DevCon 2025
DevCon is Australia’s annual industry event focused on tabletop game design. It’s where designers, publishers, manufacturers, artists, and community leaders connect, trade notes, and share playtests before the consumer spotlight of PAX kicks off.
It’s on the 9th of October and it’s located at The Mission to Seafarers (717 Flinders St, Docklands VIC 3005)
This year we were lucky for asmodee (http://asmodee.com.au) to present DevCon with us and with generous support from our Gold Sponsor, Good Games Publishing (https://www.goodgamespublishing.com).
What’s new (and better) this year
- New venue, walking distance to the PAX Convention Centre — perfect if you’re in town early or coming straight from booth setup.
- Dedicated rooms for Talks AND Playtesting — No competing goals. Learn deeply in one room, test with intention in the other.
- Food on-site + venue bar — grab dinner and drinks without stepping out.
- Reserve a Playtest Table — lock in a spot to playtest your latest prototype with your peers.
- Expect an evening of sharp talks, practical knowledge sharing, and hands-on feedback—plus plenty of hallway chats, rapid playtests, and new connections.
Why you should come
- Community & connections with designers, publishers, artists, and collaborators before the PAX whirlwind begins. Meet the people building Australia’s next wave of tabletop hits.
- Actionable talks & workshops you can bring back to your project.
- High-signal playtesting with tight feedback loops, diverse perspectives, and publisher eyes in the room.
History of DevCon
DevCon has been running since 2014 and growing each year. For past talks check out the videos below.
DevCon 2022 – 2024
2022 to 2024 were held at the Library at the Dock, Docklands Melbourne. We were graced by
2024 Speakers
The art of the pitch – Steve Dee
How to Engineer your Game – Tom Allen
UX Research – Daniel Neville
2023 Speakers
2023 Award winners
Recognition Award – Dice Men Cometh
The Mate Award – Jonathan Calleja
Link to the full speech
DevCon Digital 2020 -2021
2020 saw the launch of DevCon Digital – a virtual event with 3 international guest speakers and virtual playtesting afterwards. This was primarily due to to COVID-19 but we hope to continue to run DevCon Digital annually, 6 months offset from PAX Aus.
- James Wilson – Inspired Design
- Eduardo Baraf – So you want to make a game & publish it on Kickstarter?
- Sam MacDonald – The flaws in my own games
You can find a transcript of the chatter here.
DevCon 2018
DevCon 2018 had 71 people in attendance. you will find the recordings of the talks below.
DevCon 2017
DevCon 2017 had 63 people in attendance. you will find the recordings of the talks below.
DevCon 2016
DevCon 2016 had 58 people in attendance and had talks on the following topics:
- Allen Cheng – Getting your game picked up by a publisher
- Aaron Lim – looking outside of the “get published and get hobbyists in the current market to like it” mode
- Dylan – Why is one store worth more than all of them? Targeted sales vs mass distribution
- Sean – Tips on Distribution – The do’s and dont’s of courting a distributor
- Ian O’Toole – Dealing with graphic designers/illustrators
- Wesley Lamont – Tabletop Marketing and Sales
Our Supporters
Tabletop Game Designers Australia 