2023 Year in Review

It’s been a very exciting year for Sydney Megagamers as we’ve properly re-launched out of the quiet years into three events in the past 6 months. And we’re not alone! Megagames have been popping up all across Australia and it’s shaping up to be a very, very big 2024.

We’ve got plenty to reflect on as the end of the year rolls around, and even more being planned for the new year to come.

2023 was our first operational year since forming into an incorporated body at the start of 2020. We were fortunate enough to run three events in the second half of the year - two iterations of God Emperor, as well as a run of The Ark, both Australian homegrown megagames - and saw a bunch of new faces join the megagamer ranks.

2023 was also a year of records for Sydney Megagamers - we ran the most events we’ve run in a single year, and we also sold out one of our events in record-breaking time (23 minutes!)

Incorporation of SM means we run our business by committee. We have roles and responsibilities, formal meetings, and make decisions about how we’d like to operate via vote.

It’s all very ‘megagame’.

This year we saw that committee grow and shift to accommodate the ever-growing ambitions of our Sydney group.

A huge thanks goes out to our founding members who, back in 2019/20 helped lay the groundwork for how this committee would operate, and who have since had to move along to manage the real world (namely, families!), so thank you to Mitch, Heather and Adrian.

As we enter 2024 the SM committee is as big as it’s been with new faces and old, and while the background workings may not always need to be visible, it is worth taking a moment to recognise the group’s efforts.

• Patrick Doyle, President and Public Officer, megagaming since 2014
• James Archer, Vice-President and Treasurer, megagaming since 2014
• Tony Martin, Secretary, megagaming since 2016
• Phillip Hardy, Events Liaison, megagaming since 2015
• Jackson Edwards, Community Director, megagaming since 2019
• David Little, Creative Director, megagaming since 2016
• Stephen Hughes, Ordinary Committee Member, megagaming since 2015

As a not-for-profit, our committee is governed by a constitution, spelling out how we operate, what we are responsible for and, most importantly, how we spend the money we collect from you to attend our games.

Specifically the SM Constitution ensures that our funds ‘are to be used solely in pursuance of the objectives of the association’, with our core objective being the running of megagame events.

The following breaks down the money we’ve collected, then spent, in 2023. It helps articulate how self-funded our events are and hopefully gives you a good idea of why tickets to our events cost what they do.

We’re always exploring other ways of producing revenue which, ideally, would help bring down the individual cost for people coming to our events. More on that another time, though.

A quick breakdown of these categories:

• Event expenses - hiring a venue (which is something we're unfortunately seeing increase in price already for 2024) and appropriate liability insurance for our game day, as well as all the game-specific materials needed to run the game (eg. printing)
• Procurement - paying for game licences (some for 2024…)
• Admin - fees we pay around ticketing, as well as upkeep costs for our website and other digital services
• Reusable equipment - everything we purchase for events which can be added to our ongoing inventory and used for future events, from wooden meeples to our new digital projector
• Revenue - funds we retain for next year, to help cover admin costs, to invest back into future events, and to act as contingency if events need to be cancelled or refunds issued.

We’re excited to be trialling a membership structure in 2024 to let members of the community support SM outside our events, but also to help us be more strategic with how we spend money.

In our current structure we often need to front-load spending for events, relying on money generated from the last event, or (more commonly) digging into the pockets of committee members who can be reimbursed later. This is because we don’t actually have the revenue for our events until closer to the day, when ticket sales are done.

Memberships to Sydney Megagamers will provide us with a small passive income that isn’t linked to a specific event, meaning we have a few dollars to play with outside ticket sales and more flexibility in when we can buy things (eg. event equipment like a PA system or audio setup).

It’s not all just bonuses for us, though! Paying members of Sydney Megagamers will receive some exclusive merchandise just for joining up, but they’ll also be getting access to special pre-sale deals for tickets to our events.

Membership in 2024 is a trial only. We’re interested in trying it on, seeing how it’s received and whether the benefits work the way we hope they do (for both members and us), and of course hearing ideas and feedback from you, our audience.

More information on membership will be announced early in January, 2024.

Come 2024, we don't just want you living and breathing Sydney Megagamers - we want you wearing, pinning, drinking from (weird) and flaunting it, too! 

Complimenting our membership trial, but not exclusive to it, we're hoping to launch some merchandise and megagame memorabilia in 2024 to help drum up some extra dollars for megagame events, and to give you another way to show your pride in our awesome community.

Initial plans for merch include pins, bags, wearables and handy containers to carry your precious liquids (both hot and cold!)

Stay tuned to our feeds in the new year to find out what merch we've got on sale (particularly around our megagame events...) and how to get your hands on it!

SM is currently working diligently at lining up our ducks for next year and putting together a calendar of games and events we’d like to run.

While our ambition is to run 4 megagames in 2024, that’s not to say we’ll be limiting ourselves to 4 events. This year has proven that our audience here in Sydney is well equipped to fill out multiple events of the same game, and anything we can do to prevent people from missing out at their chance to play is on the table. 

Whether it’s once or twice, we’re pleased to announce that the first game of our 2024 suite is coming to you as a cold-war era, political satire about succession and government machinations, because… The Generalissimo is Dead!

More info about The Generalissimo is Dead will be coming in the next few months, including a date you can mark your calendar with. Meanwhile, you can read about the game’s design over on the Megagame Assembly.

All that said, we’re hoping to release a roadmap of games and events early in 2024 to help you plan your megagaming year out. In forming this calendar we’re talking to our megagame friends across Australia, from Adelaide to Brisbane to Melbourne, to make sure we’ve got a diverse and well spaced-out list of games coming to you throughout the year.

And, of course, let’s not forget the momentous 10-year anniversary of Sydney Megagamers which we’ll definitely need to mark.

However you intend to spend your 2024, we hope it'll include some megagames!