Games Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) 2026 will take place in Melbourne from 5 – 7 October 2026, as part of the prestigious Melbourne International Games Week. This year, GCAP celebrates 20 years of serving the Australian games industry. The 2026 Australian Game Developer Awards will close out GCAP on 7 October.
GCAP is a professional games conference, focusing on upskilling and building connections for mid-to senior-level video game practitioners.
In 2025, the global games industry experienced rapid shifts in direction, markets and technology. As an industry and community, these challenges were met with the enquiry, resilience, and collaboration that characterise those at the intersection of arts and technology.
With greater focus on advanced-level talks, GCAP 2026’s sessions will be designed not just to open discussion but to provide education and help the Australian video games industry and community develop and thrive. Attendees can expect in-depth talks for development disciplines, engaging roundtables, and keynotes grounded in reality to enhance professional development.
GCAP 2026 will have the conversation about the years to come and how we can best nurture our green shoots. GCAP will embrace and create opportunities for games developers, uniting them towards our shared future. As such, our content will reflect that with these key focuses:
Future Ready: Do you know what the next 12 months will look like? How about the next 5 years? In such a rapidly expanding and evolving industry, it can be hard to know what comes next. But our decisions today will help nurture the growth of tomorrow. Technology shifts, actionable scopability to keep up with trends, co-operative development, funding – let’s plan for a future that works for us.
I’M HERE! Making your mark: Year on year, the number of games released on Steam increases, usually by the thousands. Social media grows and expands across different platforms and content. How is anyone meant to navigate carving out their spot? How do you find your niche, get noticed and grow the attention you need for funding? Discoverability remains a hot topic, and this year GCAP 2026 will focus not only on your game’s visibility but also on storytelling through company and personality branding.
Indie Indie Indie!: oi oi oi! The past 12 months have shown the indie revolution is strong! Indies are smashing the market and award shows with hit titles such as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Hades II, PEAK and more. This year, we examine the indie opportunities, whether “friendslop” is a real term, and what it takes to sometimes make your games off the smell of an oily rag.
Numbers Game: With a dozen different analytics reports coming out daily on LinkedIn, how do you know what numbers you’re looking for? What player data do you truly need to improve your game? Speakers specialising in a variety of analytics areas, from player to marketing to monetisation, will help you not drown in a sea of data.
As such our Focus tracks will be:
And our discipline tracks will be:
We will only accept intermediate-to-advanced level talks. These talks will be grounded in practical reality, with tangible takeaways and educational outcomes for audiences.
Through internal review and feedback, GCAP 2026 will deliver the skills the industry has told us they require. Sav Wolfe will be leading content curation once more, supported by a team of professional games practitioners, working within the discipline, they will help lead to ensure relevance and quality of our topics and speakers.
Our schedule will be comprised of curated talks drawn from both submitted talks and hand-picked content from our GCAP Subject Experts.
All speakers will receive a full pass to both GCAP 2026 and The AGDAs. Speakers will be compensated $200 AUD per talk slot, not per speaker. We do not currently accept panel or roundtable submissions.
This year, only select highlight talks will be recorded. Speakers who are selected for the highlight and plenary talks will be contacted prior to recording. These select sessions made publicly available on our YouTube Channel.
Detailed applications are highly recommended.
If you have any questions or enquiries, please reach out to:
