It's been nearly eight years since Trent Kusters one of the co-founders of Melbourne's League of Geeks joined me on the podcast. Back in the Pixel Sift days, Trent was working through the early days of ARMELLO their groundbreaking digital board game, but the last twelve months have been some of the hardest for the company. JUMPLIGHT ODYSSEY was she…

Did you grow up blasting through Green Hill Zone or Casino Night Zone? Maybe you spent hours defeating the nefarious schemes of Dr Wily. These colourful platformers hold a fond place in the hearts of many including Zu Ehtisham solo developer of the new BERSERK BOY where you blast through levels switching elemental powers as you go. Learn how Zu bui…

Queensland based Halfbrick have been making games for almost 25 years, and chances are if you’ve picked up a phone in the last decade you’ve played one of their games. Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, Age of Zombies or maybe you’re a bit more oldschool and played one of their Gameboy Advance games or PlayStation or Wii titles. In an industry that s…

The groundbreaking STRAY GODS: THE ROLEPLAYING MUSICAL is pretty unique and the very first Australian made game to be nominated for a Grammy Award, which will be awarded today. Composers Austin Wintory (JOURNEY, ASSASSIN'S CREED SYNDICATE) Scott Edgar and Simon Hall from musical comedy group Tripod, singer-songwritter Montaigne aka Jess Cerro join …

We listen back through this incredible year of games with our friend Meena Shamaly, musician, composer and host of ABC Classic's The Game Show. It's Shamaly Selects 2023 and boy are there some incredible pieces to listen to. Here is what delighted and made the top eight this year. STRAY GODS: THE ROLEPLAYING MUSICAL - Adrift & Challenging a Queen (…

If you grew up playing the Gameboy Advance and the Nintendo DS, you might have missed the aesthetic those games created at the time, but you'd definitely remember the vibes. Those vibes are what Andy Brophy and Olivia Haines are trying to recapture in their weird and wonderful roleplaying game KNUCKLE SANDWICH. With some kicking tunes and fun turn …

SLAY THE PRINCESS is a horror narrative visual novel where you've got one task. You're here to slay a princess, but if you do is actually up to you. This game brings branching narratives and a style of roguelite gameplay to the visual novel genre where all your choices can lead to an ending. Developers Abby Howard and Tony Howard-Arias join Lightma…

THE PLUCKY SQUIRE feels like a world of pure imagination. Jonathan Biddle and James Turner head up All Possible Futures a completely remote studio working on the gorgeous game that acts as a love letter to some of your favourite genres and games of the last 30 years. Gianni sat down with Jonathon Biddle at PAX Australia to explore how this collabor…

If you want to play a video game you have to plug something in, that power comes from somewhere and Dr Ben Abraham, has completed the second annual Net Zero Snapshot for the games industry. Ubisoft is leading the charge dropping their emissions, despite being one of the world's biggest studios, but for many other Triple A game developers they just …

When you first hear the soundtrack for CULT OF THE LAMB it's immediately clear how much of a part it is to the experience of the game. Narayana Johnson who performs under River Boy made his first soundtrack when working on Massive Monster's smash hit, and it will be rearranged and performed this Melbourne International Games Week with Orchestra Vic…

We've got some brand new episodes of Lightmap on the way, featuring some very cool guests but to get you there here is the latest episode of Drop Rate featuring Chris Button, SIFTER EP Gianni Di Giovanni and Player2.net.au writer Jess Zammit talking all about STARFIELD Bethesda's huge spacefaring roleplaying game. Follow Drop Rate on your favourite…

The first thing you notice when you see a game made by Half Mermaid the studio lead by Sam Barlow is that it doesn't really look like a game, the full motion video looks more like a TV show or movie. For Barlow what initially started as a creative and budgetary constraint of being a small indie team has become a defining feature of his work, with h…

You know when you just look at a game and think, everyone is going to be talking about this? LAIKA: AGED THROUGH BLOOD combines some of the best motorbike tricks of TRIALS with a stylish story featuring some of the coolest anthropomorphic animals in game since CULT OF THE LAMB. Ivan Papiol one of the artists from Spanish studio Brainwash Gang joins…

How do you condense more around forty years of interactive history into one book? Games journalist Jordan Minor (PC Mag, The Escapist) has taken on this task, with a new beautifully illustrated book "Video Game of the Year" which charts the biggest moments in games. Jordan shares his history as a games writer, the limit of a single game per year an…

Subscribe to Drop Rate our new review podcast for free. Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Pocket Casts -- STORY OF SEASONS: A WONDERFUL LIFE revisits the 2003 farming simulator GameCube classic. In the years since its original release, farming games have risen in popularity: Stardew Valley, Wylde Flowers, and Disney Dreamlight Val…

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You might be thinking looking at the name of this episode, hang on, haven't you been making a games podcast for nearly a decade now? Well that's the title of a new book from games researcher Brendan Keogh, who has been speaking to developers all around the world about their practice and it turns out we should be thinking about games in a totally di…

Creative Director Ben Ward describes the world of DROS as kimo-kawaii or creepy cute taking direct inspiration from 1980s dark fantasy films, this platformer has you switching characters on the fly to complete each level. Producer Tim Molony and Ben join Gianni for a preview of the game ahead of the launch onto Kickstarter . Learn more about how th…

There is something not quite right below the waves and in DREDGE you're pulling it all back up to the surface. This lovecraftian fishing game is simple and addictive, with plenty of creeping terror bubbling below the surface. Programmer, designer and narrative lead Joel Mason , 3D Artist Mikey Bastiaens and 2D Artist Alex Ridge from New Zealand's B…

Everyone has a horror story to tell when it comes to renting, there are some downright scary experiences out there, and Sydney's Fuzzy Ghost are trying to collect the best of the worst for their next game JANET DEMORNAY IS A SLUMLORD (AND A WITCH), or JDM for short. Award winning Australian developers Scott Ford and Pete Foley join us to share the …

Lightmap is SIFTER's interview podcast, it's won an Australian Podcast Award and features frank and honest conversations with video game creators. We talk to developers, musicians, artists and more about why they create for interactive media. There are more than 200 stories to experience in our back catalogue so why not learn a bit more about the c…

The digital boardgame ARMELLO was how Melbourne's League of Geeks made their name but seven years since that ground breaking indie game was released the studio this year will be sharing not one but two new games. Kelsey Gamble is the Publishing Producer and has a hand in both the scifi anime colony sim JUMPLIGHT ODYSSEY and the hellish political ga…

STRAY GODS: THE ROLEPLAYING MUSICAL combines narrative adventure games with realtime dynamic songs that change as you make choices. Liam Esler, Managing Director of Melbourne's Summerfall Studios shares how musicians Montaigne and Tripod helped create the soundtrack to this game inspired by the musical episode of Buffy. Written by David Gaider (DRA…

Retro inspired videogames are a dime a dozen but what happens if you lean in all the way, play with the nostalgic experiences of those people who grew up with the NES and the Gameboy to make something truly modern. Joshua Hallaran from Critical Games has been working on 8-BIT ADVENTURES 2 for seven years, studying the classics and creating a true l…

What is a game without it's soundtrack? Meena Shamaly, composer and host of ABC Classic's The Game Show joins Gianni for a musical journey through some of the best sounds in video games. Check out the full list on our website: The Best Video Game Soundtracks of 2022 with Meena Shamaly Support SIFTER's independent gaming journalism by buying us a co…

It's our bumper Game of The Year special, we've got six different games for you as well as a bunch of honourable mentions from the SIFTER team. It was a very hard choice this year with lots of incredible games. You can read a full write up of our favourites on the SIFTER website. SIFTER's 2022 Games of the Year Support SIFTER's independent gaming j…

Alex Johannsson has been working on MORSE, inspired by a love of alt controllers and limited button inputs, in this game that combines real morse code and grid based combat. Alex joins Gianni to talk about the development of the game over many years and why cool weird controllers are really a big source of inspiration. Support SIFTER's independent …

Miltia is one of the biggest Vtubers in Australia, a partnered streamer on Twitch and she's made a career connecting with fans all over the world. You'll find her playing Apex Legends most days and she said vtubing as really allowed her to connect better with her audience. Mitch finds out what it's like vtubing, how the community responded to her n…

Jeff Van Dyck is a BAFTA award winning composer and sound designer, who has worked on FIFA, the TOTAL WAR series, and most recently UNPACKING as one third of Queensland based studio Witch Beam Games. Jeff shares the story of how he came to work with a small indie studio after working Triple A titles for years, the story telling in each of the piece…

WE ARE OFK is an episodic visual novel by Team OFK that pulls together a lot of really interesting elements. It's not only got it's own virtual band with an EP of great electronic pop, but contains some of the most genuinely written conversations you'd expect to overhear from that cool group of twenty somethings in the bar. Director/Writer, actor a…

Starring legendary Australian actors Michael Caton, Anne Charleston and newcomer Nancy Curtis as lead character Casey, WAYWARD STRAND is a very Australian narrative indie game with as much voice acting as 18 feature films. Nancy Curtis who plays Casey and Maize Wallin sound designer, audio programmer and composer from developer Ghost Pattern share …

Do you remember WAY TO THE WOODS? The post apocalyptic game where you play as a magical deer moving through the ruins of humanity was revealed in 2019 as an Xbox exclusive but for mostly solo developer Ant Tan, it's been a long process of getting everything right. We sit down with Ant to find out some of the design inspirations, learn more about th…

CURSED TO GOLF is a rogue-like or as developer Liam Edwards likes to call it a "golf-like" platformer with some excellent tunes and beautiful pixel art graphics. We speak to Liam about the origins of the game as a small personal project, building up the team to polish it, design decisions and gameplay design as well has find out what tips he'd give…

CULT OF THE LAMB is really two different games in one, a town builder and a dungeon crawler, but they've been welded together using arcane magics by the creative team at Massive Monster (THE ADVENTURE PALS, NEVER GIVE UP) into an experience that keeps you busy. Julian Wilton, Creative Director and Will Mesilane, UI Developer share the secrets hidde…

CARD SHARK is a beautiful picture book styled video game where you cheat your way through 18th century France and every single graphic you see was hand printed and then scanned into the game. Lead artist and animator Nicolai Troshinsky was inspired by a love of card magic and sleight of hand, as well as a 1975 Stanley Kubrick film to build this ama…

WITCH STRANDINGS is a mouse controlled "strand-type" game, where you make connections and paths across a cursed world. Even though Hideo Kojima wanted to turn DEATH STRANDING into a genre, it was Xalavier Nelson Jr and the team at Strange Scaffold who did it first Learn more about this open world adventure through a forest, how the game runs WOLFEN…

DLC and expansions could be a possibility for NEON WHITE, the anime inspired speedrunning shooter , but you'll need to let Game Director Ben Esposito know what you'd like to see. Ben shares the Y2K Dreamcast aesthetics of import CDs from Japan and how Machine Girl's music shaped this world, what they are doing about leaderboard cheaters, as well as…

Everyone is talking about V RISING, Stunlock Studios' survival game which has just entered early access and then rocketed up the Steam charts to be one of the most popular new titles around. For Community Manager Jeremy Fielding, it's a dream come true, this is the first game Fielding has worked on and there's also the challenge of managing more th…

What if Link was a cute fox? At first glance TUNIC looks like a beautiful spiritual successor to THE LEGEND OF ZELDA franchise, but as lead developer Andrew Shouldice shares with us in this interview, it also embraces modern "souls-like" gameplay. TUNIC is filled with lots and lots of secrets, the game was at one time called Secret Legend, and Shou…

CITIZEN SLEEPER is a tabletop inspired roleplaying game from Gareth Damian Martin (IN OTHER WATERS) that puts you in the shoes of person trying to escape their digital enslavement in the far future. If it sounds grim, in parts it is, but quickly you discover your place in the world where you can make a life. Each day you've got just the dice you've…

Inspired heavily by the CARMEN SANDIEGO series, CHINATOWN DETECTIVE AGENCY is a contemporary take on the format set in a cyberpunk Singapore in 2037 where social and government support has languished. Creative Director Mark Fillon from Singapore's General Interactive Co shares the authentic design and characters you'll meet as you jet off around th…

If you work in the games industry it can be surprisingly complex to get your name into the end credits, that ending sequence often doesn't include everyone who helped to ship that video game. Project based work and short contracts, and inconsistent recognition makes it more complex than you'd think for developers to get the acknowledgement of the w…

André Read always wanted to make a real time strategy game. A huge fan of the genre, it was many years working in the industry before he got his chance with TFC: THE FERTILE CRESCENT set in the plains of Mesopotamia. Teaming up with Anders Grønningsæter the two person team at Wield Interactive have crafted a multiplayer RTS game built with their Di…

Philip Buchanan from It's Anecdotal was part of the teams that made the awarding winning LARA CROFT GO, HITMAN GO and DEUS EX GO mobile games, and had has just released the charming multiplayer party game MINI MATCHES. It's a collection of Philip's favourite genres with excellent visual design and something for everyone. Learn more about how making…

After seven years without any federal government support for the games industry, a new grant program called the $6 million Games Expansion Pack from Screen Australia was announced on Friday last week. This program replaces a successful but prematurely cancelled fund called the Australian Interactive Games Fund which was axed when this government ca…

CONAN CHOP CHOP is a reimagining of the world of Conan The Barbarian that sees the rippling oiled muscles replaced with cartoony top town aesthetic reminiscent of Flash games or kids cartoons. It's the first console title for Mighty Kingdom, a studio that is more well known for their mobile titles, but it was an excellent creative challenge for Kim…

Explore a drowned society, a city that has sunk beneath the waves and discover how life has continued after people in non-combat adventure game SUBMERGED: HIDDEN DEPTHS. The sequel to 2015's SUBMERGED might not exist if not for Google Stadia, it was an exclusive title for the streaming service, which meant it couldn't be played in the Uppercut Game…

Welcome to Walkthrough SIFTER's brand new weekly news recap show. Each Sunday we'll highlight some of the biggest stories in video games to keep you up to date. Your host on each episode of Walkthrough is Kyle Pauletto, an accomplished journalist with a keen interest in bringing you the best gaming stories each week THIS WEEK: Nintendo outlines 202…

KARDBOARD KINGS is a store management game about a collectible card game, where you do everything but actually play the card game, managing a small town store inspired by working in retail. Oscar Brittain (DESERT CHILD, WORLD'S FASTEST PIZZA) and Rob Gross are Henry's House, they share the challenges of writing believable characters, why speeding u…

How bad for the environment is game development? Terry Burdak from Paper House and Ben Abraham a researcher on the Environmental impact of video games join us to talk about their project to find out. They'll be tracking the exact energy usage while developing their next game WOOD & WEATHER and aim to make the process easy for other studios to do th…