Chad Toprak is an experimental game designer, independent curator, and a first-generation Turkish Muslim immigrant based in Naarm (Melbourne). He champions game-making as arts practice and has a passion for curating, producing, and organising videogame exhibitions, gatherings, and events. He currently serves as Games Investment Manager at Screen Australia, funding and supporting Australian independent games.
He was the Artistic Director of Freeplay, Australia’s longest standing independent games festival, between 2017–2022. Freeplay began in 2004 as a response to and critique of the status quo and stagnant state of the games industry, and since then has continued to champion creative and artistic exploration and experimentation in games, highlighting and uncovering grassroots talent in Melbourne and Australia, contributing to the growth and cultural significance and legitimacy of independent games.
Chad’s most recent exhibition Alt-Shift-Play was in partnership with the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade alongside the Australian High Commission Malaysia. The exhibition took place in 2022 in Kuala Lumpur as part of the Australia now program and featured 24 Australian independent games, highlighting excellence in videogames across a five year period.
Chad also curated Contours in 2016 & 2017 in partnership with City of Melbourne and Freeplay. The exhibition took place in the Gallery at the Library at The Dock. The exhibition explores the fringes of contemporary independent videogames in Melbourne and Australia, and features playable videogames, artwork, zines, video interviews, sculptures, paintings, photography, artefacts and other cultural gems.
Chad co-directs and curates Hovergarden, Melbourne’s local videogame curator duo. He organises and produces exhibitions, parties and gatherings for the local community to play a curated selection of experimental videogames. These events take place in a wide variety of spaces including parks, city streets, laneways, rooftops, warehouses, bars, and other public venues.
Chad champions and encourages the making, gathering and playing of weird, unconventional and experimental games in public and social spaces. Most recently, he has collaborated with Helen Kwok as an artist duo, and has created experimental games, public art, and interactive installations in partnership with City of Melbourne, NGV, Bunjil Place, MPavilion, Footscray Community Arts, State Library Victoria, and more. Some of these projects include Street Tape Games, Rainbow Paths, Musical Monoliths, Quite Contrary, New Games Workshops, Make A Creature, A Walk in the Bush, and Stack a Snack.
In the past, Chad has worked on award winning games such as Turnover, the four-player multigravity steal-the-ball-n-run frenzy, Cart-Load-O-Fun, a two-player collaborative physical game designed for trains and trams, and dualcyon, the experimental Leap & VR puzzle game for two.
Chad was named in Develop Pacific’s inaugural 30 Under Thirty list for 2018, GamesIndustry.biz’s Game Changers 2020 list, shortlisted for Game Dev Heroes 2021, and was awarded a 2021 Australian Game Developer Award. He has also sat on advisory and committee panels for organisations such as Australia Council for the Arts, Creative Victoria, Arts Centre Melbourne, ACMI, VicScreen, RMIT, and UNHCR. Chad occasionally lectures into RMIT’s Bachelor of Design (Games) program.
