This five-person studio has won multiple awards in its time, with the firm's first game Train Conductor having been named as Best Mobile Game at the 2012 Independent Games Festival China, the Asian and Australasian branch of the world famous IGF awards.
In the third and final part of our look at the mobile development scene in Melbourne, we spoke to the studio's creative director Simon Joslin, with a specific focus on why the Australian city has been a key factor in The Voxel Agents' success.
A matter of love
"Our decision to establish in Melbourne was completely personal," said Joslin.
"On my first visit to Melbourne I had simply fallen in love with the city and I really wanted to move down here ever since."
Train Conductor
Joslin got his start at Halfbrick in Brisbane the studio behind of some of the biggest brands in mobile gaming, from Fruit Ninja to Jetpack Joyride. However, he knew he wanted to have his own business and set about starting it with two close friends.
"I went [to Melbourne] without a plan to start a business but immediately after arriving Pandemic closed down and Matt Clark was out of work too. With that coincidence of timing we figured it was the perfect opportunity to start the studio we'd always talked about," he added.
It didn't require much effort for Joslin to convince his friends to take the risk of going indie.
"Fortunately convincing Matt and Tom Killen to move to Melbourne was extremely simple. We'd all travelled to Melbourne before for a conference and had a great time and they knew I wasn't going to budge!"
Socialising with other game developers has been key to the success of the Melbourne gaming community, just as we've seen in other gaming clusters we've investigated, like Helsinki.
However, while many of Helsinki's studios were started by locals, Simon claims most of the developers in Melbourne moved to the city from elsewhere.
The outsiders
"The whole scene exploded about four years ago and it has just kept growing," Joslin told us.
"Everyone is mates. We all share, hang out and party together. It's the same vibe that the whole city gives off - you simply make friends at every turn. I know only a few people that grew up in Melbourne, instead people who've decided to move here to be part of it.
"The result is that it's an amazingly multicultural and international city. Everyone is out to make friends and have a good time, and you can feel that in the development scene."
The Voxel Agents team
The friendliness of the city has created several gaming communities that all interact to create the thriving creative atmosphere.
Indeed, as we speak to him, Joslin's loves forvideo game culture on The Voxel Agents' doorstep is clear.
"The monthly International Game Developers' Association (IGDA) meet-ups are often 100 to 200 people strong, and they are bustling affairs," he added.
"There's a chip-tune scene, a local physical games meet-up which I personally love attending, and there's always some exhibit, party or festival that seeds new ideas from outside the games industry."
One of the most unique things about The Voxel Agents is that they share their office space with other local indies and help them with advice and other resources. This has certainly made them one of the most popular features of the Melbourne games community.
Working together
"We share some resources like QA, artists and sound guys with other studios, as well as getting help solving problems on our Unity projects with other developers across the hall in our shared office," Joslin informed us.
This level of collaboration with the studio's peers and competitors, Joslin added, is only possible in the games industry.
"My friends from outside the industry are always surprised and slightly shocked to the extent that we share, support and collaborate with other game developers. For us it's just natural, this is our creative outlet, our passion and it's simply fun sharing it with others.
"I don't think there's another form of creative produce where you can step into the production of a new piece of work mid-progress, get a feel for it by playing, and then talk and share your experience of it with the creator in the same way."
When we investigated the development scene in the UK Midlands, studios seemed nervous to spend too much time in each other's company, perhaps for fear of leaking information to competitors.
In Melbourne, however, Joslin claims there is absolutely no concern of that happening between the city's studios.
"I don't worry that someone's going to steal my ideas when they play my early prototypes," he confirmed.
"Anyone who's good at making games has got a thousand ideas they're busting to make. When I play a game in early stages and I love it, I don't think 'I should steal this,' instead I think 'I want to stay close to this and see it progress.'"
Good ol' government
The original motivation behind The Voxel Agents' helping other indies was to try to improve the region's reputation for great game development.
These days, though, the roles have somewhat reversed.
"We wanted Melbourne and Australia to be put on the game developer map and we couldn't do that alone," said Joslin.
"In the early days there was also a real threat that a lot of nascent talent could disappear because there just weren't jobs around. We encouraged and helped people because we didn't want them to leave the industry! Now the community is huge and thriving, and they're helping us more than we can probably help them!"
While this support network between the studios has been crucial for the success of the Melbourne games industry, Joslin believes that none of this could have been achieved without the support of the Australian Government - especially when it came to reaching the major games markets in the USA and Europe.
Train Conductor 2: USA
"Our distance from the major centres of the western world is a barrier for Australian studios, but the Government helps us overcome it," said Joslin.
"We've made good use of the Victorian Government's support to travel overseas to promote ourselves and our titles. With it we can meet people face-to-face, which is so much more effective and long-lasting than email discussions, and have our games stand out at the world's most important gaming events."
A world view
The Government is also planning to bring in new funding initiatives to make Australian game companies even more competitive on the world stage. Simon continues.
"There are new production and studio funds becoming available from our national government to help grow the industry," added Joslin.
"With these funds we can take our studio to the next level. We want to build our games into worldwide brands. We want to take them to more platforms, lengthen the time we update, support and build upon them, and to spread the word further with campaigns that simply aren't possible without funding."
The future of the Melbourne games industry looks to be have been secured, with studios like The Voxel Agents primed to take advantage of new opportunities.
The incredible desire for the studios to support one another and position the city as a champion of great games should inspire games companies around the world.
On that note, we'll let Joslin have the last word:
"The Government is now cheering the games industry on, and it couldn't have come at a better time.
"I don't think the Australian industry of five years ago would have known how to take advantage of these funds, but our industry in the past five years has rebuilt from the ground up and done so organically, to make very unique, creative and commercially successful original IP.
"These funds will further establish the Australian industry as a leader."
Have you worked in video game development in Melbourne? What was your experience of the area and what do you think the future holds? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
