Surprise Attack Pty Ltd, trading as Fellow Traveller Games, is an Australian

video game publisher A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ( ...

. Founder Chris Wright launched the company in 2011 as a marketing consultancy. It announced publishing label Surprise Attack Games in 2013 and relaunched the company as Fellow Traveller Games in 2018.

History

Surprise Attack was launched in October 2011 by Chris Wright, who previously worked as marketing director for

Blue Tongue Entertainment Blue Tongue Entertainment Pty, Ltd. was an Australian video game developer founded in 1995. It was acquired by THQ on 17 November 2004, and remained an internal development studio of THQ until its closure in August 2011. In addition to THQ, Blu ...

. Wright additionally assessed game loan applications for

Film Victoria VicScreen, formerly known as Film Victoria, is the Victoria State Government, Victorian Government’s creative and economic screen development agency. They function behind the scenes, supporting professionals, infrastructure, projects and ev ...

, where he noticed that many developers did not consider marketing. This led to founding Surprise Attack as a marketing consultancy firm for independent game developers. In November, Wright commented that many games were being released "without edit" for 15-year-olds in Australia that were restricted in the United States and Europe. He believed the

Australian Classification Board The Australian Classification Board (ACB or CB) is an Australian government statutory body responsible for the classification and censorship of films, video games and publications for exhibition, sale or hire in Australia. The ACB was establis ...

needed an "R18+ rating" for games, which legislation had recently approved implementation for. In July 2013, it launched publishing label Surprise Attack Games providing funding, marketing and distribution as Australia's first independent

indie game An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. ...

publisher. In July 2018, the company relaunched as Fellow Traveller Games, focusing on unusual narrative games. When

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

Australia enquired about the changed direction from showcasing Australian games, Wright stated they realised that while the industry appreciated their local publishing, consumers were not interested in where a game was made. He believed an identity with an established flavor or style of game is needed to stand out in the market, noting that 3-4% of the Steam purchases are Australian. In April 2019, Fellow Traveller announced digital convention LudoNarraCon celebrating narrative games. The event ran from 10 to 13 May, with livestreamed panels hosted on storefront

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

Games published

References

External links

* *{{MobyGames company, company=surprise-attack-pty-ltd, name=Surprise Attack Pty Ltd Video game companies established in 2011 Companies based in Melbourne Australian companies established in 2011 Fellow Traveller Games games