Games developer creates artificial intelligence that puts game in top 10 indie Aussie-made games
Adelaide-based gaming studio We Have Always Lived in the Forest is celebrating a successful year after its founder, Chantal Ryan, was selected as one of 50 inspiring individuals as part of the Future Class 2022 at the Game Awards being held in the United States, considered the Oscars of the gaming industry.
Ms Ryan has enjoyed a successful year with her game, ‘darkwebSTREAMER’ which was named one of the best indie games at Gamescom 2022 by industry-leading publication, IGN, which offers daily coverage of all things games and entertainment to more than 283 million fans across 35 platforms and 110 countries.
She was also amongst an array of local gaming companies participating in the South Australian Games Exhibition (SAGE) at the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC).
SAGE is Adelaide’s newest and most exciting event for video game developers, fans, players and enthusiasts.
Gamescom is the world’s leading trade fair for digital games culture and was held in Germany in August 2022. We Have Always Lived in the Forest was one of five South Australian gaming studios to attend and made ‘incredible inroads’ with investors and industry members, which the company is still working through.
A trained anthropologist, Ms Ryan, through her studio, We Have Always Lived in the Forest, designs, directs and produces experimental narrative games and systems built upon disruptive language technologies.
“South Australia has cultivated an incredibly special community in the local games industry,” Ms Ryan said. “The future is here, and it is video games – with the video game industry larger than both the film and music industry combined.
“The Department for Trade and Investment has connected us with business opportunities, facilitated meetings with potential stakeholders, supported us at events to connect with both business partners and our target audiences. I can honestly and genuinely say we would not have had half our current success without this support.
“We have so much talent here, and with the support we receive – especially as a start-up studio – we’re remarkably well-positioned to take big ideas further.”
Recently, the studio’s game, darkwebSTREAMER, an internet-horror streamer RPG-sim game, was listed as one of the 10 best Aussie-made indie games from PAX Rising, which showcases engaging games developed by smaller teams. Kotaku, which covers gaming news and reviews, wrote ‘the AI, which was developed in-house, was truly something to behold’. Gaming news authority GamesHub, also featured darkwebSTREAMER, describing it as ‘a curious game that wants to replicate the stress of livestreaming, with a bit of the occult mixed in for good measure’.
South Australia’s games sector continues to go from strength to strength.
The games industry presents significant economic opportunities for South Australia, contributing $36.2 million in Industry Gross Value Added with $45.3 million of turnover of exports[1].
darkwebSTREAMER utilises its own proprietary AI technology that generates a random experience in the game each time it is played. The AI uses natural language processing (NLP) and artificial psychology (AP) techniques.
2023 shows no sign of slowing down for Ms Ryan and We Have Always Lived in the Forest, with an invitation to present at a roundtable at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco in March, on ‘Combating hate and extremism in digital spaces’. She will also speak at Reboot Develop Blue in April, a boutique games developer and games industry conference held in Croatia.
For more information about South Australia’s Creative Industries sector, visit https://invest.sa.gov.au/sectors/creative-industries
[1] Latest data available 2019-20.