Mental Jam

✅ Melbourne International Games Week My MIGW started with going on ABC Radio to talk about Games for Change. This was followed by speaking at Games for Change Asia-Pacific about Mini Melbourne (my project with Museums Victoria). Thank you Daniel Teitelbaum Vincent Trundle (he/him) Dale Linegar for putting together such a wonderful event, and Nico King 🔜 MIGW Ben Pederick Hailey Cooperrider Jess Rowlings for the social change panel. And catch up Li Ping Thong and Gillian Vesty from RMIT (thank you for the photos and post), and Ali Sanderson, the producer of one my museum projects, for answering questions for me in the panel. Then went to GCAP (Games Connect Asia Pacific) and caught up with my IGDA Foundation Virtual Exchange mentor Dan Vogt, and devs from the Philippines, Nikka Lao and my prof from DLSU days, Rafael Cabredo. Got to see some cool cosplays and play games with Raji Bokade Alexis Nicole Heffernan at the Big Games Night. Not related to MIGW, but I joined a panel at Women in Games 20th Anniversary Conference with Kah Hui Teo and Lucas Cheong where we talked about Asia Next Gen: Merging Play and STEM in Education. Finally PAX and chatting video games and mental health with my amazing panelists Nick Rinaldi Mrinalini Deswal Vignesh Revivarma. Somewhere in between all these I also chased and caught the aurora (iPhone 16 Pro is amazing, the photo is unedited). Now I can go to sleep 💤

Last Friday, I put on a labcoat and talked about video games about mental health in front of the State Library of Victoria as part of Soapbox Science Melbourne and Sydney 💜 I shared the stage with amazing lineup of inspiring STEM women who shared their research and stories. Ms. Kira M Hughes Dr. Lucy Lunevich Dr. Danzi (Daisy) Song Ms. Hanadi Sawalha Dr. Anahita Sal Moslehian, PHD, EDAC Dr. Kay Nguo Dr. Geetika Verma Ms. Payal Tiwari Dr. Thilini Thrimawithana Dr. Alessandra Ferri Dr. Sajitha Biju Thank you Dr Ruwangi Fernando STEM Sisters for putting it all together. Thank you also to all the volunteers Huiyi Liang Yanyi (Cara) Huang Nary Byun and many more ✨

If you know anyone in the video games, games for change, mental health space in Ho Chi Minh, please introduce me, thank you 🙇♀️ Also setting goals, identifying our problems, solutions and assumptions while having tropical fruit is amazing ✨ #MelbourneHCMCEntrepreneurExchange HEX Jaclyn Benstead

That's our Founder/Creator/all around awesome person being herself ✌🏿 So proud of you Dr. Michelle Chen, PhD

Calling all game developers, filmmakers, moving image artists, tech wizards and individual creators 🎮🐛🎥💻 Expressions of interest are now open for the ACMI + RMIT Audience Lab - an opportunity to showcase works in progress and gather valuable audience feedback. Expressions of interest are now open for the lab to be held from 11am-4pm on Sat 3 Aug. This workshop is presented in partnership with RMIT University, our Major Research Partner.  🔗 https://acmi.me/9I

📢 Calling All Gamers, Indie and Seasoned Game Developers & Game Dev students... Have you ever felt depressed or anxious? And looking for way to channel those emotions? Make a game with me about your lived experiences of mental health struggles as a form of creative self-expression ✨ First Step! Join this Game Ideas Workshop, where we pour all ideas on a page.💜👾💜 What type of games do you like to play? What kinds of representations of mental health do you want to see more in video games? I want to know 💭🧐 Please note: 👉You must be 18+ years old to participate 👉You DO NOT need to have a background in video game development 👉Tickets are Pay-What-You-Want (you can get it for FREE!!!)

The world of video games is becoming multi-platform, mainstream, and endlessly creative. Today we’re revealing Discord's next chapter. ❗Since Stanislav Vishnevskiy and I started Discord nine years ago, gaming has become the largest and fastest growing form of entertainment. It’s bigger than movies and music combined. Today, 200 million people use Discord every month, and over 90% of them play games to the tune of over 1.5 billion hours per month. 🤯 We believe Discord will play a uniquely important role in the future of gaming, so we’re focused on making it easier and more fun for friends to talk and hang out before, during and after playing. 🎮 For players, our immediate focus is going to be on getting you to your conversations with friends quickly, ensuring you can talk and hang out reliably, and giving you more fun things to do whether you’re chatting in text or hanging out on VC. ⌨ For devs and publishers, we will continue to release new features such as Quests and our embedded activities platform to help you bring your creativity to our global audience on Discord. To celebrate Discord’s next chapter, we’ve updated our look to reflect where we’re headed, inspired by the fun and games people enjoy with one another. You’ll see this in different places starting today, and we hope you dig it. As a kid, I got into video games as a way to spend time with friends, and it’s humbling to see how so many people have embraced Discord as part of their daily lives to form lasting friendships. To learn more about Discord’s next chapter, read on here:

Meet the Startups at the LaunchHUB Pitch Night! Good luck to Dr. Michelle Chen, PhD our founder/jammer and we will see you there!

Congratulations Dr. Michelle Chen, PhD! Good luck in Vietnam 💜

🧠 The video games mental health charity Safe In Our World is launching Mental Health Game Dev Champions 2024. The game jam is aimed at empowering gamers and developers to create intimate and personal video games based on real lived experiences. Game Dev Champions 2024 is a worldwide event, encouraging entries from a variety of ages, skills, and diverse backgrounds. You have until the 1st June to register for the Game Dev Champions. At that point the event officially starts and no further entries will be allowed. The development window is open for 5 months, and at the end of October will close to allow a month for judging. Find out more 👇 https://lnkd.in/eRSzU8rW