“Characters are at the heart of any good game narrative. If we love them, we love their world, and that's why I'm most passionate about creating them. ”
— David Gaider
It began with a conversation.
In 2017, with his departure from Beamdog fast-approaching, David Gaider started thinking about his next step in the industry. He wanted to make something different, a game where his Bioware-honed narrative intentions are placed front and centre, without the constraints of traditional RPG designs.
During a catchup at the Games Developers Conference in San Francisco, David brought this up with Liam Esler, who was working as a narrative and production consultant. It came as a surprise to David that, when asked what his ‘dream game’ would be without the pressure of resources, Liam’s response was almost identical to his own: a branching narrative, dialogue-focused game for players who value storytelling and unique aesthetics over combat and sandbox gameplay. It would be a fun, emotionally-rewarding interactive experience that is accessible even to those who don’t consider themselves gamers.
And what’s more fun and emotionally-rewarding than a musical you can shape and mould?
From that conversation spawned a studio, and a project that will soon come to fruition.
Along with Elie Young, who had stepped away from the music business after a decade, the three co-founded Summerfall Studios in the Australian autumn of 2017. The studio’s first title, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical (then known as Chorus), was unveiled at AUS PAX 2019 during David’s Keynote, and released in August of 2023.
Our Team
David Gaider
Creative Director & Co-Founder
(He/Him)
One of videogame industry’s most celebrated writers, David is a game design veteran of 20 years, having started his career in 1999 working on BioWare's Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn as a narrative designer. His later credits include Neverwinter Nights (2002), Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003), and the Dragon Age series where he acted as world designer and Lead Writer. He left BioWare in 2015 after working on Anthem to become Creative Director at Beamdog, where he developed several prototypes and built a significant internal content team before departing in 2018.
Liam Esler
Managing Director & Co-Founder
(He/Him)
Liam is an experienced games entrepreneur, writer, and producer from Melbourne, Australia. He has worked as a producer and writer with some of the biggest brands in gaming, including Beamdog, Obsidian Entertainment, PikPok, Surprise Attack Games, and many others. In addition to game development, Liam had worked at the Game Developers’ Association of Australia for 3 years, running Australia’s premiere games conference, GCAP, and was co-founder of GX Australia, a diversity-focused gaming convention that ran in 2016 and 2017.
Elie Young
Executive Producer & Co-Founder
(They/Them)
With over 13 years of diverse experience in the music sector, Elie has accumulated a breadth of knowledge working on projects across different scales and disciplines, ranging from public relations, strategic media planning, branding, and tour management. Before moving behind the scenes, Elie fronted a not-terrible rock band. Having collaborated with a vast range of artists, promoters, producers, and other creatives, they are a strong believer in building culture, brand, and community through the power of authentic storytelling.
Benjamin Ee
Art Director
(He/Him)
@theboyofcheese / @theboyofcheese
Ben is one of Melbourne’s rising young Art Directors. With almost a decade of industry experience as a concept artist and illustrator, he has worked across a number of projects and companies within and external to games, including Unity, Wymac Gaming, and Wizards of the Coast. Ben is well-known for his moody, gothic-tinged style and vibrant, bold colour choices, in addition to occasionally getting down on the dance floor.
Troy Ferguson
Engineering Director
(He/Him)
@troyaferguson / @troyaferguson
Troy is an Australian video game veteran with more than 12 years of experience specialising in the Unreal Engine. He has multiple titles under his belt, on a variety of platforms, including PC, VR & Mobile. Now, he is a national speaker on all things Unreal. In his previous work with his co-founders as an engineer at Pub Games, Troy had shipped Primal Carnage: Extinction (PC) and Primal Carnage: Onslaught (VR), as well as the mobile title Blastpoints.
Meredith Hall
Bizdev & Marketing Director
(She/Her)
Meredith is a multi-award winning producer, business developer and marketer. Formerly at VicScreen funding local independent developers, she is also the cofounder of Accessibility Unlocked, Lead Producer at studios Aconite & Strange Scaffold, a frequent public speaker and industry consultant for developers, platforms, and publishers. She was named one of 50 under 50 in InGames 2019 Gender Equality in Games list, and was named Rising Star at the 2020 Australian Game Developer Awards.
Sasha Mutch
Story Lead
(She/Her)
Sasha is a Story Artist whose artistic journey began when she scrawled images of Hamtaro and Pokemon characters on her parents’ walls as a kid. She’s been working in the animation Industry since 2014, most notably on DreamWorks TV's She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. In her down time, she works on her comic, plays DnD, and loves to belt it out at karaoke with a mic in one hand and Korean fried chicken in the other.
Jessica Lee
2D Art Lead
(She/Her)
Jess comes from a background in graphic design and print, where she spent the last 4 years honing a particular set of skills: illustration; specialising in character art and inking. She is passionate about the fighting games genre and its community, something she had spent the past decade taking a very active role in, competing in a number of local and international tournaments.
Olivia Ong
UI/UX Designer
(She/Her)
Olivia has been telling visual stories for years in motion graphics, television, and games. After freelancing in Sydney for design studios and broadcast networks, she moved to Melbourne in 2018 to get involved in the game development community. She has worked at EA’s Firemonkeys on marketing content and update trailers before joining the Summerfall team. Olivia fell in love with early point-and-click adventures, cRPGs, and choices-matter games. She lives with her partner and her lovebirds, Pudding and Pretzel.
Katy Nethercote
Marketing Coordinator
(She/Her)
Katy is a Melbourne-based content creator and graduate of Melbourne University’s Master of Global Media Communication program. With a background in performance, she has a wide range of experience from entertaining at music festivals and conferences to producing podcasts and cosplaying. Whether through books, comics, games, DnD, movies, TV or podcasts, Katy is obsessed with stories. She has been described as chronically online and can be found (doom)scrolling twitter, TikTok, and Instagram most days.
Alissa Vovers
Junior Programmer
(They/Them)
Alissa has a computer science background and a love for all things game development. They’re a generalist with experience in systems development, animation and tech art. Above all, they are driven by a strong desire to bring stories to life. When they’re not detangling threads of code behind the screen, they're bound to be doing the same on a real-life embroidery project, taking a deep dive into the wild world of corals, or discovering the secrets of movie magic.
Andrew Mendlik
Technical Artist
(He/Him)
Andrew is a Hobart based tech artist, VFX artist, and generalist developer. Having previously worked across multiple studios such as Mighty Kingdom, Myriad Games Studio, and Giant Margarita across a number of released and unreleased projects (including the award winning Where the Snow Settles), he brings a love for helping games be the best they can be. When not sitting at the computer he's likely painting Warhammer 40k miniatures or replaying The Last Of Us.
Ethan Taylor
Designer
(He/Him)
Ethan has a background in 3D Animation with a strong passion for storytelling and visual design. After graduating in Animation and Interactive Media from RMIT, Ethan worked as a freelance artist and taught himself how to make games, inspiring him to pursue a path into the local game development industry and leading him to work at Summerfall Studios. Outside of work Ethan enjoys making music, hanging out with friends, and watching Ocean’s Eleven.
Acknowledgement of Country
We would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which Summerfall Studios stands, and pay respects to the five tribes of the Kulin Nation. We pay respects to the Elders of the community and extend our recognition to their descendants. Aboriginal sovereignty has not been ceded.
