Defiant Development Pty Ltd was an Australian independent video game developer based in Brisbane. It was formed in May 2010, in the aftermath of mass-closures of larger video game studios in the country, and began developing mobile games, some of them based on intellectual property owned by Cartoon Network, and augmented reality games. The studio became well-known with the crowdfunded game Hand of Fate and its sequel, Hand of Fate 2. In July 2019, the studio announced that it was winding down and ceasing game development, while continuing to support its existing games. The World In My Attic, a game the studio had intended to release in 2021, was cancelled.
History
Defiant Development was the result of the closure of many Australian video game developers that happened between 2008 and 2009. One of Defiant's founders, Morgan Jaffit, had previously been the lead designer at Pandemic Studios, when that studio and its encompassing group of companies were acquired by publisherElectronic Arts for. Pandemic was shut down shortly thereafter, leading Jaffit to join with Dan Treble—who had previously also worked at Pandemic before moving on to Krome Studios, which was shut down as well—to establish a developer of their own. The closures coincided with the rise of independent and mobile game development in the country, which Jaffit saw as an opportunity. Defiant was launched on 21 May 2010. Defiant's first game was the mobile game Rocket Bunnies, released later in 2010. Throughout 2011, the studio developed several augmented reality games: Inch High Stunt Guy was developed for Qualcomm's "Augmented Reality Developer Challenge" and finished second, winning. The studio also released Floodlines and Hoops AR. In 2012, Defiant followed up with another mobile game, titled Heroes Call. It also published Ski Safari, an "endless skier" game developed by Brendan Watts and Shawn Eustace. Defiant published all games on its own to avoid falling into the cycle of receiving funds from a publisher to develop a game, develop the game using the funds, and then struggling to survive while the game needs to generate enough revenue to repay the publisher with the royalty share the developer would have received. In June 2013, Defiant was assured of a governmental grant from Screen Australia for independent Australian game developers, which was to be paid out over the following three years. Later that year, the studio released Ben 10 Slammers, a digital collectible card game based on the Ben 10 TV series and developed in conjunction with Cartoon Network. It continued to co-operate with Cartoon Network, releasing Ski Safari: Adventure Time, a rework of Ski Safari based on the Adventure Time TV series, at the end of the year. Defiant also developed a mobile virtual reality game called Atop the Wizard's Tower. The game was created as part of the 2015 "Mobile VR Jam" game jam competition held for Oculus Rift, in which it was awarded third place. It was eventually released for Gear VR devices in May 2017. In late 2013, Defiant launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for Hand of Fate, a game that combined elements of action role-playing games with a deck-building game. After being funded successfully, the game became available through Steam Early Access before being fully released in February 2015. With Hand of Fate, Defiant continued its tradition of self-publishing its games. During its development, the studio grew to 15 people, composed of 40% veterans, 40% intermediate, and 20% juniors. The game was the studio's first non-mobile game, which Jaffit considered to be a "big, original Australian game". According to him, the transition to such games made Defiant "a real studio making real games". The studio subsequently developed a sequel to Hand of Fate, titled Hand of Fate 2, that was released in November 2017. By October 2018, Defiant's staff count had risen to 25. Following Hand of Fate 2, Defiant had begun developing a game under the working title The World In My Attic with an anticipated release in 2021. The game would have featured a family that discovers a board game, Hexes & Heroes, that provides a gateway to a fantasy world based on the game. Players, controlling the family members would place hexagonal tiles on an ever-changing board and then become involved in an action-adventure game within that tile, similar in nature to progression in Hand of Fate. However, on 23 July 2019, Jaffit announced that Defiant would be winding down and ceasing all game development, citing that "The games market has changed in ways both big and small in the nine years we've been in business. We have not been able to change quickly enough to continue with them." For the time being, Defiant entered "caretaker mode" to continue supporting its existing titles.
Culture
Jaffit has been vocal about his opposition of "crunch", stating "I think most people running companies are scumbags. We try to be less scum-baggy." Defiant's management attempted to avoid crunch, as it believed that it did not own its employees. Starting on 21 May 2015, when Defiant celebrated its fifth anniversary, Jaffit gifted every studio member employed for at least two years a sword.
Accolades
Defiant won the "Studio of the Year" award at the 2014 Australian Game Developer Awards and was a finalist for the same award in 2016.
