Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen: After some mistakes, we finally get our first good Bluey video game | games

forLowe embodies the talent, heart and character of Australia’s creative industries. But unfortunately, so far, the video games of the beloved series have had a better track record than their friend Chloe the Dalmatian.

Some parents have been treated to Budge Studios’ 2023 mobile game Bluey: Let’s Play! Cautiously, with its $9.99 monthly subscription and constant ads for other licensed Budge games. Later that same year, Artax Games’ Bluey: The Videogame was widely criticized upon release due to its only two-hour runtime, technical problems and $60 price tag. In his review, Australian game critic Luke Plunkett described it as “a quick cash grab that offers only the bare minimum”.

StoryToys’ mobile game Lego Bluey was released in August this year and offers block building, mini-games and another subscription – this one is cheaper and less aggressively advertised. All three games were commissioned by BBC Studios, which co-commissioned the show with the ABC and handles all international promotions and licensing for Bluey.

But Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen is the first program to live up to the standards that made Bluey one of the most watched shows in the world. Also commissioned by BBC Studios, it was made in Brisbane by Bluey creator Joe Brumm and Halfbrick Studios of Fruit Ninja fame, making it the first Bluey game made in Australia, the first to include a Bluey creator, and the last original Bluey story we’ll likely get from Brumm until the 2027 film.

After playing the opening levels of Halfbrick on Bluey, I can say that it feels like a real game; The studio said it would take about 10 hours to complete, which seems accurate. It’s basically a classic adventure game in which Bluey and Bingo chase their evil, thieving father through a series of magical works of art after he pinches their pen. The game design rewards curiosity, exploration, and liberal use of Bluey’s magic wand. Meanwhile, Broome’s script has Chili and Bandit discussing how to avoid parenting on a lawnmower as they prepare for the next level of the game.

Halfbrick Studio’s CEO, Shainiel Deo, has always been a strong contender to win the video game rights to Bluey. Halfbrick games have been played by hundreds of millions around the world, and he and Brumm have been friends since they worked on Brumm’s Dan the Man series game in 2016.

When Broome suggested that Deo promote BBC Studios, other Bluey games were already underway. “It definitely should have gone to an Australian developer first,” Dew says. However, he understands why the BBC hired developers she had worked with before.

From the beginning, making Bluey proud has been Halfbrick’s main concern. “This game will be ready when it’s ready,” Dew recalls telling BBC decision-makers. “We took all the risks in terms of financing the project, and it was on our coin, but I wanted to create a great experience.”

Dew insisted on an uncertain timeline to allow for exploration and prototyping. Despite footing the bill for the delay, Dew feels the process has succeeded thanks to a team driven by passion for their local hero Bluey, and a deep connection to the contemporary Heelers lifestyle in Brisbane. “They take great pride in being the first Australian team to work on Bluey,” he says.

This is another win for the Australian games industry after Adelaide’s Hollow Knight: Silksong’s massive popularity smashed global storefronts in September. Australian developers, still reeling from layoffs, deserve better when it comes to getting their biggest local licences. To date, no Australian developer has released a Mad Max game; Even the frankly inexplicable Neighbors racing game was made in the UK.

Fellow Australian developer Jason Eames says that while the BBC owes nothing to Australia, tapping into the local talent that generated Bluey was a “no-brainer”.

Imms, head of quality assurance at Keywords Studios, says he’s thrilled a respected Queensland developer like Halfbrick has been given a chance. “We have very few local franchises, and very few opportunities to play with Australian intellectual property in games. Bluey is an iconic game with scale. It speaks to an Australian that other Australian media has not been able to communicate to the rest of the world.”

Joey Iger, head of games at Screen Australia, which co-funds Bluey but not the games, is thrilled that Halfbrick has been able to showcase Bluey’s “uniquely Australian flair”. “It’s very shy. It’s got all the nuances; it’s very Brisbane,” says Iger of the show. “It’s something you can only replicate and scale in the gaming world if you really understand those nuances.”

Working on beloved local franchises is a “tremendous source of pride” for developers, says Iger, who previously produced Wiggles games. She adds: “Today’s youth do not only think about television, but only about movies and games.” “They find an IP that they love and love, and they will use it on any platform.”

The quality of Bluey’s game is not just a matter of national pride. Children can be treated as easily fooled customers who will play anything or as naive signs of manipulative and profitable business models.

Halfbrick Studios creates both “freemium” (free with ads, with a one-time payment for an ad-free version) and subscription games. Neither model was suitable for Bluey’s young fans, so Deo reverted to the one-time “premium” purchase model the studio had used in the 2000s, before the explosion of mobile games. “We don’t want to put people on a treadmill where they have to keep working to get things or pay,” he says. “Ethics is important to me.”

Imms, who says his kids quickly tired of Bluey: The Videogame, feels the developers owe kids more, not less, than adult players. “Do children deserve better? Of course they do. You could say they need it more than we do because they’re still growing; they’re still forming their understanding of the world. And stories that teach them about kindness, care, love and hardship – all those good things that Bluey teaches – will be good for them.”

• Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen is available now on iOS and Android on January 10, 2026, and on PC and consoles later in 2026.