Play and experimentation is at the heart of Toolkits: Digital Storytelling.

With this edition, in collaboration with Voiceworks Online, the 2024 cohort has bent genres and experimented with form to bring you six wonderful, weird, winding pieces.

Bother some animals at a party or explore some long-forgotten treasure vaults. Fill in for the lead actor on opening night or reflect on the life etched into the items on your bed. Relish in the fantastic, the digital and the mundane! We're always happy to have you.

1. Fallside Vault 01 by Aaron Chast

   

   Fallside Vault 01 is a short fiction adventure that can be consumed stand-alone or enjoyed alongside another upcoming piece; Agent-sy. This take on a pre-destruction myth embraces explorations of classism, excessive industrialisation and compulsions borne of indigent anxieties while simultaneously alluding to a deeper and much more complex inter-textual story.

   Play on itch.io

   Aaron Chast is independently producing works of various creative disciplines under the studio name ARC.O.FACT; creating art and interactive stories that explore and blend together themes of agency, identity and etiological mythology.

   • cara.app/idiotscanvas
   • idiotsblock.itch.io
2. The Understudy by Bronte Lemaire

   

   The Understudy is a point and click adventure game where the player is brought in as a last minute actor hours before show time. While examining the specific experiences and relationships created in theatre spaces, you can help the struggling team, but you don't have time to help everyone...

   Play on itch.io

   Bronte Lemaire is a writer and theatremaker in Naarm, currently studying their honours in creative writing. Bronte loves dark imagery and metaphor and its intersection with the domestic, as well as the childlike and whimsical.

   • instagram.com/bronte_lemaire
   • brontesayshi.itch.io
3. bedbourne by Dorian Zikic

   

   bedbourne is a point-and-click game, with audio by Chloe Holt. Through interacting with elements in bed, the player is able to reflect upon a life with limited mobility/energy and find meaning in the exploration of the familiar. edbourne began by experimentation with the conventions of the classic point-and-click "room".

   Play on itch.io

   Sophia/Dorian Zikic (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist born in Aoteroa and currently based in Naarm. They are currently working on their MA of Creative Writing, Editing and Publishing. They are interested in science fiction, language, graphic narratives, performance and digital storytelling.

   • instagram.com/dorianzikic
   • dorianzikic.neocities.org
4. A Midweek Day's Dream by Emma Lazzeri

   

   A Midweek Day's Dream is inspired by the dread of existing in late stage capitalism, mixed with the insanity of mundanity and a hint of uncanniness.

   Play now

   Emma Lazzeri is an Italian Australian artist from Florence currently based on Gadigal and Wangal land. She has studied and worked in animation, collaborating on an award-winning feature film, and is a lover of languages, ecology and pigeons.

   • Emma Lazzeri on Linkedin
5. Poke the Bear by Finnley Greet

   

   Poke the Bear is a 'frustration-based' point-and-click game about how to interact with the world: what is the most appropriate number of times to interact with something to get the best result, for example? You play as a bear named Poke, and what do you do? Poke!

   Play on itch.io

   Finnley (they/he) is a queer, disabled writer and creative with a keen interest in multimedia forms of contemporary writing and literature. Finn is the founder of Generic Beetle - a small independent game production company. When he isn’t writing, Finn loves making music, art, and playing games.

   • generic-beetle.itch.io
   • instagram.com/genericbeetle
6. time to pretend by Li Xuan Tan

   

   Send a text. Wait for a reply. Repeat. Ugh, busy busy busy. Guess I’ll go make more friends out in the wild. This project explores the highs and lows—and the unexpected, sometimes unsettling truths—of making friends as a young adult.

   Play on itch.io

   Li Xuan Tan (she/they), a 24-year-old creative living in Meanjin/Magandjin who mostly writes about her personal experiences, including mental health and navigating life as a neurodivergent young person. They're also exploring creative writing, sharing their unique voice and perspective through storytelling, illustration and virtual worlds.

   • pwaafu.itch.io