Meet SA’s best up-and-coming game designers and go inside their projects
From horror video games you control, to huge equestrian mobile games and everything in between, get a look at SA designer’s fascinating projects.
Lifestyle
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It’s a “creative writing experiment” within a video game – and as darkwebSTREAMER becomes a global sensation, developer Chantal Ryan’s mark on the SA gaming industry has just begun.
The 33-year-old mother has been developing the game for two and half years under the name We Have Always Lived in the Forest after the game idea came to her as the credits rolled on a horror movie.
“I’m a writer so I recognise when this happens … sometimes I am given stories,” Ms Ryan said.
But bringing her unique vision to life isn’t her only motivation. Ms Ryan is excited to put players in the “driver’s seat” to experience a new way of storytelling.
“It was really important that this be a game, not a visual novel,” she said.
“Reading a book or watching a movie is like being in the passenger seat, just kind of watching out the window but you have no agency … the lack of agency changes things significantly, if you crash, it has no reflection on you.
“But in a game you’re in control, you’re in the driver’s seat, if you hit something when you’re driving it can reflect on you … you live with the choice, whether or not it was a deeply meaningful choice.”
The game is now in a new phase of development with core work being refined as state government and industry grants fund the project in the early days of publisher negotiations.
“We received $120,000 from Screen Australia, which has allowed us to hire a programmer in the US … I won the Humble Games Creator of Colour award in 2022, which was about $20,000 Australian dollars,” Ms Ryan said.
“I have also put in large amounts of my own money, all back in to the game.”
Ms Ryan isn’t known just for her unique upcoming addition to the gaming world – she has also been integral to the community as an advocate, leader and multifaceted member of the local scene.
“I run the women leaders in games network, we have some announcements coming out soon … but I’m excited to keep growing, we have over 65 women-run video game studios now, which is amazing,” she said.
“We also just announced the South Australian Games Association, which I am on the board of … that’s the other thing that’s going to keep me busy is actively growing South Australia’s games industry.”
darkwebSTREAMER doesn’t yet have an expected release date, but you can follow the progress on social media.
Catalyst Games – Aiden Gyory
Catalyst Games was founded in February of 2023, and as the team build their in-development debut game Dungeons and Dining Tables, they’re also working within the community.
Aiden Gyory, creative director and founder of Catalyst said the team was simultaneously working alongside local councils to put on programs for kids.
“The fun thing I like is breaking barriers and pathways to industry … and that’s a really cool program we do,” the 29-year-old said.
The team of six has worked alongside the Onkaparinga, Playford and Salisbury councils to bring multiple two-day workshops to teach local kids how to make games and give them an opportunity to get into further courses.
“They get a certificate at the end and a game to take home to show their family,” Mr Gyory said.
Partnered with big brands like PlayStation and Nintendo on their Indie games roster, the award-winning AIE graduate team are in talks with publishers. aiming to release their debut title in 2025, with a public demo and Kickstarter expected before the end of 2024.
“We have a little motto, enabling creatives to create … that’s kind of the filter we look to do everything through,” he said.
“We’re kind of a rag-tag group of friends and people … all together to work on this dream of making an indie game studio.”
Paper Cactus Games – Jackson Michael (Leo Cheung)
It was a fateful meeting at a breakfast after a friend’s wedding that led to a hearty discussion about a game idea rolling around studio owner Leo Cheung’s head … and it made lead programmer Jackson Michael decide it was the perfect reason to move on from his job.
A former Adelaide University employee specialising in defence contract research, Mr Michael of Belair has now spent three years working to bring Fox and Shadow, the debut title of Paper Cactus Games to life.
“I remember sitting there thinking, that just sounds really fun,” the 30-year-old said.
“Ever since high school I have been making video games … I thought, ‘if I can ever be a game developer, I would probably want to be one.
Mr Michael founded Krion Games in 2016, which didn’t develop past their debut title Greg’s Eggventure for mobile, but he is now excited to collaborate with Mr Cheung.
Mr Cheung had previously worked on the tabletop role playing game Parselings, and Mr Michael said working with the former dentist-turned-game director had been a great journey, expanding to a team of seven.
Now after many conventions like AVCON, PAX and Games Con alongside funding from the federal government and the Adelaide Economic Development Association on their rouge-like deck building game, the team are looking forward to continuing development and talking with publishers ahead of their debut release.
CinnaDev – Heidi Borge
A backup high school-selected subject set Heidi Borge on a path she hadn’t considered until she was sitting in the back of the classroom – the only girl in the room.
Now five years on, the 21-year-old is the sole director of her indie game company CinnaDev, named after her late pet rabbit Cinnamon, and has been working on her debut story-driven game Delphinium for two years.
“It’s a little farming simulator-type game where most of the focus is on the story,” Ms Borge said.
Delphinium follows the story of Haiyan on her return home after a life-altering event and discovers characters with struggles she can meddle in or help with in a world Ms Borge has been building for years.
Ms Borge now works on Delphinium full time thanks to receiving funding from the federal government as part of their Screen Australia Games: Expansion Pack grant.
The southern Adelaide resident said it has been “really really exciting” to be able to continue her passion as her day job, and as of February has been able to bring on a new team member.
“I’ve been talking to a composer, talking about getting her on board so she can do some music for the game … up until this point I’ve been like ‘how much can I do on my own?’” she said.
Delphinium remains Ms Borge’s sole focus for now, but said she had goals to continue to expand the world in future once the game was finished and released.
We Made a Thing Studios – Tom Phillips
When a global pandemic forced film productions to come to a halt, one studio decided it was time to go “hell for leather” on producing their debut video game that had been “noodling around”.
“We always made the joke that we want to be ‘platform agnostic’,” Tom Phillips, co-founder, writer and development producer said.
A short film about a girl and a talking robot, called Lucy and DiC, launched Mr Phillips and Jeremy Kelly-Bakker’s digital production company, We Made a Thing Studios, in 2017, and 2020 saw the beginning of Box Knight.
“We love building worlds, and we always knew that games were something we were keen to get in to and we always had plans to make,” Mr Phillips said.
“We joke about it now but we were pretty naive when we went in to that one … but the process has been fantastic … It’s definitely a space we are very, very excited about the future of.”
In February at the South Australian Game Exhibition, the team was awarded Best in Exhibition and the $2000 grand prize.
Mr Phillips said Box Knight was “gearing up” for a full release on PC at some time in 2024 and players are able to wishlist and find out more on Steam.
Foxie Games – Dineth Abeynayake
A former defence and aerospace engineer-turned game developer, Dineth Abeynayake founded Foxie Games in 2017 and has released numerous titles with more than 25 team members.
After seven years in his previous profession, the 35-year-old Northgate resident discovered he had more interest in building digital products and connecting people with their passions.
“So I quit that job and starting making games at a small scale, at that time I had two employees working on a game,” Mr Abeynayake said.
“Eventually as the games started making some revenue we reinvested the profits and scaled up.”
Foxie Games boasts one of biggest mobile horse riding games in the world, Horse Riding Tails, with more than 30 million downloads across the globe.
“I saw a gap in the market through an interest that my younger sister had in horse riding … she loves horses … so I was like, ‘what kind of games are the for horse riders?’” he said.
“Just finding out what people really care about and connecting with them … connecting with the customers is just so important and I think really underrated as well.”
The studio is currently working to improve its latest release, Star Equestrian (2023) to implement new features and hope to surpass the quality of their previous titles.
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