Now announcing
WEIRD FLEX STUDIO x
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS VICTORIA
Videogames and the Gardens – together at last.
Come celebrate with us this October Melbourne International Games Week at Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.
Weird Flex Studio
Weird Flex Studio and Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria have partnered to create a nature play community development project including events and… a new videogame!
Weird Flex Studio is a new game development studio based in Naarm (Melbourne) from Maize Wallin, Kay-Lynn Cavanagh, Samara-Jade Sendek, and Nayuka Gorrie. WFS is working on an exciting new game set in Naarm, with a focus on building relationships with local plants and animals. With our core pillars of hyper-local, comedy, seasonal, and community.
Our creative team includes Aboriginal Koories from Victoria, and we’re excited to prioritise Indigenous culture and property in our game. As participants of True Tracks training, we’re enthusiastic to engage in cultural protocol and the ongoing process of collaboration with First Nations. We’re especially excited to encourage others in the industry to take up this training opportunity.
Our partnership with Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria
The Programming and Audience Development team at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria are passionate about bringing engagement with nature and play to create a deeper connection between people and the world around them.
When Weird Flex Studio reached out to the Gardens looking for a writer, they replied with so much enthusiasm about the ideas behind our nature-loving game. We are now super excited to work as partners. Already we are having meetings every 6 weeks, to talk about development, audience, and more.
Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria will play as the main host of the game’s audience engagements, that will happen in parallel with development.
Whether you want to turn-up to learn about bug-eating plants, or about the great mushroom nervous systems, the world at the Royal Botanic Gardens really is your oyster! The events will be designed by the Gardens’ Programming and Audience Development team in collaboration with Weird Flex Studio. Come for one session, or come for them all: we all would be keen to see you!
We’re so excited to celebrate the start of this blossoming relationship, with some community cross-pollination!
Here’s What You Do
- You are a Bee Musician in Naarm Melbourne.
- Befriend the local animals to foster an ecosystem of musical plants.
- Tend your plant-instruments as the seasons pass in real time.
- As the plants germinate and mature, conduct the pollination orgies to get your nectar.
If you like…
- Gardening and KK Slider in Animal Crossing
- Native plants and animals in Paper Bark
- Charming daily moments in Neko Atsume and Bird Alone
- Conducting and soundboards in Tori Note
Then this is the game for you!
Through our partnership with the Gardens, we are bringing our community with us. That means we all learn about the world around us, learn cool game dev skills, and learn to work together. Come to our first exploration of nature and videogames, this October:
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Weird Flex Team
Kay-Lynn Cavanagh
Art and community
Nayuka Gorrie
Writer and ecologist
Maize Wallin
Tech and audio
Samara-Jade Sendek
Narrative and game design
Digital artist and illustrator, community manager and creative producer of hybrid and engaging community art events and shows based in Narrm. Kay-Lynn’s illustrative work evokes delight, humor and provocative story-telling.
They are passionate about fostering connections with other creators and developing works and activating spaces in ways that are engaging, accessible and inclusive to a diverse audience.
Kay-Lynn draws inspiration from her community, cultural background, and nostalgia and memories of her upbringing in Australia with her migrant parents from Singapore and Malaysia.
Nayuka Gorrie is a Gunai/Kurnai, Gunditjmara, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta freelance and comedy television writer.
Their writing centres on black, feminist and queer politics. They co-wrote and performed in the third and fourth seasons of Black Comedy and provided additional writing on the second season of Get Krack!n. More recently, Nayuka was a writer for the sbs/Matchbox series, The Heights (season 2) the NITV children’s series, Thalu, the award winning VR series, Lustration for New Canvas and the ABC documentary series, Queerstralia for Gueswork.
Composer, sound designer, and audio programmer working across indie games and big budget AAA. They have been working in games for over a decade.
Their focus is in generative audio systems, and dynamic music, using cutting edge techniques to create unique outcomes. Maize is passionate about teamwork and production pipelines that nurture collaboration. Beside their professional work, they have been a trade union leader of Game Workers Australia for 6 years before starting this company, and are passionate about ethical business.
Highlights from Maize’s extensive folio include God Fall, Receiver 2, Wayward Strand, and Cosmic Express, as well as their solo experimental audio game works.
Game developer, production manager, quality assurance technician, and freelance writer for the Games Development industry. If you want your games shining just that little bit more, Jade is your lady.
Under her belt is experience with a variety of engines, including Unity, Unreal Engine 4, the RPG Maker series, and Ren’py. Fusing this with a strong critical eye and a storytelling charm, Jade specialises in mingling storytelling with compelling gameplay in a bug-free package.