To play Mixtape is to be transported – to an entirely different era, a different country, a different childhood. But even in its difference, it forms an instant connection, by its veneration of music. In this game, you follow a group of teenage friends on their last night together, trying to make the most of their friendship before life and circumstances pull them apart.
Like most coming-of-age stories, this one is about endings, and how to crystallise friendship. The end of your crew is inevitable, but in Mixtape, you begin with an understanding that it’s all about maximising the time left together, using music as a medium to solidify memories and good times.
Notably, while this game is in development at an Australian story – Beethoven & Dinosaur (The Artful Escape) – it presents a story inspired by Americana. According to developer Johnny Galvatron, speaking briefly to ScreenHub at SXSW Sydney 2025, the purpose of this is abstraction.
The pop culture of the United States is pervasive globally, but particularly in Australia, so we tend to understand more about coming-of-age through that lens. Ideas of homecoming or prom, wild house parties, fireworks out the back of a ute, white picket fences, and skateboarding culture (all of which flit in and out of Mixtape) are fairly well understood.
‘Mixtape is a fantasy story.’
‘Mixtape is a fantasy story,’ Galvatron said. To that end, its depiction of coming-of-age is more conceptual. It’s about the idea of growing up, rather than the act of growing up. In this space, Beethoven & Dinosaur explores a freedom and magic that grasps at how it feels to grow older, and watch your friendships change.
The opening chapters of Mixtape, previewing at SXSW Sydney 2025, brimmed with that magic. You begin skating down a steep highway of autumn leaves, with the action tracked to ‘That’s Good’ by Devo – the music guides you as you freely glide, wind in your hair, light banter between protagonists Rockford, Slater, and Cassandra following your movement.
It’s a scene that’s instantly relaxing, and tells you everything you need to know about this crew – they’re tight-knit, daring, and raw with each other. They’re the distillation of every strong friendship you’ve ever had, with a natural flow to their chatter, and the way they egg each other on. In a word, they’re instantly likeable.
While there is an element of pretension in Rockford and her dreams of being a Music Supervisor – someone who curates soundtracks for the perfect vibes – she remains relatable, and in her choices for musical picks, plenty more is revealed about her persona. Her hopes and dreams, and the way she sees the world as being so open and full of possibility.
This insight only grows as each new track dawns. There’s some Silverchair in the opening, for that all-important Australian flavour (and, presumably, as a sign of Rockford’s expansive tastes). There’s also The Jesus and Mary Chain, and other banging tracks hailing from the alternative space. More than soundtracking the journey of Rockford and her pals, the choices give flavour and texture to the game’s world, elevating its transportive, lightly surreal vibes in dreamy tunes.
Mixtape is a fairy tale about growing up. It’s about the sense of freedom you have, when you first enter the ‘adult’ world. The idea that you can do anything, be anything, create anything. It’s not about the modern reality of economic downturn and job losses – and in that sense, it’s a good reminder of how much hope many of us carried in this transition. Some may have lost that hope, while others struggle to hold onto it.
Mixtape celebrates hope in all its many forms, with its opening moments devoted to the possibilities, promising a brighter, more ambitious adventure to come. Taking off my headphones after playing through the demo was like stepping through a portal, into an entirely different world. That’s the magic of Mixtape, and how it seeks to create a transportive vision of nostalgia, and being a teenager, and how those experiences reshape us all.
For anyone looking to re-grasp at hope, it’s an adventure well worth keeping an eye on.
