See Master thread for links to other countries threads and poll, read rules, and tell me which country should receive a thread next:

https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/249268/master-thread-favorite-games-from-different-countries/

For the first time we are leaving Europe! Heading down under to look at the Australian video game industry. This is also a very different country to what we have previously covered, as there usually are 1-2 really big developers that can make up half a poll. Australian developers seem to just make one HUGE game, and that’s it. It means there is a lot of variety in the poll!

Some notable Australian developers and their games:

Team Bondi

It brings me deep sadness to write about this extremely talented developer, that only managed to develop one title before being defunct. What a game though! Rockstar games could immediately see the potential in L.A. Noire, and no question gamers could too. Thankfully the game also delivered one o the most unique experiences of the 7^th generation.

Notable game:

L.A. Noire

House House

Another studio mainly known for a single game, however they will likely bring great hits for years to come. 2019’s Untitled Goose Game was a indie smash hit, with a terrific sense of humor and a very original premise.

Notable games:

Push Me Pull You

Untitled Goose Game

Team Cherry

Technically another indie “one hit wonder” so far, but when your hit is Hollow Knight, everyone will STFU and bow in admiration. The fact that this tiny studio could develop something as magnificent as Hollow Knight is so mind blowing. Now just give us Silksong please!

Notable game:

Hollow Knight

Halfbrick Studios

Sometimes the simplest premise is the best, Halfbrick realized that when they decided to design a game about slicing fruit! The studio has gone on to release multiple successful mobile titles.

Notable games:

Fruit Ninja

Jetpack Joyride

Dan the Man

2K Australia

Originally Irrational Games Australia, this is one of those studios that makes it challenging to make these threads. Kind of like Ubisoft Milan, 2K Australia has mainly worked as a support studio or co-developer. Most of their credits are as “assistance” to other studios. However they did work on two games where they are generally listed as co-developers. It seems there is little question about Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel qualifying for the poll, however they are actually also credited as co-developer on Bioshock, the extremely acclaimed FPS, which they developed together with 2K Boston. It is difficult to access how the development resources were distributed, but given that several of the people high up in the development hierarchy are from the Australian branch, I conclude that it is close enough to a 50-50 contribution, to count as an Australian game. On the sequels 2K Australia only received supporting credit.

Notable games:

Bioshock

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

Blue Tongue Entertainment

Now, I gave the credits for de Blob to the original dutch developers, Blue Tongue Entertainment actually handled the development of all the successful main platform version, but I would count that as porting. However, the sequel de Blob 2, was developed solely by Blue Tongue, so that one certainly qualifies. The studio is unfortunately defunct, but they also managed to develop several licensed games, including in the SpongeBob universe.

Notable games:

Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis

de Blob 2

Micro Forté

This developers claim to fame relate to having their hands on the Fallout franchise, with the spin-off Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel. While overall well received, it does have some harsh critics.

Notable games:

Enemy Infestation

Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel

Other games to consider:

Unpacking

Frog Detective

Webbed

Umurangi Generation

Paperbark

Wayward Strand

Golf Story

The Artful Escape

Florence

The Forgotten City

Cult of the Lamb

Destroy all Humans

Destroy all Humans 2

Pandemic Studios Brisbane studio springs to mind.
Army Men RTS and the first two Detroy All Humans!! games.
https://www.mobygames.com/company/12681/pandemic-studio-pty-ltd/

Others like Melbourne House, Beam Software/Krome/Tantalus spring to mind. Those last three get slashes for significant overlap. I’ll probably think of more.

Edit: I forgot Melbourne House were the continuation of Beam that were then bought by Krome.

SMG Studio did well with Death Squared and the Moving Out series. Keen to see what they do with their LEGO party game.

League of Geeks did cool things with Armello for a bit, and Infinity Plus Two had a cool thing going on with the Puzzle Quest series for a while.

Firemint were big in the mobile game market with Flight Control and Real Racing 1 & 2 before EA bought them.

Defiant Development made Hand of Fate 1 & 2 before going into caretaker mode.

Love me some Bioshock, but Hollow Knight is goated.

Samurai Punk made Screencheat and Justice Sucks before going under. They were cool people.

My Aussie pick goes to Hollow Knight, what a game, no wonder everyone is waiting, and waiting, and waiting for Silksong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2amTl5lBYM

A very close second is Untitled Goose Game for its quacky gameplay and Screencheat shooter that is in second-person mode.

Special shout out to Halfbrick and Firemint studios for their awesome mobile games. Also enjoyed playing Warfare 1917 flash game from time to time.

Hacknet from Team Fractal Alligator and Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise by Yak & Co also spring to mind.

There is a pattern of one or two great games followed by obscurity for a lot of these excellent devs.

Stray Gods, Cult of the Lamb, and Antichamber are some other Australian games that spring to mind.
Witchbeam’s games outside Unpacking like Assault Android Cactus and Tempopo are also pretty good.

Tough choice between Golf Story and The Forgotten City. Since I played the former much more I have to give it to Golf Story