CODE’s Campaign to MIGW: “Incredibly valuable experience”
- laurenksaker
- 4 hours ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 36 minutes ago
With the support of our partners at New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (NZTE), NZ CODE headed up a large contingent of Kiwis who made it across the Tasman for our fourth Melbourne International Games Week (MIGW) campaign.
Overall, the combined CODE and NZTE cohort made up around 50 members to MIGW, including marquee events such as Game Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) and PAX Australia, the largest digital games festival in the Southern Hemisphere.
Here are the highlights from our MIGW 2025:
GCAP is Australia's foremost professional development conference and networking event. With support from CODE, seven teams took up the opportunity to attend GCAP, gaining valuable business development insights through expert talks and networking.
Skyler Zeng, Director of Auckland-based KittyWampus studio, took a lot from the talks at GCAP - “It was amazing to hear from such experienced people in industry, some of which being developers for games I admire deeply. Everyone was so open and I was able to talk to some of them after their talks, which was both extremely fun, and super informative.”
Pictured: Skyler Zeng (KittyWampus) presents Bashful Adoration at GCAP Pitch.
Skyler was also selected to present at GCAP Pitch hosted by VicScreen, pitching directly to a panel of experienced games investors and publishers - as well as a live audience - showcasing his game, Bashful Adoration, and receiving invaluable advice and feedback.
“GCAP Pitch was such a great experience - getting up on stage to talk about our game, Bashful Adoration in front of a large audience and to a panel of big publishers, was such a privilege - the feedback gave the team and I a lot to think about. It was also nice having people come to our booth at PAX and comment on how much they enjoyed the pitch, and then trying out the game for themselves.”
NZ Game Dev Breakfast & Panel Discussion
Hamish Campbell, NZTE Trade Commissioner - Sydney, and the Melbourne-based Australia Pacific Events Team, hosted the NZ Game Dev Breakfast networking event and panel discussion, with over 100 people in attendance at Cargo Hall.
“NZTE has been running these networking events at MIGW, as well as other events like Gamescom and GDC, for some years now”, says CODE's Industry Development Manager, Vee Pendergrast.
Pictured: Networking at the NZ Game Dev Breakfast, hosted by NZTE - Australia Pacific Events Team.
It’s always great to get local and international industry at an event with Kiwi developers, and we really appreciate NZTE’s evolving interest and support for CODE - the relationships develop over time and everyone benefits from NZTE running these sessions and creating this environment”.
Haylon Smith, NZTE Regional Director for Australia Pacific - Sydney, conducted a panel of Australian industry guests with New Zealand connections, including: Alayna Cole (Game Studies lecturer, consultant, mentor and writer), Stacia Grooby (Founder/Director, Network Growth: SKG Collective), and Meredith Hall (Producer, Marketer, Business developer in indie games).
Pictured: Industry guest panel at the NZ Game Dev Breakfast.
Now in its 12th year, the country's biggest gaming festival reached a record crowd, filling the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre to capacity.
Over three days, more than 85,000 gaming enthusiasts, various media outlets, content creators, streamers, console platform account managers, and publishers attended - many of whom returning to the CODE booth for their second and third visits to experience Aotearoa's top indie games.
Pictured: CODE's booth, in collaboration with NZTE, showcased 18 games from across the nation.
"Amidst all the chaos, noise, and overstimulation, one aspect of the experience stands out," stated Gareth Fox of Bunguin Games, located in Ngamōtu-New Plymouth, "and that is the camaraderie."
"Not only here is the CODE booth - where we catch up in between playtests as friends old and new, but among all of the other indie developers too - we trade booths with scrappy teams from all over the world, cheering each other on as peers and inspiration.
And then you have the public - who above all love games as much as you do, who want to see you succeed. In a competitive industry, that sense of belonging is so strong. It makes the months of hard work worth it."
Pictured: CODE and NZTE booth ft. 18 NZ-made games at PAX AUS 2025.
Our participants have seen a spike in Wishlists for their games, varying from modest to substantial, and many new players enjoyed themselves greatly.
“The LKS team had an incredibly valuable experience at PAX - showcasing our game to so many passionate attendees, collecting amazing feedback, and connecting with fellow creators from across the industry - one we couldn’t have achieved without the support from CODE!” - Cait Stewart, lead artist at Dunedin-based, Lesser Key Studios.
Pictured: CODE and NZTE booth ft. 18 NZ-made games at PAX AUS 2025.
Following the event, there has been a significant amount of media attention; CODE is currently assisting the teams with commercial follow-ups and business opportunities as a result.
“It was an amazing experience that gave me a lot of perspective on who wants to play my game, what they liked about it, and gave me enthusiasm to keep going!” - Jack Clarke, Founder of Christchurch-based studio, Headplug Games.
Pictured: CODE and NZTE booth ft. 18 NZ-made games at PAX AUS 2025.
An incredibly successful MIGW campaign - thanks, teams!
A special thanks to NZTE for your ongoing support, and the Australia Pacific Events Team for hosting the New Zealand Game Dev Breakfast, celebrating the creativity of Aotearoa's incredible gaming sector.
For the full list of Aotearoa-made games showcased at PAX AUS 2025, click here.
CODE's booth at PAX AUS 2025 was only enabled by the generous support of our funders Kānoa (Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit) and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
Expressions of Interest for CODE Round 7 Travel Grants
CODE are looking to support Aotearoa New Zealand based teams to achieve commercialisation outcomes by supporting them with travel grants.
Expressions of Interest for CODE Round 7 Travel Grants are now open. Please check the Travel Grant Guidelines and Expressions of Interest form for more information, here.