The 2025 Smart Program Cohort ANNounCEMENT
Tuesday 09th Sep 2025
We’re excited to announce the six immensely talented individuals that will form the 2025 Smart Program cohort! (See Appendix)
The Smart Program is a free 90-Day career accelerator program that creates career pathways for aspiring game developers by integrating them into a supportive local game development community, providing them with a substantive professional training program and giving them access to a wealth of invaluable industry knowledge supplied by an array of highly skilled games industry professionals.
This year, the Smart Program candidates will have access to more mentoring opportunities and group-based learning activities than ever before, thanks to the increased support from the City of Melbourne.
City of Melbourne’s portfolio head for innovation and education, Councilor Andrew Rowse shared his thoughts on the importance of supporting the Melbourne game development industry:
“Melbourne is Australia’s game-development capital, so we’re excited and proud to back the industry’s next generation of talent.” said Rowse.
Games Pond 2025 | Credit: Matto Lucas
“Melbourne is Australia’s
game-development capital,
so we’re excited and proud to back the industry’s next generation of talent.”
The Smart Program’s primary goal is to create pathways for the future leaders of the Australian games industry by building up their confidence and connecting them to the right people, so that they can go on to make a lasting positive impact on the industry.
Natalie Raskin, Director of the emerging game developer showcase GamesPond and graduate of the 2024 Smart Program spoke about her Smart Program experience:
“Through the Smart Program's career coaching sessions and the time spent learning alongside other aspiring game developers, I've been able to build a much stronger support network and better determine where I am able to make the most impact in our industry.” said Raskin.
Games Pond 2025 | Credit: Matto Lucas
“I've been able to build a much stronger support network and better determine where I am able to make the most impact in our industry.”
For the fourth consecutive year, City of Port Phillip will be supporting the Smart Program’s vision to nurture communities that emerging creatives can thrive in by supporting both the accelerator program itself and by hosting two free games industry networking events; The Games Career Pathways Panel on November 7th at the Victorian Pride Centre and the Smarty Grad Party Showcase on December 11th at the St. Kilda Town Hall. (Tickets and more information will be announced in the coming weeks).
James Shutt, City of Port Phillip’s Games & Screen Officer and Acting Film & Industry Lead had this to say about supporting the screen sector through events and programs: "We’re proud to support industry-led initiatives like GamesPond, Global Game Jam and the Smart Program, as we know just how important it is for aspiring creatives to be provided an opportunity to showcase their work and find their community.” said Shutt.
Games Pond 2025 | Credit: Matto Lucas
"We know just how important it is for aspiring creatives to be provided an opportunity to showcase their work and find their community.”
For more information on the Smart Program and the upcoming free games industry events, stay tuned to the Smart Program website or be the first to find out by joining the Smart Program Mailing List
The 2025 Smart Program Cohort
Nadinda Rachmat
Nadinda Rachmat (She/Her) is a programmer, educator, and emerging technical artist who thrives at the intersection of technology, creativity, and human-centered design. With a foundation in software engineering and a passion for interactive experiences, Nadinda blends the logic of code with the creativity of design to craft immersive, engaging worlds.
Nadinda's journey through diverse software domains, from building custom business solutions to developing mixed-reality educational interactive content and facilitating VR learning in schools, has shaped her to approach problems with curiosity and adaptability. Nadinda thrives on experimenting with different technologies, whether prototyping in Unity, working with spatial interaction design, or integrating emerging tools into projects. Nadinda is especially drawn to projects that expand access and inclusion.
Having navigated unconventional career paths, Nadinda is dedicated to building experiences that empower those often overlooked. As a neurodivergent thinker with a collaborative spirit, Nadinda brings creative problem solving to every team. Nadinda’s aspiration is to craft experiences that entertain, inspire, and offer joy and empowerment, even in life's most challenging moments.
JEdiah Van Niel
Jed Van Niel (He/Him) is an emerging game developer and the cofounder and art director of Voyager Studios. His responsibilities at Voyager Studios are centred around developing the 3D character art pipeline, ensuring the art assets align to the projects creative vision, guiding the project from initial concept through to major release and collaborating closely with his team to deliver engaging, high-quality experiences for mobile audiences while also working with clients to create art assets and game prototypes.
Jed has a degree in Game Design from JMC Academy and is currently developing his art capabilities further through short courses from CGMA that allow him to further hone his 3D art skills and improve his fundamental understanding of the art and asset pipeline process skills needed to be a more effective team member.
Jed and the Voyager Studios team are currently developing a fantasy pet simulator, exploring innovative mechanics for a mobile audience with a goal to emulate the nostalgic feeling of the Nintendo DS Game, Nintendogs.
Noemi Grigorean
Noemi Grigorean (She/Her) is a Polish multi-faceted freelance artist specializing in concept art and illustration, with skills in many creative disciplines such as 3D modelling, animation, and writing. Noemi is particularly interested in worldbuilding and lore creation, which she finds enriches her art by grounding it in a deeper and more solid creative foundation.
Noemi’s work is deeply inspired by Eastern European culture and folklore, with a particular focus on Slavic pagan motifs. She sees her exploration of this subject both as a love letter to the place she grew up in and a way to express her nostalgia in a form that can’t be articulated with words alone.
Another cornerstone of Noemi's art is her fondness for the tragic, the morbid, and the beauty that can be found within them. This manifests itself most prominently in the form of folk horror illustrations and haunting creature designs that are both frightening and oddly captivating at the same time.
Noemi is the founder of Surka and the project lead of Piyavki, a narrative-driven horror RPG that explores the world of an alternate 1900s Poland, where everything is powered through the blood of divine beings.
Kora Lee
Kora Lee (She/Her) is a Hong Kong game designer, animator, and illustrator based in Melbourne, with a focus on storytelling, creative mechanics, and immersive experiences. As an interdisciplinary practitioner, she works across both visual and technical disciplines, allowing her to understand and collaborate effectively with professionals across creative and technical fields. While completing her Master of Animation, Games and Interactivity at RMIT, Kora developed a strong versatility across game and animation production.
She is the producer and programmer of Liminal, a VR game where players embody non-human beings to explore cosmic insignificance through gesture-based interactions. She also created a 2D narrative mobile game, Memory Mender, from character and story design to mobile sensor mechanics to achieve a natural gameplay experience. Her animation work includes Here and There, a 2D frame-by-frame short film reflecting on the journey of adapting to a new culture in a foreign land.
Kora sees every project as an opportunity to experiment with new approaches and push creative boundaries. She is also an active contributor to her community through organising the RMIT MAGI Expo and hosting skill-sharing workshops. Outside of games, she occasionally teaches piano to appreciate every form of creative expression.
Bora Erdogan
Bora Erdogan (He/Him) is a Turkish designer, programmer and technical artist who is passionate about designing unique and experimental games that focus on creating a memorable experience with a lasting emotional impact.
Bora strongly believes that ‘game feel’ is the cornerstone of all of his creative works and will leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of ensuring that each game he designs is able to get the desired outcome he envisioned.
His more recent projects have also been focused on refining his system design skills and making immersive worlds that not only react to the player, but themselves in interesting ways.
Bora is a creative technologist who values learning through experimentation, and has a library of micro-games made with teams at game jams or as small learning-focused side projects. After graduating from RMIT last year, he's now set his sights on making larger games that embody everything he's learned so far.
JAy Arbuthnot
Jay Arbuthnot (She/They) is a queer, neurodivergent emerging games producer and accessibility consultant with a background in photography, counselling, and axe-throwing. They are passionate about problem-solving, creativity, and equity; a theme that is reflected in both their work as a consultant and their hobbies as a cosplayer, crafter and seamstress.
Jay is a Certified Accessible Experiences Practitioner (AbleGamer’s Training Program) who is driven by their lived experience as a chronically ill gamer and their passion for making inclusive experiences for all players. More recently they supported the development of Nanomon: Virtual Pet team in their role as an accessibility consultant.
Jay’s game development journey began as a social media manager for SavvySoda. From there, they worked at Ghost Gum Games as an associate producer. During team meetings, they noticed their natural tendency to steer conversations toward accessibility, and it occurred to them that this might just be their calling. Jay sees a gap in the games industry’s knowledge around accessibility and is excited to utilise their expertise to make a positive impact in this space. Their current aspirations are to expand their capabilities as a producer, begin teaching accessibility workshops and to continue securing opportunities for accessibility consulting for game development studios.
Announcing The 2025 Smart Program
Monday 28th July 2025
Thanks to the generous support of both the City of Melbourne and the City of Port Phillip, the Smart Program: Games Career Accelerator is back for 2025 and better than ever!
The Smart Program is a free 90-Day career accelerator program that creates career pathways for aspiring game developers by integrating them into a supportive local game development community, providing them with a substantive professional training program and giving them access to a wealth of invaluable industry knowledge supplied by an array of highly skilled games industry professionals.
The goal of the program is to seek out future leaders of industry and set them on the pathway to success by bolstering their career confidence and commercial capabilities so that they can improve their employment prospects, create innovative game prototypes and secure investment opportunities.
Logan Urlichs, co-founder of game development studio Suspicious Jam and graduate of the 2024 Smart Program spoke highly of the program’s benefits:
"The training and support that the Smart Program provided leading up to the launch of our game and beyond was tremendous. We've now been able to confidently evolve our team into a studio and negotiate our first publishing deal. These successes would not have been possible without the Smart Program.” said Urlichs.
King of Ping Pong: MEGAMIX | Suspicious Jam
"We've now been able to confidently evolve our team into a studio and negotiate our first publishing deal.
These successes would not have been possible without the Smart Program.”
The Smart Program has continued to thrive year on year thanks to the City of Port Phillip’s ongoing support of the program since its inception back in 2021.
As part of the Smart Program’s broader industry offerings, the City of Port Phillip will also be hosting two free games industry events later in the year that will provide the collective games community an opportunity to connect, learn and celebrate the year’s successes (stay tuned to the Smart Program events page for more details).
Thanks to the generous support provided by the City of Melbourne, the 2025 Smart Program will once again be housed within the vibrant heart of the Melbourne CBD at Collins Street Studios. City of Melbourne’s portfolio head for innovation and education, Andrew Rowse had this to say:
“The Smart Program provides aspiring young game developers with the knowledge, tools and most importantly the interpersonal support to take an idea, nurture it and turn it into reality. Housed in Collins Street Studios, we’re wrapping community around great people, who with the right support can go on to have a massive impact, putting Melbourne truly on the global map.” said Rowse.
“We’re wrapping community around great people, who with the right support can go on to have a massive impact, putting Melbourne truly on the global map.”
Previous Program Graduates @ Smarty Grad Party 2024 | Credit: James Klonis
This year, the City of Melbourne have gone above and beyond in their efforts to support both the growth of the Smart Program and the entire Australian game development industry, by commissioning the creation of two professional development resources specifically designed for the Australian games industry. These resources will be available for free via the Smart Program website (with more details coming later in the year).
In addition to this, the City of Melbourne’s increased investment in the Smart Program has allowed all of the program’s core components to improve in both quality and quantity, meaning that the number of program mentors has now doubled, the amount of group-based activities has tripled and each mentee will now be receiving on average an additional 60 hours’ worth of learning content over the course of the program.
The Smart Program’s designer and director, Ceri Hutton expressed how immensely impactful the increased support for the Smart Program has been:
“Thanks to the increased support the program has received, the quality of this year’s program has improved significantly. These improvements will ensure that the 2025 Smart Program offers participants an engaging and applicable learning experience that will have a lasting positive impact on their careers.” said Hutton.
“The 2025 Smart Program offers participants an engaging and applicable learning experience that will have a lasting positive impact on their careers.”
Ceri Hutton’s Networking Workshop @ High Score 2024 | Credit: Jacinta Keefe
Over the course of 90 days, the Smart Program delivers three key learning modules worth of bespoke educational content to its participants:
Communication & Identity: Unlocking opportunities for self-growth by utilising critical reflection frameworks and mastering communication techniques.
Marketing & Commercialisation: Creating unique value differentiation by identifying market gaps, analysing data and establishing a strong brand identity
Leadership & Business Strategy: Simultaneously balancing a budget, managing a studio and securing future investment in a simulated business environment.
This content is delivered via four core program components that make up the core structure of the accelerator program:
Professional Development Workshops: Comprehensive group training covering curated topics that address industry skill gaps and empower career progression.
Industry Immersion: Residency within an active community of game developers complemented by access to the broader games community via industry events.
Personalised Training: Tailored 1on1 coaching and mentoring sessions with the program director and a number of highly skilled games industry professionals.
Experiential Learning Exercises: Rapid prototyping challenges and bespoke business simulations custom designed to emulate current industry challenges.
The 2025 Smart Program applications are officially open as of today and will close on August 15th 2025.
You can apply to be part of the 2025 Smart Program by submitting an application form below.
Applications for the 2025 Smart Program are now closed.
Applications Close: Friday August 15th @ 10:00PM AEST
Alternatively, if you are a games industry professional interested in being a mentor for the 2025 Smart Program, please fill in an expression of interest form here.
About Ceri Hutton:
Ceri Hutton is a game designer, career mentor and management consultant who specialises in culture transformation and user-centred marketing strategy for game studios, tech start-ups and social enterprises.
He has over 15 years’ experience in the games industry, over 10 years’ experience in project and team management and has been delivering lectures, talks and workshops at conferences and universities for over 5 years. He holds a Global Executive MBA from Monash University and is passionate about sharing his knowledge with creatives looking to build sustainable business practices, strengthen their commercial capabilities and become better leaders.
For more information visit:
http://www.cerihutton.com/about
About City of Melbourne:
The City of Melbourne is the capital city council of Victoria and stands proudly on the lands of the Wurundjeri-woi-wurrung and Bunurong Boon Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin.
The municipality spans more than 37 km2, comprising 14 suburbs, which are governed by the Melbourne City Council. Guided by its four-year Council Plan, the City of Melbourne strives to be a city of possibility, where the world meets and the extraordinary happens.
As a local government, the City of Melbourne is the level of government closest to the everyday lives of its community – delivering essential services, as well as key community infrastructure.
For more information visit:
https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/news/gamingsector
About City of Port Philip:
The City of Port Phillip is a vibrant municipality, where the city meets the sea. One of the oldest areas of Melbourne, Port Phillip is known for its urban villages, beautiful gardens and beaches; its architecture, from contemporary forms to magnificent heritage buildings; and its inclusive, diverse community celebrated for its bold, artistic expressions.
The City of Port Phillip has an ongoing commitment to supporting its games and screen ecosystem through its Screen Industry Activity and Development Project. Building upon the Games Action Plan 2020-2024, the project seeks to provide opportunities for local industry support as well accessible events that connect community with exciting screen and moving image art from emerging creative practitioners.
For more information visit:
https://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/
About Collins Street Studios:
The City of Melbourne has partnered with the Victorian Government to transform an inner-city office floor into a vibrant collection of workspaces for more than 100 creatives, to support and showcase their talents.
Collins Street Studios is one of the latest spaces to join Council’s Creative Spaces program, which connects creatives with affordable, well-located venues to help them thrive.
For more information visit:
https://www.creativespaces.net.au/venue/collins-street-studios
For any enquiries or media opportunities, please reach out via the
Smart Program contact form.