ALLY HENNESSY

Contact  
I make videogames, draw and write.

I like to work on lots of different things, feel free to reach out.

See some of my portfolio below. x
MYSTIQUES HAUNTED ANTIQUES
 IN DEVELOPMENT - (Publishers say hi please)
I’m the Game Director and Writer of MYSTIQUES HAUNTED ANTIQUES. It’s a haunted antiquing game about the four worst women you’ve ever met.

I’m currently working on this project at Lemonade Games, a studio I co-founded with Inge Berman and Adam Matthews.

Local Spotlight: Become An Insufferable Woman And Make Bank Off The Dead In Mystiques (kotaku.com.au)
Sydney game developers are getting weird, despite the risks (gameshub.com)

Category
Game Development
FAITH - TAPESTRY

I conceptualised and illustrated a tapestry for FAITH: The Unholy Trinity on Steam (steampowered.com). 

The process involved reinterpreting the game’s brutal lore and pixel art aesthetic into a folk art style that would translate well when woven in tapestry form.

Fans of the game have said:
“ I'd get one, but this feels like it would summon a demon in the living room.”

“100 years from now someone is gonna think this is a relic of an ancient cult I hope you know that.”


Category
Merch Design
ALLY HENNESSY x  WYSPWORKS COLLAB
14-02-24I designed a candle in collaboration with Wyspworks, a Blue Mountains based environmentally friendly artisan candle company. 

The process involved hand carved lettering, illustrations and selecting the candle scent, jars and packaging.

The launch sold out within hours.

Bacchanalia – Wyspworks
Category
Art


PRODUCTION & CONSULTANCY
OngoingFor teams and projects I love I sometimes do some freelance or part-time production and consulting work.
The game companies I’ve worked with include GUCK, THE VOXEL AGENTS, and STUDIO FOLLY.
I also provide freelance work for VICSCREEN assessing digital games grant applications.

Category
Consulting & Production Support


SOLIUM INFERNUM
22–02–24 Solium Infernum is a strategy game set in hell, developed by League of Geeks. It was called “The best new strategy game in years” by PCGamesN. As I’m writing this it is one of the top 100 PC games of all time on OpenCritic.

I was the Executive Producer for part of the project and Production Director for part of the project, working with one of Australia’s most iconic and beloved independent game teams at League of Geeks.

Solium Infernum review – the best new strategy game in years (pcgamesn.com)


Category
Game Development

FREAKON  
10-23 FREAKON is a 100% free game dev community conference I help run with some friends. It is a cathartic place for game makers to talk about the reality of game development. 

Category
Community

RUMU
13–12–17RUMU is a game about a vacuum cleaner who has feelings and loves mess. It won an Australian Writer’s Guild Award and an AGDA, and was displayed at ACMI, Australia's national museum of screen culture.

I was the Gamerunner and worked alongside a beautiful team of developers at Robot House.

Rumu combines some superb character work and heady sci-fi themes into a heart-wrenching story about love, family, and loneliness.  - Gamespot

Grown-up stories in games | ACMI: Your museum of screen culture
Rumu Reviews - OpenCritic

Category
Game Development

NEXT EXHIBIT
2017-2018NEXT Exhibit was a showcase of games made by underrepresented developers in the main concourse of PAX Australia. Our goal was to bring games made by diverse teams to the highest foot traffic area of the biggest consumer games event in the southern hemisphere (and we did it. Twice.)

I was the curator of the exhibit and managed the event alongside Liam Esler. 

NEXT is an exhibit featuring the world's most diverse games | Mashable
Category
Community

RESEARCH: Barbie as Rapunzel
2021I am obsessed with the videogame Magic Fairytales: Barbie as Rapunzel and I spent months researching the history of it’s development. 

This included interviewing many developers and executives who worked on the game in 1997, scrubbing through hours of expo hall footage, and many creative search terms on the wayback machine.

I wrote a feature about it for Kotaku and published an interview with the original voice of Barbie in GamesHub, but still have a mountain of research about this game and several others I am yet to find a home for. On the very slim chance you have an idea of what to do with this, please hit me up.

My research was featured on the Video Game History Foundation’s podcast.

The Incredible Story Behind The Barbie As Rapunzel Video Game (kotaku.com.au)

The Voice of Barbie, in Her Own Words (gameshub.com)
Category
Games for Girls History