There are so many good video games you could be playing at any given moment, games made from teams of all sizes from all over the world, but for just this moment I'd like to focus our gaze on one country in particular: my country.
Australia is a nation whose video game influence has waxed and waned over the years, ranging from early pioneer to AAA outpost to Great Recession-affected wasteland to mobile gaming powerhouse to indie specialists. I've been alive for most of that time (and blogging on the internet for nearly half of it!), and one thing that's always struck me is that while loads of Australian games have been huge international successes, there's been surprisingly little international recognition that they were Australian.
That's probably down to many of the games themselves--few of the big successes have been distinctly Australian in their setting or design the way, say, The Witcher 3 is distinctly Polish--but it's still struck me as a weird oversight! So it's lovely to see that website/podcast Sifter have once again compiled their big annual list of video games that were made in Australia, so you can either learn all about new stuff, or gasp in wonder that one of your favourite games of 2024 was made somewhere you didn't realise.
The list contains a bunch of excellent indie games, many of which we've written about here on Aftermath! Including:
And, just yesterday:
But it's also a handy reminder that the AAA video game industry's web of contractors reaches all corners of the globe, with everything from Black Ops 6 to Luigi's Mansion 2 HD being worked on by Australian teams.
If you'd like to scroll through the list yourself and check out some very good indie video games--something I'd recommend on a weekend like this--you can find it here, along with links to most of their Steam pages as well.
