Lightmap - Conversations with video game creators

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 love letter to the pixel graphics and chiptune of t...

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 coffee on KoFi or some merch on the SIF...

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 journalism by buying us a coffee on...

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 gaming journalism by buying us a coffee on Ko...

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 new look and what she thinks of the cur...

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 pieces of music and how the next project TEMPOPO mixes...

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 and OFK Vocalist Teddy Dief (HYPER LIGH...

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 the process of recording these performances all ac...

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 the game play, how Steven Universe and IKENFELL...

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 to new players. There are also a few...

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 hidden in this world, what it took to build th...

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 amazing and unique game and joins SIFTER for an in de...

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 WOLFENSTEIN 3D every single frame, and the hop...

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 how he feels about your thirstiness...

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 than 1 million players in the first co...

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 Shouldice said it's all about capturing t...

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 been dealt, as you choose how to fulfill...

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 the world in search of answers as ex-cop Ami...

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 work put in. It's something that Alexan...

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 Discord community that reimagines the classic format...

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 39 DAYS TO MARS and other games have...

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 came to power in 2014. Our guests on this episode ar...

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 Forrest, Creative Director and Jeff Wong, P...

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 Games' home country. Ed Orman (FALLOUT TA...

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 2022 and beyond in it's first Direct -...