Whiskeybarrel Studios

Factsheet

Developer:
Whiskeybarrel Studios
Based in Sydney, Australia

Founding date:
September 13, 2013

Website:
http://www.whiskeybarrelstudios.com

Press / Business contact:
info@whiskeybarrelstudios.com

Social:
twitter.com/oliver_joyce
facebook.com/WhiskeybarrelStudios
Whiskeybarrel Studios @ YouTube

Releases:
Swords And Sandals Immortals
Gorgon Shield

Phone:
The Phone Box Outside the Circle K

Description

Whiskeybarrel Studios is an indie game studio best known for the cult classic gladiator game series Swords and Sandals. Though the name may sound grandiose, Whiskeybarrel Studios are in truth just one man, a grizzled greybeard game developer by the name of Oliver Joyce.

History

Many years ago while working for a small game studio in Australia, game designer Oliver Joyce struck gold with a Flash game series about a cartoon gladiator arena. That game series, Swords and Sandals, spawned four sequels and was played over a billion times across Flash game portals the world over. When the Flash era came to a close, it was long believed this would be the end for Swords and Sandals ...

In the month of December 2013, Oliver Joyce struck out on his own as an independant game developer. The road was long and hard, with several failed mobile games between 2014 and 2016, and Oliver made ends meet freelancing wherever he could as a programmer for hire. However his luck turned in 2016 when he teamed up with Aram Fuchs at eGames, who had acquired the rights to the long dormant Swords and Sandals brand from the old company. Together Whiskeybarrel Studios and eGames set about restoringe the classic series to its former glory through a series of remakes of the games. Over the next 6 years, Oliver and Aram slowly rebuilt the Swords and Sandals brand, creating eight games on Steam and several others on mobile. The games are now arguably more popular than ever, being streamed by massive YouTubers and Twitchers the world over. Year by year, Oliver worked on these games at night and on weekends while holding a fulltime job as a programmer at an educational games studio. Success did not come quickly, but slowly and steadily Oliver was able to move towards finally setting up Whiskeybarrel Studios as a fulltime job.

In the summer of 2019, Oliver quit his programmer job and focused on Whiskeybarrel Studios fulltime. A gamble, no doubt, with a wife, a mortgage and two very young children. Knowing this might be his only shot at living the 'indie game dream', he set out to make the Swords and Sandals game he always wanted - a grand, sprawling combat RPG that would take over two years to develop and be larger in size than all of the other Swords and Sandals games combined. That game, Swords and Sandals Immortals, has finally been completed succesfully, being both a commercial and critical success with fans and streamers alike. Finally now able to breathe easy for a while, Oliver Joyce developed the retro arcade classic Gorgon Shield in 2023-2024 and has now partnered up with Nostalgic Realms Studio to work on their retro RPG epic, Lair of the Leviathan.

Projects

• Swords And Sandals Immortals
• Gorgon Shield

Team & Repeating Collaborator

Oliver Joyce
Founder, Whiskeybarrel Studios

Graeme Nordell
Founder, 2 Left Thumbs

Aram Fuchs
CEO eGames.com

Contact

Oliver Joyce
info@whiskeybarrelstudios.com

Graeme Nordell
graeme2lt@gmail.com

Twitter
https://twitter.com/oliver_joyce

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/WhiskeybarrelStudios