About Me.

G’day people! I’m Stonie - an Indie game developer working from way out in the Australian bush. No, Seriously, I can’t walk outside without dodging deadly snakes, or a mob of kangaroos judging me haha.

For over 10 years now, I have been working solo on games, I have released several mobile games and built so many prototypes for people, but it wasn't until recently had I actually released a full game for myself.

Last year I developed and released DISORDER, A horror game where you play a series of twisted word games to save your family. After release, many content creators picked up the game and had a lot of fun with it. Watching my game be played and shared by millions online was surreal — and most people loved it. I thought, 'Holy shit, my game might just sell!'… but the sales didn’t match the hype. I had just learned the hard way that visibility doesn’t guarantee players.

It was such an awesome experience building the game and then watching others play it out in the wild, but the lack of sales made me deep dive on what went wrong. If my game is so cheap and everyone liked it, why weren't they buying it? I had realized that once a person had watched another play the game, they no longer needed to play it themselves as they had already seen all of the shocking moments.

I have learned so much working on DISORDER, but because the sales weren't there, I had to take what I learned and get straight to work on my next game.

My Next Move.

Because of the traction DISORDER got within the indie horror community, I began working on a new single-player horror game. I was collaborating with a dear friend of mine, a really talented writer, and we started putting together an incredible story about a girl trying to contact her parents with a Ouija board. I absolutely loved the concept… but something kept nagging at me. I wanted to play a game with my friends. Most of my friends aren’t into horror games and I couldn’t shake the idea of building a multiplayer game just for us to enjoy together. That feeling quickly took over, and I began looking into the fun party games we’ve played over the years.

Years ago, my friends and I would play Garry’s Mod, specifically a mode called Trouble in Terrorist Town. It’s a social deduction game: one or more players are the traitor, one is a sheriff, and the rest are civilians. The traitor’s goal is to eliminate everyone without getting caught, while the sheriff and civilians work to survive. I have so many good memories sneaking around and ‘murdering’ my friends, the tension, the chaos, the laughter, it was unlike anything else.

I even showed my friends Among Us to see if it captured the same feeling. Their first response? 'It’s full of kids.' That was the spark! What if I built our own social deduction game, designed for adults,  something chaotic, funny, and memorable. That’s when the idea hit me. And that idea grew into my next game…

Eight players, one traitor, everyone racing to complete their tasks while the traitor tries to sabotage them… chaos, fun, and betrayal all rolled into one. I dug into the origins of social deduction games. One of the first was called Mafia… and there it was. The moment I saw the word ‘Mafia,’ I instantly thought of my all-time favorite TV series: The Sopranos. It was as if the stars had aligned, the universe had gifted me my next game… and that game is 'Wise Guys’.

WISE GUYS!

One Boss, six Wise Guys… and one Rat. The Boss just got word from his man on the inside, federal indictments are coming and the cops could raid at any minute. The Wise Guys have to stash their guns, drugs, and cash… but that’s not all. There’s a Rat in the group, and the cops are listening. Clear the stash, whack the Rat, and get out before the raid, if you can!
I want Wise Guys to capture that Mafia vibe, the scheming, the tension, the betrayals, but in my own way. Cartoon chaos, brutal over-the-top but hilarious moments… every time my friends play, I want them to feel like anything can happen and everyone’s out for themselves.

I spent weeks designing the game design document. I mapped out exactly how I thought the game should play, from task flow to combat, from player roles to how the Rat can deceive and survive. I wanted everything planned before even thinking about building it.

But then reality hit. There was one massive problem: I had never made a multiplayer game before. Not once. Networking, latency, syncing players, I had no idea where to start. Excited? Absolutely. Terrified? Definitely. And that challenge of learning multiplayer from scratch while building a game I wanted to play with my friends, that would define the next several months of development.

And this is just the beginning. I have been documenting the whole development of Wise Guys, from brainstorming to tackling the challenges of multiplayer and building the first prototype, designing the tasks and combat, to testing with friends and fine-tuning all the chaos. If you’d like to see this game come to life leading up to release, please consider wishlisting the game on Steam.

I hope you stick around for the ride… 

Cheers guys!

Stonie.