Hi folks and welcome back to the Diets and Deities Steam News Update! Whether you've never heard about Diets and Deities before or you're familiar with our project, thanks for dropping by! 💞
Diets and Deities is an upcoming PC rhythm cooking game developed in Darwin, NT! Discover the music and recipes from diverse cultures as you dodge to the beat and uncover the flavours of the universe! I'm Skye 👋 the concept artist and community manager for Dieits and Deities!
There's a lot to through this month so let's go! It's been a hectic few months between preparing the build and marketing assets for PAX, to the back-to-back networking and learning conferences! Needless to say, our social batteries are still collectively out of charge! But the show goes on and I'm super excited to share lots of photos and talk about how the week went! FYI this is going to be a long newsletter, so apologies in advance!
Me trying to absorb information from panels after 5 days of conferences and networking in a row...
Melbourne International Games Week!
So to explain, a few weeks ago we attended Melbourne International Games Week, a jampacked week filled with lots of amazing events for the game industry!
And this year was a particularly important and amazing moment for the Northern Territory! As an industry, we've come so far! Last year we had only 3 people (myself included!) but this year we had over 13 people attend who showed off their work, connected with fellow game developers, and represented our small but passionate community!
Some context for those who might've missed last month's newsletter, we showcased Diets and Deities at PAX AUS 2023!
We’re also the very first game from the Northern Territory to be showcased at PAX!! Alongside the game, we hoped to find some beta testers for our upcoming push to beta release!
🎵 High Score 🎵
High Score is a hybrid in-person and live-streamed conference exploring the important role that music and audio play in game design and experience!
Our musician TUTUP MULUT and local NT artist Serina Pech had a great time learning from so many inspiring creatives in their profession!As someone who very much isn't a musician, it was amazing to absorb really interesting knowledge on music within games!
Thank you so much to Creative Australia for making this trip possible!
👋 GCAP 👋
Games Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) is a professional development and networking event for the Australian game development industry, focused on up-skilling and connecting through education and knowledge sharing!
There were so many great panels to attend this year it was so hard to choose every day! It was so much fun to have so many friends there with us for the 3 days of learning!
Thank you so much to IGEA and Screen Territory for supporting our Territorians at GCAP!
Dylan Bennett, the director of Larrikin Interactive (our studio!) also got to present a talk on the story of how he started the game development scene in the NT! He has worked so hard to get to this point and I'm so glad the NT got represented at GCAP! Dylan is the very reason we've been part of the amazing journey that you've been reading about! ❤️
🎉 AGDAs 🎉
We also all attended the Australian Game Developer Awards (AGDAs), the Australian games industry’s night of nights to celebrate the outstanding games and individual achievements of the Australian game development community!
AND VERY IMPORTANTLY!! A very special congratulations to our amazing boss and inspiration, Dylan Bennett who won the Empower Award!! ✨ 💕
Dylan is both the spark and superglue that holds our passionate game development community together in the NT. Everyone on the team is so proud of all of his hard work over the past 2 years to reach this monumental milestone!
It really feels like the NT is finally now on the map in the Australian game industry! Thank you so much for all of your hard work!
Here's a photos of our amazing team and the incredible people behind the scenes all in fancy dress!
🎮 PAX 🎮
PAX Aus is a celebration of gaming and gaming culture featuring thought-provoking panels, a massive expo hall filled with game demos, tabletop, and tournaments.
This was our first time ever presenting on such a large scale outside of Darwin and were all equally nervous and excited! So many people came by to play (look at the crowds there!) and we got such an overwhelmingly positive reception to the game.
Thank you so so much to all the lovely people who attended PAX and decided to come by our stall. You are all absolutely amazing! Your input and suggestions have helped us align better with our goals for Diets and Deities and we hope you're also excited for the future of our game!
Also very importantly...from PAX we more than DOUBLED our wishlists and Discord members!! As the only (and first time) person working on marketing, I am so thankful for your support! You've all made everything worth it 💕
We all had such a great time at Melbourne International Games Week! I would highly recommend any aspiring game developers to attend! Hope to see you there next year!
✨ BETA Signup ✨
As part of our PAX stall, we hoped to encourage people to sign up to our BETA testing coming up! If you'd like to be a part of that process and connect with our team, we'd recommend you join our Discord for updates and you can fill out the form here! We're planning for BETA release in November this year, so stay tuned for that!
IT Code Fair (27 Oct)
IT CodeFair is an event held by Charles Darwin University (CDU) that aims to provide an opportunity to encourage and advocate students’ talents, showcasing their dedication more broadly on an industrial level. Our studio, Larrikin Interactive will be there! For anyone interested in becoming part of the game development industry in the NT, I'd highly recommend attending!
Here are the details:
Friday, 27 October (9 AM - 2 PM)
@ Double Tree by Hilton Hotel at Esplanade, Darwin
Some Sweet Links 🍰
Phew...thanks for reading through this essay, it's been a very eventful few weeks that's for sure! But it was really important to me to acknowledge the amazing efforts of everyone this month! I'm so excited to see where our little game will be in another few months time~ From all of us nerdy Territorians, thank you for believing in our passion to make games!
That's it for this month! Next month I'll have more information regarding BETA testing as well as some updates to the game! Stay tuned for the next newsletter!
Diets and Deities is an upcoming PC rhythm cooking game developed by NT indie studio Larrikin Interactive. Discover the music and recipes from diverse cultures as you dodge to the beat and uncover the flavours of the universe!
If you're interested, you can support us by checking out our Steam Page or joining our Discord Community!
Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again 💕