Hey all,

I'm going to be doing a feature over at www.australiangamer.com soon that lists the Top 10 Australian Developed Games. I think it would be cool to feature some of the games which have been released that some people might not even realised were developed locally, and also to draw attention to the quality that is capable from local game houses.

I was going to research it myself and do a definitive list, but I figured I would also put it to the boards to see what everyone else knows, and to help me compile the list. Maybe you know of some not-so-well-known games that were of an amazing quality, or maybe there was a game that lists it as being made by an international developer, even though it was completely created by their local australian studio.

Anyway, some of the ones that I know of so far include:

Dark Reign (PC) - by Auran (Brisbane)
Jurassic Park Operation Genesis - by Blue Tongue Software
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger - by Krome Studios (Brisbane)
Powerslide - by Ratbag (Adelaide)
Destroy All Humans - by Pandemic Studios (Brisbane)
The Hobbit (IBM PC) - by Beam Software (Melbourne)
Fallout Tactics (PC) - by Micro Forte (Canberra)
Freedom Force (PC) - by Irational Games
Top Gear Rally (GBA) - by Tantalus Interactive
Transformers Armada - by Atari Melbourne House
Unreal 2 (Xbox) - by Tantalus Interactive
AFL Live 2005 - IR Gurus
Rome: Total War (PC) - The Creative Assembly

Any additions, mistakes, suggestions, or reccomendations for the Top 10 would be greatly appreciated.

Trainz!

And the sequels, put them all in ahead of some of that other crap!

Was Rome Total War really Australian? That game rocked hard!

EDIT: I just read that Ratbag made a sequel to Powerslide but they couldn't find a publisher. How much does that suck. Perhaps now that they've been shut down they'll "accidentally" release it or something. Maybe that's already happened.

Only one I think is worthy is Transformers, fun game.

<_<

Pandemic are Australian?? :huh: I vote them! Love anal probing. :P

Tribes Vengeance (PC) - by Irrational Games (Canberra)
SWAT 4 - The Stetchkov Syndicate (PC) - by Irrational Games (Canberra)
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue (GBA, GCN, PS2, Xbox) - by Krome Studios
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger: Night of the Quinkan (GBA, GCN, PS2, Xbox) - by Krome Studios

Yug; if you haven't already, just go to http://sumea.com.au/, you should be able to find out a lot about the Australian game development industry/community there. Infact...
http://sumea.com.au/sdevelopers.asp

What about Total Annihilation by Cavedog? Unless I'm very much mistaken they are Australian. I loved that game and still do.

Partially, it was half and half, while it was night over there, they worked on it here, and vica-versa. Plus the Aussies weren't helping from the the start, so I wouldn't put that on the list, as it isn't really fair.

Ratbag got bought out by Midway about 4 months ago and became Midway Australia. Early this month Midway closed the studio.
Aussie games industry just went "wtF?!".

So yeah, Ratbag is dead, and all their assets belong to Midway.

Funny thing, one the guys in my class this year is a fucking mad animatior, and got two job offers about half-way through the year; one from Team Bondi, and one from, you guessed it, Ratbag.
Thankfully, he ended up choosing the Team Bondi job in Sydney, and is now working on a PS3 title.

Damn you, you fickle industry! :cross:

I'm probably more interested in games that were 'completely' developed by local development houses as opposed to 'partially'. Not because the effort wasn't there, but just because it's not truly a totally australian made game, and its difficult to distinguish who did what.

I checked out Sumea Brother yeah, I think I was just mainly after peoples thoughts, and to see if there were any classics that were missed, or maybe some that slipped under the radar.

Yeah I had a friend that worked on the original Powerslide so I got to go in and play test it.

I was pretty bummed when I heard they'd been closed down, some of the stuff they were working on sounded pretty good.


Trainz is by Auren yeah? You should definitely put them in or one of their sequels!

I love it when Yug coems here once a month to plug his website.

I'm recruiting Mav :)

Although I am genuinely trying to get help on this topic.

Updated list:

Dark Reign (PC) - by Auran (Brisbane) – 01 August, 1997
Jurassic Park Operation Genesis - by Blue Tongue Software (Melbourne) – 21 March, 2003
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger - by Krome Studios (Brisbane) – 09 October, 2002
Powerslide - by Ratbag (Adelaide) – 01 December, 1998
Destroy All Humans - by Pandemic Studios (Brisbane) – 17 June, 2005
The Hobbit (IBM PC) - by Beam Software (Melbourne) - 1982
Fallout Tactics: Botherhood of Steel (PC) - by Micro Forte (Canberra) – 15 March, 2001
Freedom Force (PC) - by Irrational Games (Canberra) – 07 April, 2002
Top Gear Rally (GBA) - by Tantalus Interactive (Melbourne) – 21 October, 2003
Transformers - by Atari Melbourne House (Melbourne) – April 01, 2004
Unreal 2 (Xbox) - by Tantalus Interactive (Melbourne) – 01 November, 2003
AFL Premiership 2005 - IR Gurus (Melbourne) – 22 September, 2005
Rome: Total War (PC) - The Creative Assembly (Brisbane) – 22 September, 2004
Tribes Vengeance (PC) – Irrational Games – 05 October, 2004
Heroes of the Pacific (Xbox, PS2, PC) – IR Gurus (Melbourne) - Sept 23, 2005
Warlords Battlecry 2 (PC) – SSG (Sydney) – 01 December, 1995
Test Drive Le Mans (Dreamcast) – Atari Melbourne House (Melbourne) - July 11, 2000
KrushKillnDestroy (PC) – Beam Software (Melbourne) – March 05, 1997
Way of the Exploding Fist (Commodore 64) – Beam Software (Melbourne) - 1995


From what I've found, Full Spectrum Warrior wasn't actually developed by the Brisbane portion of Pandemic Studios, even though alot of the original staff that worked on the original Dark Reign worked on it. They had flown over to the states, and after Dark Reign 2 was completed, they flew back to Australia and setup offices in Brisbane

System Shock 2 was a collaborative effort between Looking Glass Studios and Irrational Games, so it wasn't totally developed by the Australian Development studio, so it dosen't count.

If there are any others I may have missed from this list, or any errors, let me know. I'm currently trying to source information about awards or recognition these games recieved.

I think for the TOP 10, I'd like to try to have a different developer for each game if possible. I'll include a footnote including some of the 'runners up' me thinks.

I still think Destroy All Humans! is the best game from the list. How can something so awesome come from Aussie minds?!? :huh:
:P Just joking! :lol: Its good to see games that don't have some black guy bustin' caps in ped's ass' or some white cop guy bustin' caps in ped's ass'.

Ratbag also developed "Leadfoot" didn''t they? I remember playing a demo on PC a few years ago.

Ahem. :|

SWAT 4 - The Stetchkov Syndicate went Gold, and was an expansion done entirely in Canberra.(I know one of the programmers)

And just because the Ty games were sequals doesn't mean they shouldn't be discounted, alot of work went into those games, and they were very sucessfull.(which is why there's now a Ty the Tasmanian Tiger TV series)

Check out these games from MircoForte's early years:
http://www.microforte.com.au/games/older.html

Interesting little tibit about the Americas Cup game...they went out and bought a Commodore 64 from Myer in Melbourne, made the game(flat out) over a few days and nights, then took advantage of Myer's return policy once they were done. :P


Like I said, Sumea is a good place to go, and if you want info on who's won what awards over the past few years, try http://www.AGDC.com.au/
If you can't find anything there, I can get you contact details for the co-ordinators and they should definately be able to get you the info you need.


Oh, and take Unreal 2 off your list, that's just a port of the PC version. ;)

Thanks everyone for their help and contributions to the article, you can find the final Top 10 Aussie Games list here:

http://www.australiangamer.com/feature.php?id=91

And hey Brother, can I still get the contact details for the co-ordinators of AGDC? Definately have a few Q's I wouldn't mind asking them.