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
YAPPING From time to time I enjoy public speaking. If you’d like me to come and have a yap with you please don’t hesitate!

Some highlights:
Devcom, Cologne where I spoke about the films of William Freidkin, and how his perspective on filmmaking has informed my game making practice. 
Serenade Games where I spoke about  the Dream Ballet and how  it can be utilised to expand storytelling in games.
TEDx Sydney where I spoke about millennial burnout, and the pressure to self-optimise.
SXSW Sydney where I spoke about fostering your inner artist in a commercial space.
Creative Mornings where I spoke about the way independent game makers are broadening the definitions of what games can be.
Vivid Sydney where I spoke about the ways women are placed into competition over collaboration.


 Category
Public Speaking, Keynote Speaker, saying things I lay in bed at night ten years later and wonder why I said them
FREELANCE ART - Taking on new collaborations in 2025I started my professional life making costumes and props, and I’ve been lucky to have the opportunity to build a range of 2D, 3D and technical art skills and experience throughout my career in games.

I’m particularly interested in taking on more illustration work in 2025, please do reach out if you have something you’d like to collaborate on.

Here’s my art-only instagram: void club (@voidpicss) • Instagram photos and videos

Category
 Art
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.

MYSTIQUES won the SXSW Sydney People’s Choice Award.

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

‘The worst women you’ve ever met running a failing antique store’: uncanny adventure Mystiques: Haunted Antiques | Games | The Guardian

Local Spotlight: Become An Insufferable Woman And Make Bank Off The Dead In Mystiques (kotaku.com.au)

SXSW Sydney 2024 Highlight - Mystiques: Haunted Antiques - Checkpoint

Sydney game developers are getting weird, despite the risks (gameshub.com) Category
Game Development FREAKON FILM FESTIVAL
2024
I curated and hosted FREAKON FILM FESTIVAL in 2024. Game developers and artists produced original short films using video game footage, and the films were screened as the closing event of FREAKON 2024.

You can find the selected shorts that won the Golden Freak here:
A City I Once Knew - YouTube
Big fcking truck go down hill

Category
I Love Movies So Much Man
FREAKON MERCH
 I designed some of the merch for FREAKON, a community games conference.

The FREAKON merch store sales far exceeded expectations and we were able to fund the entire conference, as well as future efforts, with the proceeds. 

It is beautiful to see game developers in the wild wearing their FREAKON merch. Our creative community is so resilient.  Category
Merch Design
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, Merch Design


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. It was the 2nd highest rated strategy game globally in 2024.

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)

The best games of 2024 : NPR

7 Games That Are The Dark Souls Of Their Genres

Solium Infernum wins inaugural Screen Music Award for Interactive Media

The Best Video Games of 2024 So Far (at Midyear) - Metacritic

Solium Infernum is what happens when devils play the game of thrones - Video Games on Sports Illustrated

The Best Video Games of 2024
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. FREAKON has strict rules of no recording or posting the contents of the conference.

We have now run the event at maximum capacity for two years (with no leaks). 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. I designed and managed construction of the exhibitions, as well as securing sponsors and managing publicity for the event.

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
The Before Times
Early Games Career
  • Ava’s Manor - A narrative-driven solitaire romance mansion renovation game - Senior Producer - Mighty Kingdom
  • Product Manager - Tomorrow Falls (cancelled game) - Wargaming
  • Bring Back the Beat - A  hearing rehabilitation app/Serious Game developed at 3rd Sense 
  • Hulabear - Hard to explain sorry - Robot House
  • Warhammer 40,000: Regicide - A Warhammer chess game - Producer (Mobile ports)
Category
Game Development