The US-based Devolver Digital, one of the biggest independent video game publishers in the world, has a deep love for Australia. While it works with game developers all around the world, many of its latest collaborators have been Australian, and there’s much more to come in future.
Cult of the Lamb is the company’s biggest Australian-made success, with this title becoming a breakout hit in 2022, selling 1 million copies in its first week on sale and a reported 7 million copies as of April 2026.
Next, it will support the Australian-made The Dungeon Experience to release, as well as Dark Dark Goose’s Hyperdrop.
According to Devolver Digital co-founder Graeme Struthers, the company’s continued support of Australian-made games is no coincidence. It’s a result of an industry brimming with talent and creative ideas.
‘This particular hub of video games is one of the richest scenes in the world for creative content,’ Struthers says. ‘It’d be remiss not to be coming back here every year, because we keep finding really interesting games to work on.’
Devolver Digital on Australian games – quick links
Devolver Digital at MIGW 2026
Devolver Digital was present through Melbourne International Games Week 2026, supporting games featured in ACMI’s playable game showcase and at PAX Aus 2026. The team also attended the annual Play Now marketplace, where local game developers were invited to share and pitch their latest game projects with international publishers and platform holders.
As Struthers says, coming to Australia every year for MIGW and its various activities remains a priority for Devolver Digital, as it seeks to elevate and support new creative and original games.
‘Think of us as locusts,’ Struthers laughs. ‘We just follow the food.’
Finding the food is only half the battle, of course. Getting developers to their end point involves helping out with narrative and production, UI, QA, localisation, and everything else that allows a game to arrive polished and ready for an audience.
Publishing is also about preserving what makes the game interesting in the first place: its unique tone and flavour.
ScreenHub: PAX Aus 2026 was a necessary reminder of the power of games
As Struthers says, what makes Australian games so interesting is that they’re so different. Play Now in particular has been a welcome chance to see this, and to get a sense of what to expect from local creatives.
This particular event allows publishers to look at the full breadth of titles coming out of Australia, then pick and choose what sounds most appealing for further discussion with developers. Occasionally, a game doesn’t come off as well in simple form, per Struthers – but chatting to developers directly or getting hands-on can lead to fruitful and inspiring chats.
‘Sometimes with certain games, they don’t communicate that well in a PowerPoint,’ Struthers says. ‘So when you start playing it, you start to see how you can position the various tools to make that job work. I’d say to developers, if we can pick up the controller and you can just understand exactly what you’re going to do, that’s a really good sign.’
This particular style of meeting is what inspired the team to support Hyperdrop, as it was easy to understand what made it fun in an instant.
‘You’re watching your colleague, you’re playing it, and it elicits an, “Oh, this is cool.”‘
Other times, a game may be picked up when someone at Devolver Digital learns of its existence and becomes a champion for the project, as was the case with The Dungeon Experience. This particular title was reportedly spotted by development manager Bridie Roman, who was compelled by its sense of intrigue and oddness.
‘The games that we get interested in … they have a position. They have a point of view. They ask you to love them, otherwise you wouldn’t want to work on them,’ Struthers says. ‘The Dungeon Experience is one of those games, and the dev [Jacob Janerka] is just a sweetheart.’
Selecting the right games, at the right time
As Struthers says, the team always looks for opportunity to find compelling games across the world. Struthers believes Australia is particularly good at surfacing its best ideas, with government support and talented developers helping to elevate new and interesting titles for the team.
‘I will always say to any other event I go to, you should go and see how it’s done in Melbourne, because if you could just replicate that you’d be doing a better job, frankly,’ Struthers says.
A ‘good cocktail’ of a highly-educated population, a culture that values the arts, and games and merit-based grants also helps Australia’s video games scene, per Struthers.
He believes the industry is well-positioned to ‘allow people to be a bit more adventurous’ with their game-making, which is part of what makes local games stand out in the global scene.
‘We don’t see that kind of range of games in other locations.’
Struthers also believes the community around the local games industry is a contributing factor, particularly given a notable lack of envy.
‘You seem to have a collaborative kind of mindset,’ he observes, pointing to ‘seeing people sharing that knowledge and making introductions’.
Wandering the PAX Aus 2026 show floor also made that vibe and tone clear. As Struthers says, it’s ‘always good to walk around and see what people are playing’ and ‘finding out how things are going’.
The benefits of delisting from the stock market
This year, Devolver Digital also had the benefit of scouting new titles as a newly re-privatised entity. It exited the stock market in mid-September with a view to defeat a ‘valuation disconnect’ with its work and how it actually runs.
In a statement made in August, the team said that ‘predictable, sequential growth’ was not a reasonable aim for the company, and so it was looking to obtain a greater freedom to better drive future revenue and growth.
‘The benefit for us is that we get back to what we want to do, which is make video games,’ Struthers says. ‘Being a public company, it’s a lot of work … probably about 30% of my life, on an average month, was spent on that side. Whilst it was interesting, it wasn’t my natural habitat, and so I now get that time back.’
‘What we get is just to go back to what we were, which has been a video game business. We think we’re quite good at that.’
In the months ahead, Devolver Digital will continue to support an array of games to release, including incoming Australian-made titles. We look forward to seeing what comes next.
