Getting swooped by a magpie is among the most feared rites of passage in Aussie culture. The signature flapping sound, followed by the click of a beak has struck fear into the hearts of most Australians who live near the avian habitat.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Inspired by that common experience, a solo developer based in Perth is making a video game about it. But the journey to build a video game around the concept is no flight of fancy.
Pie in the Sky, a video game by Mark Smith from Monster Shop Games came up with the idea one day when finishing his shift at work.
"There's a really nice walk in east Perth to the car park where I work and there's lots of birds around, mainly galahs and ibises and that sort of thing," Mark said.
"I saw a magpie and thought about the times I've been swooped... I've got a couple of young kids and they've experienced it already. I just thought, 'Oh, I wonder if anyone's made a game about that', because that's a pretty iconic Australian experience. That'd actually be pretty fun, flying around, swooping people, stealing food, just being a general menace."
Inspiration from the past
Inspired by objective-based titles like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and sandbox games like Untitled Goose Game and Goat Simulator, Mark saw the potential in an arcade-style game that allows for experimentation and chaos.
"I think that night I stayed up until 1am working on a prototype. And then the next week I had a little bird flying around in Unity made out of cubes and spheres and [it] just sort of grew from there."
Playing as the titular Australian Magpie. Players need to steal food, swoop people and complete objectives to rack up a high score and cause as much chaos as possible. Terrorise pesky cyclists, steal snags straight from the barbie and if your stomach is full, feel free to deliver a package to the unsuspecting victims below.
The game has a distinct PlayStation 2-era graphical style, with simplified textures and models. This served a few purposes for Mark, it allowed quick iteration of the game and the low polygon count lowered the game's performance budget.
Flying solo
Aside from using assets purchased online, Pie in the Sky is a completely solo project. From modelling the 3D art to coding the game's features has been a passion project for Mark. He said finding the time to design and build a game, be a parent and work full-time, has its challenges.
"It's difficult. I definitely don't have as much time to dedicate to game development as I'd like, especially working full-time," Mark said.
"I've got two young kids as well, both under five, so I think having kids has taught me how to manage my time really effectively... I really don't work on it often but when I do I'm sort of raring to go to - so in a way I think having that restriction kind of helps because I'm thinking about it all day and then finally when I get to sit down I'm 100 per cent productive."
The lucky country
The Australian development landscape has evolved greatly in the last 10 years, bolstered by government investment and locally developed hits like Hollow Knight, Untitled Goose Game and Cult of the Lamb to name a few.
Mark said the dev community was friendly and helpful, with a sense of connection and being in it together. "We have a really good supportive community here... there's a lot of developers in Perth... in terms of solo developers like myself and two and three-person teams, there's actually a lot going on in WA.
We definitely celebrate each other's successes. I couldn't think of a bad word to say about the community here at all.
Mark is aiming for a January 2025 release of Pie in the Sky on Steam with rough plans to bring the game across to mobile and home consoles like Nintendo Switch in the future.
