‘STONE’ Is The Koala Big Lebowski Coming Later This Year

by Dylan Blight

New Australian based studio Convict Games which is a collaborative global effort have announced their first game today. An adventure game where you play as the lazy stoner detective, Stone — oh, and he’s a Koala who’s had his love kidnapped — oh, and she’s a lorikeet.

Six seconds into the short teaser for STONE – A Hip Hop Noir, the game’s influences are very obvious. Stone sits up on his bed to answer his ringing phone and all I could picture was Joaquin Phoenix’s character from Inherent Vice. Sure enough, Greg Louden the writer and director of STONE points to that film along with The Big Lebowski and adventure games Firewatch and Grim Fandango as influences via the press release Convict Games released.

Greg Louden’s full quote below:

“STONE may not be for everyone, but we hope it’s wild, artistic nature, and Australian influences resonate with those craving a narrative unafraid to ‘go there. We’ve been working on STONE for nearly two years, tapping into the influential works of counterculture icons including Charles Bukowski, Hunter S. Thompson and Thomas Pynchon, classic stoner noir films such as The Big Lebowski and Inherent Vice, and other narrative-driven games including Firewatch and Grim Fandango.”

STONE is also going to heavily use music to match the games mood and of course will feature hip-hop along with stoner metal and house and I’d assume techno as Alex, Stone’s lover, is apparently a ” lorikeet raver and artist.”

The description reads:

“STONE is a Hip-hop Stoner Noir Adventure Game that follows a gruff, loveable, fat koala private investigator as he pieces together his fragmented memory of the debaucherous night before. As if his morning couldn’t get any more stressful, Stone receives an ominous call threatening to upheave his entire life, just as he realizes his “chookie” Alex, a lorikeet raver and artist, is nowhere to be found.”

Given the game’s title and influences I was worried about an Australian developed game being banned here, but as I reached out to Convict Games on Twitter they revealed the game wouldn’t contain any drug use, apparently.