<
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2025/dec/01/new-zealand-indie-game-developers>
"Those not immersed in the world of gaming might not be familiar with Pax
Australia: the enormous gaming conference and exhibition that takes over the
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre every October. My favourite section
is always Pax Rising, a showcase of indie video games and tabletop, the
majority Australian – but there has been a recent shift that was particularly
notable this year: many of the standout titles had crossed the Tasman, arriving
from New Zealand.
At the booth run by Code – New Zealand’s government-funded Centre of Digital
Excellence – 18 Kiwi developers demoed their forthcoming games in a showcase of
the vibrant local scene that was buzzing with crowds. In the comedic
Headlice, I controlled a parasitic headcrab monster which could latch on to
people’s brains and puppet them.
How Was Your Day?, a cozy time-loop game set
in New Zealand, warmed my heart with its story about a young girl searching for
her missing dog. And
Killing Things With Your Friends, a co-operative
multiplayer action game about surviving bizarre medical trials, had me pulling
off my own arm to use as a weapon against enemy hordes.
Two years since the blockbuster success of
Dredge, independent New Zealand
games are having a moment. According to a survey from the New Zealand Game
Developers Association (NZGDA), total revenue for local game developer studios
has risen steadily each year since 2018, and between 2024 and 2025 it shot up
38% to NZ$759m (A$657m). That’s almost double the A$339.1m generated in
Australia in 2024.
It’s a figure buoyed up by a few standout successes: Grinding Gear Games’ hit
Path of Exile series reported revenue of NZ$105m between October 2024 and
September 2025; PikPok, the studio behind the popular
Into the Dead series
and mobile hit
Clusterduck, has achieved more than 500m worldwide downloads
across all titles; and
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn,
Cryptmaster and
Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers have all seen big numbers. Some of these
projects benefited from the 20% rebate offered by funding body NZ On Air, which
paid out $22.4m to 40 companies in 2024/25. But for smaller studios and fresh
teams with no incoming investment, Code has become a vital pathway."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
