Witch Beam

Witch Beam is an independent video game developer based in Brisbane, Australia, founded in 2013 by Tim Dawson, Sanatana Mishra, and Jeff van Dyck, former colleagues at Sega Studios Australia who went independent after the studio closed. Witch Beam is best known for the twin-stick shooter Assault Android Cactus and the narrative puzzle game Unpacking, two games with almost nothing in common beyond the studio's small, tightly focused team behind them.

Witch Beam's Origin Story

Witch Beam formed in 2013 after Sega Studios Australia closed, when Tim Dawson and Sanatana Mishra decided to go independent rather than move to another established studio. Composer Jeff van Dyck, a BAFTA winner known for his work on the Total War series, joined as a co-founder to handle audio for the studio's projects from the start.

Witch Beam's Games: A Complete History

Assault Android Cactus (2015)

Assault Android Cactus was Witch Beam's debut release, a twin-stick shooter built around fast, high-pressure combat and a rotating cast of nine playable android characters, each with a different weapon and playstyle. It supports up to four-player local co-op and launched on PC in 2015 before reaching PS4, Xbox One, and Switch in the years that followed. The game wasn't a major commercial breakout on release, but steady sales across multiple console ports kept the studio funded and building toward its next project.

Unpacking (2021)

Unpacking is a puzzle game about pulling a character's belongings out of moving boxes and arranging them in a new home, told entirely through the objects themselves rather than dialogue or cutscenes. The game was directed by Wren Brier, who conceived the concept and joined Witch Beam after working on Halfbrick titles like Jetpack Joyride, with Tim Dawson handling design and programming alongside her. It's about as far from Assault Android Cactus as a follow-up game could be, and that contrast is part of what got it noticed. Unpacking was published by Humble Bundle and released across PC, consoles, and mobile.

I never knew unpacking after a move could be a really good video game, but they figured out how to do it.

What's Next for Witch Beam

Witch Beam is currently developing Tempopo, a musical puzzle game led by co-founder Sanatana Mishra, described as a considerable departure from the studio's earlier, higher-intensity titles.