Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) Screen Arts tutors Ruby Meades and Christopher Popham presented at the NZ Game Developers Conference (NZGDC) recently.
Held in Wellington on 26th – 27th September, it is the event of the year for game developers in New Zealand, to platform ideas and network with like-minded people. Mr Popham noted there were many talks reflecting the theme of ‘The People at the Heart of Games’, by putting staff wellbeing first. This year, there were 164 speakers, 158 sessions, more than 70 games on display, and the Kiwi Game Zone attracted more than 1,200 public visitors.
Ms Meades said the topic of their talk was ‘Get Stuck in the Jam’ – how to run successful game jams (making games over a weekend), “… we have hosted [game jams] at SIT over the past few years; we had Bachelor of Screen Arts and Bachelor of Information Technology students participating in the Kiwijam25 last July”, she explained.
Attending the conference in the capital provided some great networking opportunities for the tutors. “We were able to connect with the NZ games industry; we attended many other talks and have returned with up-to-date info for SIT students.”
Ms Meades stated statistics for the NZ games industry are very positive, with the Government announcing more funding for CODE (New Zealand Centre of Digital Excellence) in 2026, which will support more NZ-made games and industry opportunities. Mr Popham added that “there is a clear rise in smaller more responsive start-up companies that are going to start shaping the landscape of the industry, we were able to visit a couple while in Wellington.”
It's not just games that can be made in a weekend; Ms Meades organises the VF48Hours filmmaking competition, which was hosted at SIT in late August. This year there were four local teams, three of them made animated short films, as well as SIT students and graduates participating across NZ. She gave a shout-out to Student Support Services who provided a fantastic breakfast spread over the weekend. “There was enough food for second breakfast! Students also brought in home baking to keep up team morale,” Ms Meades said. The eight films from the Southland heat were screened at Te Rau o te Huia in mid-September to support local and Queenstown teams.
Ms Meades has also helped organise a mini-animation festival which was screened October 1st at SIT’s Creative Campus, Te Rau o te Huia, with four SIT entrants, helping to solidify connections with other animators in NZ and Australia. LoopdeLoop is a monthly challenge to create a looping animation based on a theme to encourage creativity and practice. The next screening is December 3rd, showing the October and November themes of Cat and Garden, will be held in the Church performance space and anyone is welcome to attend and get inspired.
Ms Meades said in her work she is motivated by wanting to see an increase in content production, and to create connections and community for students. “Let’s get even more films made, and more collaborations; that’s always the goal: to get more experience making projects.”