Plenty of game developers dream of running their own studio. The team at Wayward Skies Studio is already doing it. Their first game, Mimicry!, launched on Steam in July, and this month they brought it to the show floor at PAX Australia in Melbourne.
Wayward Skies grew out of AIE’s Graduate Diploma of Management (Learning) specialising in Games Business, a one-year postgraduate course for developers who want to turn a game into a business.
We interviewed programmers Jasper Tobin and Joshua Cartledge at PAX. Along with the rest of the Wayward Skies team, they completed AIE’s Advanced Diploma of Professional Game Development before moving into the Graduate Diploma. In the Advanced Diploma they learned how to build games. In the Graduate Diploma they’re learning how to release them, market them and build a studio around them, and Mimicry! is the result.
Mimicry! is a multiplayer hide-and-seek game for up to 12 players. One team plays the Mimics, shape-shifting creatures that disguise themselves as everyday objects. The other team plays HAZMAT-suited Exterminators armed with flamethrowers, grenade launchers and a Mimic Finder. When a Mimic is caught, they join the Exterminators, so nobody sits out a round.
“The game’s a whole lot of fun, a lot of chaos,” Jasper and Joshua said at PAX. “We’ve spent about a year working on it, and it’s been great to see all the reactions… people playing and having fun together.”
Players agree. Since launch, Mimicry! has earned a 97% positive rating from Steam reviewers.
The Graduate Diploma treats every project as a commercial venture. Developers spend three days a week on study, covering business planning, product design and strategy. They spend the other two days building their own game or business. They also get 24/7 access to a dedicated studio space. For Wayward Skies, that meant a year of development that ended with a real product on Steam, made by a studio with a name, a brand and paying players.
Wayward Skies was one of ten AIE teams exhibiting original games at PAX Australia, held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre from 9 to 11 October. The event gave the team three days of face-to-face feedback from players, along with conversations with developers, publishers and others in the industry.
Meet the developers
- Samuel Blokland – Director, Artist
- Carl-Oscar Clark – Lead Artist
- Joshua Cartledge – Programmer
- Jasper Tobin – Programmer
- Mason Lake – Composer, Sound Designer
- Katelyn Blokland – 2D / UI Artist
- Samuel Hudman – Artist
- Luke Bourne – Artist
- Gabriel King – Artist
- Caitlin Dutton – Artist
- Jazmine Earl – Artist
Mimicry! is available now on Steam.
Want to take your own game from idea to launch? Find out more about AIE’s Games Business Graduate Diploma.