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South Australian video game creatives shine at Gamescom 2025
08 September 2025
The world’s largest and most influential video game trade fair Gamescom wrapped up last month in Germany, with a delegation of six SA games studios supported by the SAFC to showcase their work as part of the South Australian games showcase.
Running 20 to 24 August in Cologne, Gamescom saw more than 357,000 attendees from 128 countries come together to experience the world’s biggest gaming festival, with a huge week of business-to-business networking, informative talks, big game reveals, and an overall global celebration of gaming culture.
The eight SA game developers representing six local studios as part of the SA delegation were among the 1,568 exhibitors at the prestigious event, including other local developers who attended:
- Sean Dee and Emma Waters of Towerpoint Games with Anvilheart
- Emma Losin of Mental Jam with Bobarista
- Jacob von Appen of Royal Reign Studios with Castle Cab
- Rupert McPharlin of The RnD Department with TOYA
- Chad Habel and Daniel McGuiness of Bad Plan Studios with End of Ember
- John Millard of Two Lives Left with Kaiju Battle Simulator
The SA delegation was presented in partnership with Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA), and supported by the SA Government through CreateSA.
Collectively, members of the delegation held more than 100 meetings across the event, connecting with potential publishers, partners and other new contacts. Heading into Gamescom, each studio had unique goals they hoped to achieve — but all delegates agreed that the connections and learning opportunities provided by Gamescom positioned them well for events later in the year, like Games Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP).
Emma Losin of Mental Jam said: “Gamescom gave me so much in terms of understanding where our product sits in the market and what strategies other similar products and companies are using for success.”
For Emma, attending Gamescom provided opportunities to develop and refine strategy, identify marketing opportunities, connect with partners about financial support and receive positive feedback on gameplay at a global market. Her favourite part of the event was getting to meet so many amazing people, with one connection taking her all the way to the Netherlands after the event for a follow up meeting.
Both John Millard of Two Lives Left and Emma Waters of Towerpoint Games also said that the people they met were one of their favourite aspects of the event, particularly getting to know developers from “vastly different backgrounds”.
Emma and Sean Dee met with a dozen publishers and have stayed connected with a majority of them since Gamescom concluded — providing market confidence for their game Anvilheart.
End of Ember co-founder Chad Habel loved “the scale of the event, the atmosphere, and the learning coming from attending such a large event in the games business calendar.” He and Daniel McGuiness made some “excellent” new contacts while also nurturing existing relationships, and are looking forward to building on what they have achieved.
Through attending the event, Jacob von Appen of Royal Reign Studios was able to secure new porting deals for the studio and is in discussions to support an indie games initiative in the Philippines. He said: “There’s a lot of exciting momentum for us across the Oceanic region, with very promising opportunities ahead.”
Since returning home, TOYA (formerly CUBE) developer Rupert McPharlin of The RnD Department has followed up on new connections with localisation and marketing agencies to explore next steps for his game, which also won the SAGE Elevate award at the SA Game Exhibition (SAGE) 2025.
Silksong breaks records
Gamescom 2025 was an exciting time for fans of the SA made 2017 breakout hit Hollow Knight, as Adelaide-based studio Team Cherry announced the release of the highly anticipated sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong, which was available to play at the event.
The New York Times reported that attendees lined up for hours for an opportunity to be one of the first to experience Silksong.
Rupert McPharlin said that the SA delegation felt “incredibly proud” of Team Cherry. “They were such a prominent feature of both Nintendo and Xbox booths, as well as the first game talked about on opening night.”
Hollow Knight has sold over 15 million copies worldwide, and Silksong looks on track to match this. Following announcement of the game’s impending release, wishlists on gaming platform Steam exceeded five million, the most for any game ever.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is now available to play on most platforms: hollowknightsilksong.com
Check out photos of the SA contingent at Gamescom!
