Games & Play in Melbourne (Week 8 Lecture - Chad Toprak)

I first met Chad at the Parallels Freeplay Showcase at the Melbourne International Games Week in 2017, and we connected online after how I mentioned to him that Parallels ended up being my favourite event of MIGW, as it was such an intimate and unique showcase of locally made games. When I was offered a place in the MAGI program, Chad was also one of my contacts who influenced me to move to Melbourne and to study at RMIT. :)

The biggest takeaway for me from this lecture was Chad's proactive approach in creating the community and events he wanted after discovering there weren't any in Melbourne. Rather than waiting for someone else to give him that space and permission, he decided to start his own thing. It was so inspiring to hear his journey from founding Hovergarden, to curating Contours and finally to being the director of Freeplay. Taking that first step obviously requires a huge amount of courage. He also emphasized on the importance of community of practice, being supportive of each other. Oh, and to make weird disruptive stuff. :D

Thanks Chad for sharing your story!