Would you ever make a game set in Sydney?

Metal Gear Solid + cyberpunk + survival horror + Australia?

My guest for this issue of Multiplier is Jordan Turner, the game director of Samurai Unicorn at Its Got Stealth. I caught up with Jordan following year's SXSW Sydney to chat about the studio's debut title: a sci-fi survival horror title set in Sydney called Samurai Unicorn. You can find the game over on Steam

Fergus: There was a ton of variety at SXSW 2025's Game Festival, but Samurai Unicorn caught my eye almost immediately. I'm a sucker for a good survival horror game, but that's far from the only thing that got my attention here. There's the cyberpunk angle, the old-school look, and – of course – the fact that it's set in Sydney of all places.

How does Samurai Unicorn fits into the broader nostalgia for PS1 horror, how have you approached setting a game in this specific corner of Australia, and what are your general takeaways about the local game development scene in the aftermath of SXSW Sydney? 

Jordan: Samurai Unicorn was originally conceived as an animated series that took my love of Metal Gear Solid's art style and tried to approach it in a way that demonstrated the power of low-poly models and pixel textures to create complete worlds with a defined aesthetic.

When we eventually got the announcement trailer out, there was a lot of interest coming from the PS1-Horror scene on Twitter and that kind of dug up old ideas for how the series could work better as a game and probably find an audience more in-tune with our goals in the process.

From the very start, Samurai Unicorn has never been about making a purely nostalgic experience or using the art style to excuse a lack of quality. We are firm believers in the appeal of the aesthetic and the ability it has to enhance the atmosphere of games with horror themes, but the PS1-look of the game also ties into the world more directly, Samurai Unicorn is set in a 90s vision of a cyberpunk dystopia. So the hope is that it gets players into the right headspace for the tone we are trying to hit with the story.

It feels like Australian media is often mischaracterised by international audiences and typically falls into a very narrow vision of the country. By setting the game in a dystopian Sydney3, it seemed like an opportunity to tackle what life in Australia really is through a twisted lens that takes the charm of the 90s and interprets the current reality in that heightened way you can only achieve in genre-fiction.

As we continue work on the project I think the authentic nature of Sydney3 is going to only become more pronounced as we move past iconic landmarks like the Opera House and get onto the streets to interact with the people who populate the city.

SXSW Sydney was a great opportunity for our small team to get a taste of what it's like to be a part of the local game scene. As a team made up of remote workers or people dipping their toes into development for the first, it can be hard to properly experience what it means to be in the Australian games industry, but we met so many talented developers who made that door into the broader community feel very open to anyone willing to stick it out in NSW and try to make something great.

Fergus: That’s a fascinating origin story. How much of the narrative and storytelling in the game still remains from that earlier incarnation of the project as an animated series? Did those beats form the backbone for the story in Samurai Unicorn or are they treated more as background lore that informs the action? 

In either case, it’s interesting that you cite Metal Gear Solid as a specific inspiration. What about that series connects with you on an artistic level? What was it doing that more recent releases have left behind? 

Another question I have is what exactly you mean when you’re talking about what Sydney is really like. Although the low-poly look and 90s-style moniker are definitely the most eye-catching thing about Samurai Unicorn, I do think that the representation of Sydney is particularly noteworthy. Looking beyond the usual landmarks, are there many other specific slices of the city that those with a relationship to Sydney should expect to see in the game? 

Jordan: Samurai Unicorn has always been so heavily inspired by games and even earlier drafts of the project dabbled with more of 'fake game' style presentation, so actually I found the narrative to be quite easy to adapt into the medium.

In many ways Samurai Unicorn's story and world has always been more suited to a game thanks to all the other avenues that narrative can be conveyed ie; environmental storytelling, NPC conversations, and lore notes as well as the expected cutscenes.

Ultimately we have always viewed Samurai Unicorn as a very story-driven game, but we want cutscenes to be a way to establish a scene or move through major story beats and let the rest of the player's experience be guided by their own play and investigation of the world. Because of that goal, we try to avoid excessive breaks of control from the player and have avoided Klo talking to herself when exploring the main mission locations.

In regards to Metal Gear Solid, I think it really comes down to aesthetic and tone. Kojima has always walked the line of serious characters in a bizarre world and while there are often moments of a comedic nature that revel in absurdity, they never lose touch with the heart of the story and its characters.

We don't want to make a game that plays like Metal Gear Solid and we aren't particularly interested in retreading the story or setting, but the tone and atmosphere that was possible through the art style is such a foundational part of what we're hoping to achieve when people see the characters interact and the way the story unfolds.

I guess that kind of ties into our own setting. Sydney3 is supposed to be our attempt at bringing the 90s cyberpunk aesthetic into Australia and imagining familiar landmarks and smaller moments through the lens of this low-poly, retro-futuristic aesthetic. So for us, when we say we want to capture the real Sydney, it's about always asking ourselves is there something from the city or a personal experience that we can actually pull from when thinking about worldbuilding or environment art? Do we really need a sci-fi prop for this street corner or would it feel more authentic and unique to our game if we found a specific thing from the real city to build around.

One of the more exciting parts of the game for people who know Sydney is probably going to be small street area that you will be able to explore, it's a sort of composite of some areas around the CBD that have been rearranged in a very Sydney3 kind of way, but still, once you realise what the area represents I think it will land for those more aware of the different suburbs in the heart of the city.