GAMING: Mixtape creator Johnny Galvatron answers reader’s burning questions

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The rockstar-turned-game creator discusses the inspiration for Mixtape, design decisions and the controversial IGN perfect 10 score.

Thick black sunglasses cover his eyes, their arms tucked behind shoulder-length curly blond hair. I don’t bother asking if they’re prescription. I assume they’re there to make a statement – part of the look.

My edgy first impression quickly gives way to a warm conversation. We talk about my stint abroad. He asks if I’ve been to Berghain, the world-famous Berlin techno club in a former power plant that, until this very chat, I’d never heard of. (I later realise a level in Hitman 3 is based on it. God, I’m nerdy.) I joke that I don’t own enough black clothes to live in this city.

It’s starting to click. Worried my Steam Deck wouldn’t handle Mixtape (Galvatron later assures me it “runs like butter”), I watched a playthrough the night before. It’s only a few hours long. The game gives off the same vibe as its maker. It’s about passion, and following it to find out who you are, even if that means leaving your whole life behind. My impression: Galvatron, similarly, is a person defined by doing what he loves.

I’m speaking to him off the back of Mixtape winning Game of the Year at the Australian Game Developer Awards (AGDAs), along with prizes for visual art and sound design. While there’s always stiff competition for Australian game of the year, in my chats with local developers this year, some felt Mixtape was a very strong contender less than a month after its launch last May. It’s a game that captured the imagination, and the global zeitgeist, too.

It’s a genuine work of art and new-media storytelling: a simple coming-of-age story about Stacey’s last night in her sleepy town before she moves to New York to chase her dream of becoming a music supervisor.

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Galvatron worked backwards from a playlist, building a horizontal slice of the game – a rough version of the whole thing, start to finish – before developing the story. There’s a myriad of gameplay modes but no clear core loop.

On paper, it shouldn’t work.

Th…

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