Tower Defense and Reverse Bullet Hell collide in Australia Did It, the new game from Rami Ismail and Aesthetician Labs. The game will be published by Mystic Forge, a new indie publisher founded by former Good Shepherd Entertainment members.

Australia Did It is the latest game from Rami Ismail (creator of Nuclear Throne and Luftrausers) and co-developed by Aesthetician Labs. Designed as an experimental, compact take on the strategy genre, the game "marks a return to small-team innovation and genre-pushing ambition at a time when the industry sorely needs it", according to the announcement. Published by boutique label Mystic Forge and coming to Steam later this year, this new game enhances Turn-Based Tower Defense with a unit merging system and on-rails Reverse Bullet Hell Combat. It's called "Tactical Reverse Bullet Hell".

"I believe the games industry has been failing at supporting developer innovation and experimentation," said Ismail. "Publishers, investors, and shareholders fund the same few safe bets, later and later in development - forcing even the most creative developers to make safe games with predictable ideas, and force in the latest flavour-of-the-day. That continues until someone does manage to break the mold and creates something truly new - and then the money chases that until that is replaced again. I had very low hopes for this odd prototype I'd been playing with, but when I showed it to Mystic Forge, they didn't even flinch at the experimental genre mix, wrote the check for a small development cycle, and supported us throughout development. No guardrails, no caveats, just a firm belief that games need new ideas, and that it is worth chasing that."

Australia Did It is being published by Mystic Forge, a boutique publisher specialising in PC games, particularly strategy, RPG and simulation titles. Mystic Forge was founded by members of the team behind Good Shepherd Entertainment (Monster Train, Friday the 13th and John Wick Hex). The company aims to support bold projects by teams it believes in. With Australia Did It, the publisher took a hands-off approach.

"From the very start, I knew that Mystic Forge had to run with Rami going up to bat and taking a big creative swing with this game. Once we chatted about design intent with the focus on high-tension moments, and heard his full pitch with the proposed title name, we were ALL IN," said Randy Greenback, Portfolio Director. "Mystic Forge exists to support ideas that deserve to be seen and played, especially if they don’t follow the rules. Australia Did It is experimental, there isn’t anything else like it."

In addition to Australia Did It, Mystic Forge is publishing Dog Witch, a dice-powered rogue-like and an unannounced passion project from a South Asian studio that impressed the team with its potential to introduce new stories to a wider global audience.

Australia Did It: "Set in a drained Atlantic Ocean basin following a mysterious catastrophic event, Australia Did It casts players as hired mercenaries defending a cargo train as it navigates through a monster-ridden drained seabed. Your mission? Escort precious cargo across this hostile terrain by holding off endless waves of enemies at every station. If the shipment arrives intact, we'll call it a win. Whether you survive or not."


Never miss anything from the German, Swiss and Austrian games industry again: subscribe for free to our Daily newsletter and get all news straight to your inbox.

Share this post

Written by

Marcel Kleffmann
Marcel Kleffmann