We ran our first-ever Games Exchange with Malaysian game developers recently! In collaboration with Outcrowd Malaysia, we traded 5 Australian indie games with those from Malaysia, transforming our office into a space to showcase games from our sister industry and vice versa.  In essence, we shared some Malaysian games at the same time and day as our friends in Malaysia did, but with games made in Sydney (albeit with a 3-hour time difference). It was both a way to expose people to games they have never seen or tried before, as well as an opportunity to get to know the culture of another ..read more

Gamification, gamified experiences, serious games. These are all terms that have gained some buzz in the past decade, alongside the increased number of people who play video games. According to IGEA’s 2023 report, 81% of all Australians play video games, up from 63% in 2022, utilising it for entertainment, mental health, social connection, learning and much more. IGEA’s Australia Plays 2023 report mentions that 81% of all Australians play video games. In light of this, we thought it would be useful to create a detailed guide about what gamification is, and how it is relevant for small-medium b ..read more

Contractors in the games industry are nothing new, but with more and more stories about large-scale layoffs in the games industry (an estimated 9000 workers in 2023 and most recently 25% of Unity’s workforce), there is an increasing and valid scrutiny into the rise of contract work as a means of replacing permanent employees for cheaper. The deliberate misclassification of employees for contractors, or sham contracting, is a serious issue in any industry, but especially rampant in the games industry.  These are all true concerns about contract work and symptoms of much larger issues relat ..read more

The Game Awards are for celebrating game developers and their hard work on wonderful games, so we wanted to do the same! In this blog, our team highlights our favourite games of 2023! Happy New Year and enjoy!  Game Of The Year Reuben: Super Mario RPG! It’s always been one of my favourite games, and the remake is swish as heck! Ann: Hi-Fi Rush. Gorgeous visuals, a great soundtrack, loveable characters, great experience. I loved seeing how much clear love the team had for this game, really pushing the comic book stylisation with screen tones, hard outlines, bright colours, text bubbles, mo ..read more

During a workshop on developing games with porting in mind, Reuben shared common programming pitfalls and approaches that make porting easy down the line. The following is an edited transcription of the workshop’s contents, which we hope will be useful reading to fellow developers! For the full workshop recording, check out the YouTube upload here! You can also find the sample project Reuben has made to illustrate the following topics here. We’ve worked with several indie devs who have made a game on Steam that they want to port to Switch, Xbox, PlayStation or more. From this, we wanted to s ..read more

The first impression your Steam Page makes is critical for getting those wishlists or purchases. Thus, it makes sense to spend quite a bit of time making your graphical assets great! We were revamping our old games’ Steam Pages, and found that resources on Steam’s graphical assets were usually confusing or buried under too much text. Though the Steam Guidelines outline everything, the doc might be a slog to get through! (It is still vital that you check through things, though.) So, we decided to make this helpful guide to complement Steam’s documentation, with visual infographics, li ..read more

We have sometimes been asked what a game consultant is, and what it is we do. That’s why we’re shedding some light on what game consultants are and what we do! Read on to learn more about the types of consulting work available in the games industry and what working with one is like. What are game consultants and what do they do? In essence, game consultants are individuals or teams that provide their expert advice and support for a fee.  Making a game, however, is a big endeavour, with many people with different skills required throughout the game development process. It thus makes sense ..read more

The Australian games industry has always bolstered a community of games, game devs, players and more. That’s why events like Melbourne International Games Week (MIGW) are so delightful— everyone comes together for a love of games! Recently, our team flew into Melbourne to attend and host several events at MIGW. Here are some highlights from our week! Photo of everyone involved in Survivor Game Jam! Connection and Learning: GCAP conferences MIGW kicked off with the Games Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) 3-day conference, filled to the brim with wonderful speakers of various game development discipli ..read more

We held our third WIP Night at the Game Plus co-working space in Ultimo recently. With great food, zines, and of course, games, it was a blast! Officially the last one for the year, we had the honours of co-hosting 4 different indie games made in Sydney. Here’s a short recap if you missed out! Honeycomb Festival by Dom Parker (Vision Australia) Honeycomb Festival is a simple 3D adventure game for the blind and vision impaired, where animal crossing sort of meets metal gear solid. You play as Lynette, a blind fairy who, with the help of her guide teddy bear, collects honey for a festival.  ..read more

Moving Out 2 is now out! It’s also been about a month since The Master’s Pupil and Every Hue of You came out! We wanted to highlight these three new Australian indie games, both because they’re wonderful and because we had the privilege of helping them ship! Moving Out 2 by SMG Studio Moving Out 2 is a wacky physics-based online multiplayer game, where you have to move Return to Packmore pack up and ship out. Help rebuild Smooth Moves and become an all-star F.A.R.T. (Furniture Arrangement & Relocation Technician)! With a unique cast of characters, colourful levels and rib-tickling humour ..read more