Welcome to Outjourney Studio. We’re an independent game studio in Melbourne, building original premium games for PC and consoles. Here’s why I started the studio, the games that shaped me, and what we’ll share as we develop our first game.
For much of my career, I measured progress in conventional ways: greater responsibility, a more senior title, and better pay. Those things matter, but the further I progressed, the clearer it became that they weren’t enough to make life feel meaningful.
My time as part of the leadership team at EA Firemonkeys brought that into focus. I was working in an industry I’d loved since childhood, and when I got the call offering me that role, I was ecstatic. That personal connection made the work feel different. I felt most fulfilled when I cared not only about doing the job well, but about the thing we were creating.
Gradually, the question shifted from “What should my next role be?” to “What do I want to spend the next part of my life building?”
For more than two years, while still working in previous roles, I’d been thinking seriously about starting something of my own. Imagining it was one thing; finding the courage to leave a stable career and actually do it was another.
In August 2025, I finally made that decision. The following month, I registered the company behind Outjourney Studio.
I created Outjourney to make the kinds of games we love: focused, story-driven single-player experiences with memorable characters, believable worlds and engaging tactical gameplay.
Since then, we’ve been quietly developing our first game (code-named Project Dawn) and building the foundations to support development. I also gave myself permission to take a much-needed break, travel to new countries, and have some incredible adventures. The time away helped me reset and think clearly while Outjourney continued taking shape.
The games that shaped me
My connection with games goes back much further than my professional career.
When I was 12, after saving birthday and pocket money for what felt like a lifetime, I bought my first console: the original PlayStation. The game I chose with it was Metal Gear Solid. I didn’t know I was stepping into one of gaming’s most recognisable franchises. I just thought the cover looked cool. I played it for countless hours, finished it, and replayed it several times. It’s the game that made me fall in love with rich, cinematic, story-driven experiences.
Halo was another defining moment. It was my first Xbox game and my first real experience with a first-person shooter. Its combat, atmosphere, and scale showed me another way games could immerse a player. And don’t even get me started on the soundtrack.
Then came The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. I couldn’t believe how alive its world felt: the characters, the environments, and the freedom to explore, or cause trouble. It felt less like moving through levels and more like entering a world that existed without me. Morrowind cemented my love of RPGs and worlds that feel genuinely lived-in.
And then there was Mass Effect. I’d grown up loving science fiction, and Morrowind had already given me a love of RPGs. A cinematic RPG set in space, with memorable characters, a richly constructed universe, and the visual detail to make it feel believable was close to my idea of a dream game. Controversial opinion: I didn’t even mind the elevator rides. Listening to the crew talk while the next area loaded made the world feel deeper.
These games are different, but each showed me something important: story and character can sit alongside gameplay; worlds can feel lived-in; players can be given room to observe and experiment; and technology can serve more than spectacle. Outjourney isn’t trying to recreate them, but the experiences they gave me are part of why believable worlds, memorable characters, tactical gameplay, and cinematic storytelling matter so much to me.
What we are building
Outjourney is building original premium games for PC and consoles, beginning with Project Dawn: a third-person science-fiction stealth-action game set in a grounded near-future world.
It is being designed around:
- cinematic, character-driven storytelling
- reconnaissance, stealth, and tactical combat gameplay
- exploration and light RPG progression
Missions will support different tactical approaches, allowing players to study a situation and decide how best to proceed.
We are still early in development and are not ready to reveal Dawn properly yet. Our immediate priority is proving the fundamentals: how the game feels to play, what its world should look and feel like, and whether its creative and technical systems can support the experience we want to make.
We believe ambition doesn’t have to mean scale for its own sake. We want to create a focused experience where gameplay, environments, characters, and technology all serve a clear purpose. That means concentrating our effort on the details that matter most to players.
Building beyond one game
Dawn is the beginning of Outjourney, but the ambition extends beyond a single project.
Our long-term aim is to build a sustainable independent studio capable of creating ambitious original games while remaining disciplined about scope, quality, and growth. That means developing a strong team, durable production systems, trusted creative and technical partnerships, and an audience that can follow us from one world to the next.
Over the past year, we’ve been working on Dawn’s prototype, developing its story and visual direction, and building the tools and production systems needed to support development.
We now have enough in place to begin sharing that work more openly, expanding the team, and inviting others into the process.
Sharing the work
We’re going to share what it’s like to build an independent studio and our first game: gameplay development, art, technology, and the decisions that shape the work.
We’ll share what we can, when it's ready.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us, offered advice, or helped make this possible. It means more than you know.
If what we’re building sounds like something you’d like to follow, join the Outjourney mailing list below for future development updates and opportunities to participate in private playtesting.
And if you’re interested in collaborating with us or joining the team, we'd love to hear from you.
TJ
