The Arcade announces the SMART program

The Arcade is thrilled to announce the SMART Program!

The South Melbourne Arcade Residency Tenure (SMART) Program is an assistive residency placement within The Arcade Melbourne, powered by City of Port Phillip.

The SMART Program aims to help early-career individuals have the opportunity to hotdesk out of The Arcade that might not otherwise have the financial means to attend.

The intention of this program is to help foster the production of game development within the City of Port Phillip, create a more accessible entry point to our diverse game developer community and to assist in financial pipelines for marginalised or low income game developers.

We want to pave the way for the next generation of talented developers by facilitating access to the learning, networking and engagement opportunities that naturally occur within The Arcade.

Thanks to the generous support of City of Port Phillip, the SMART program will allow a select number of amazing applicants access to The Arcade’s open plan hotdesking area for a number of months.

There will be 3 streams available for applications:

• Early Career:
  This stream is open to recent graduates, early career games practitioners, and individuals from new game development businesses keen to engage within the local South Melbourne games community. You must be living in Victoria to apply and be over the age of 18. We’re particularly focus on improving the networking and opportunities for early career developers.
• Marginalised Groups:
  This stream is open to applicants from marginalised groups including but not limited to: to women (Cis and Trans), Queer people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, gender diverse individuals (transgender, non-binary, intersex), and people of colour. We’re looking to assist in pipeline issues and opportunities to help build the diversity of the games industry as a whole.
• Games Adjacent:
  This stream is open to those who are in adjacent fields (e.g Film/Television), looking to make the jump over to the games industry. In particular, the focus on the melding of the creative industries and sharing of resources and knowledge across fields is of great interest to us. We’re looking to assist with networking and resources sharing with this opportunity.

Length of time spent in The Arcade and level of desk engagement (permanent or part time desk usage) will be individually assessed based off the applications received.

This initiative is open to recent graduates, early career games practitioners, those crossing into games from other industries, marginalised communities and individuals from new game development businesses keen to engage within the local South Melbourne games community. You must be living in Victoria to apply, and be over the age of 18.

We welcome and encourage applicants from all backgrounds, and we particularly welcome applications from groups who are currently underrepresented in the games industry.

You can apply to be a part of the SMART Program by filling in the form below:

SMART Program Application Form

[EDIT]

Due to COVID Lockdowns, the application deadline has been extended to October 31st 2021.

The first intake will begin in November.

For any questions, please reach out to the Arcade team via: enquiries@thearcade.melbourne