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SA video games make their mark as Pro Jank Footy kicks off Digital Games Fund success
20 August 2026
South Australia’s digital games sector is on a winning streak, with SA made and SAFC supported games studios and projects making their mark here and internationally in recent times.
The 11 video games supported in the inaugural round of the SAFC’s new Digital Games Fund (DGF) are already kicking goals, Pro Jank Footy leading the charge with its official release last week via Umbrella Entertainment.
From SA’s Powerbomb Games and Tinker Town, the 1980s AFL themed game is out now on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch – where it went to No.1, and Steam – where it’s hit No.8 in the region. It’s also picked up rave reviews from ScreenHub, Press Start, Checkpoint Gaming and Gadget Guy, and has been featured by The Guardian Australia and ABC.
The brainchild of SA screen practitioners David Ashby and Dario Russo – the creative minds behind cult SA made television series Danger 5 and Italian Spiderman, Pro Jank Footy is an exemplar of the original and innovative games coming out of South Australia. The game’s absurd take on Australian Rules Football, featuring commentary from Aunty Donna’s Broden Kelly, has already built a solid fanbase since exhibiting for the first time at SAGE: SA Game Exhibition, where it won the SAGE Award for Best in Exhibition, which the team say was the catalyst to push forward with the game’s development.
Fellow DGF recipients End of Ember, Peppermint and Photo Roboto have also hit exciting new milestones.
Bad Plan Studios has just announced that End of Ember has scored a publishing deal with Thailand-based Rising Tide Publishing. A maximalist roguelite that pays homage to horror movie franchises, the game exhibited at SAGE 2025 and 2026 and travelled to Gamescom 2025 in Cologne, Germany supported by the SAFC and CreateSA. Meanwhile, Peppermint by emerging SA studio Cowboy Fish, which made its public debut at SAGE 2026, and Photo Roboto by Monomyth Games are now available to wishlist on Steam.
Also out this month is Box Knight, which is set for global release for PC on August 25. The debut game from Adelaide Studios-based We Made A Thing Studios, Box Knight was initially developed with support from the SAFC’s former Games Innovation Fund. The irreverent RPG has since gone on to be selected for high-profile showcases including Day of the Devs and PAX Rising, and in 2024 won the inaugural SAGE Award for Best in Exhibition.
And SA made VR game Kaiju Battle Simulator from Two Lives Left has hit more than 300,000 purchases on Meta Quest, with over 100,000 active monthly users enjoying the sandbox “beat em’ up” experience. Two Lives Left was supported by the Adelaide Economic Development Agency (AEDA) to attend the BitSummit game development festival in Kyoto, Japan earlier this year, with fellow SA studios Catalyst Games and Powerbomb Games also in attendance. Last year the studio was part of a South Australian delegation to Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, supported by the SAFC and CreateSA in partnership with IGEA.
The depth of the state’s game development sector was on full display last month at the AVCon Indie Games Room, where almost two-thirds of the record 55 games exhibited were made in South Australia.
And the sector is set to shine at Melbourne International Games Week in October, with a delegation of SA game developers attending GCAP and the Australian Game Developer Awards (AGDAs) and exhibiting at PAX Aus supported by the SAFC and Create SA, and with support from the Department of State Development. Stay tuned for the SAFC’s announcement of the delegates!
To find out more about SA’s game development sector and how the SAFC supports it, visit our Games page.