We, the Freaks, hereby declare the values of FREAKON.

we reserve the right to change our minds about anything. we’re just freaks xox

IT’S FREE

We started FREAKON because we reckon there should be an alternative space for honest discussion and knowledge sharing about game dev with no financial barrier to entry. 

 

The Freaks have been making games for a while, and we’ve learned the value of the kind of knowledge that gets filtered out of large scale Industry Events. The first FREAKON brought that kind of knowledge out of group chats and into a space anyone was welcome (for free). We loved doing it and we want to do it again.

 

IT’S FOR YOUR SOUL

We believe this is one of the scariest times to be a game developer in recent memory, when so many of us are at the mercy of executive decision making that often seems misinformed, gutless and embarrassing. FREAKON is a place where we can talk about the real shit, how it feels to exist in this world despite it all, as little game dev roaches scurrying around in the dark, surviving together.

 

NO CORPORATE SPONSORS

We believe that corporate sponsorship always comes with some form of expectation, directly or indirectly, which can degrade the ability to be honest about the challenges we face as game makers. We don’t and won’t take corporate money. 

 

We are a community run volunteer event. Running this as a lean, cheap, grassroots setup that doesn’t have the baggage of boards and committees is part of what makes FREAKON possible. You can support us directly by buying a sick shirt or donating money, but we don’t need you to do that if you don’t want to. If we have any extra funds from donations they’ll go to a worthy cause, not our pockets.

 

None of the Freaks make a dollar from FREAKON.

 

NO RECORDINGS

FREAKON is not recorded, streamed, live-tweeted, or used to train any AI. Speakers are encouraged to speak from their guts. It exists between the people in the room and lives on in the wrinkles of our brains forever. There are many events and platforms where you can find recorded game development knowledge. This is something else.

 

We understand this means not everyone will get to hear what FREAKON speakers have to say, and that’s okay. Our hope is that the spirit of FREAKON extends beyond just what’s said within its walls, and that it reaches you wherever you are. 

 

NO WORRIES

We’re running FREAKON purely because we reckon it’ll be good for our community. We’re not appointing ourselves as the Conference Police - we simply saw a gap for a thing like this and decided to do it ourselves. We’ve deeply appreciated the support for FREAKON from folks with the skills, expertise and connections to make it happen, and we want to extend the same support to anyone else doing cool stuff.

 

Hit us up at freaks@freakon.com.au if you have an idea for a talk at FREAKON, are running your own community event, or have questions about what we’re doing. As we are volunteers we make no promises about speed of reply. xox