight to behold. A huge thank you to Emma and the volunteers team for helping us and everyone else showcasing at the event. Without them, we truly couldn’t have achieved what we did.
Oli guides the masses!
Nullstar: Solus was our main attraction, fresh off the Gamescom press and into local events with PAX Aus 2024 being only a week and a bit away at the time of writing. I guess the easiest way to write this is to echo the above sentiment of ‘Wow! What a reception!’. We were blown away by the positivity and comments that resulted in a huge bump in wishlists and follows (which if you haven't done you should totes go do).
Aside from a few bugs, which we managed to solve whilst at Level Up, the feedback was great from players as young as 6 playing to as old as 60+. It was amazing to see such a wide spread of players not only play the game but also enjoy it, get the hook and understand what we are aiming to accomplish. A true highlight came on Friday when two school kids came and raced each other for nearly 20 minutes trying to outdo each other. It's moments like those that make us realise why Nullstar: Solus is not just special to us but also the people we are making it for.
There was always a line of pilots ready to go
Now on to the soppy stuff and deepest of thanks to those who have helped us out! Firstly Oli, Alex, Emi, Emma and names that are swirling around our heads that we forgot to mention from Screen Tasmania. Thank you! This would not have been possible without you. Those who believe us developers are what made this event come to life would be sorely mistaken. Without Screen Tasmania and believing in developers across the state, a lot of us wouldn’t be here today to have a showcase. All the prep in such a small amount of time to achieve what they did was truly incredible.
The esports showcase was an amazing success
Also, a big thanks to Screen Australia for their grant as well as the Tasmanian government most notably our minister for arts, The Honourable Madeleine Ogilvie, and everyone from that side who was involved.
To our speakers who traveled down, I am blessed to be able to call you friends and co-workers in this amazing space! Liam, Merry, Jacob, Josie, Amelia and Dakoda all do such amazing, inspiring things in the game space in Australia. To be able to have that knowledge shared locally was truly something special.
To the over 2000 people that attended the actual event, the 100+ people who registered and attended for the industry day, the esports showcase participants and more, just thank you, from all of us.
There were some truly amazing talks
I am sure we missed some things but I didn’t want to make this too long. We have some news about Nullstar: Solus coming soon at PAX (updated demo woohoo!) and more. Thanks for reading and look forward to sharing more soon! And remember, be faster and hit that wishlist and follow button!