RPG · 8.5/10
Embervault Chronicles
92 hours in and its crafting loop still surprised us. A generous, messy RPG that trusts you to get lost.
Cut-and-paste games writing · Fitzroy
Games, torn apart and taped back together.
No affiliate fluff, no review-copy handshakes. Just loud, honest verdicts on the games we actually finish — written from a Smith Street loft.
Who we are
A three-person zine that never went digital-quiet.
DragonFireFrontier started in 2016 as a photocopied fold-out handed out at the Fitzroy arcade nights. We still write like that — glued-together, high-contrast, unafraid to give a beloved sequel a 4/10 if it earns one.
How we work
We finish the game before we file the verdict.
Every review means a full playthrough — credits rolled, side content cleared, patch notes tracked. We buy our own copies out of the AU$40 monthly kitty so no publisher gets to lean on the score.
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Full reviews filed
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Hours actually played
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Indies spotlighted
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Sponsored scores
Latest issues
Reviews, pinned to the wall.
Filter the pile by beat. Each piece is a full teardown, not a launch-day snap judgement.
Indie · 9/10
Static Bloom
A five-hour hand-drawn platformer from a two-person Brunswick studio. Short, sharp, and quietly devastating.
Retro · Revisit
Neon Circuit '99
We dug out the CRT to see if this 1999 racer still holds up. Spoiler: the handling does, the menus don't.
RPG · 7/10
Ironmark Tactics
Brilliant tactics buried under a difficulty spike at chapter three. We map the wall so you don't hit it blind.
Indie · 8/10
Letters to Nowhere
A slow, text-heavy mystery you play with a cup of tea. We loved the writing, questioned the pacing.
Retro · Feature
The Fitzroy Cabinet Hunt
We tracked every working arcade cabinet within walking distance of Smith Street. Twelve survivors, one legend.
What's in the zine
More than star ratings.
Full-playthrough reviews
Every score comes after the credits roll. New pieces drop most Thursday mornings, Melbourne time.
Indie spotlights
One local studio, every fortnight.
Speedrun teardowns
We annotate the record runs frame by frame.
Retro revisits
Old carts, honest hindsight.
The monthly print run
A hand-folded paper edition of the best pieces, mailed anywhere in Australia for AU$6.
Before you ask
Frequently asked, honestly answered.
Do you take review copies from publishers?
No. We buy every game out of a shared AU$40 monthly kitty. If a publisher sends a code unasked, we note it and still purchase our own. It's the only way our scores stay ours.
How often do new pieces go up?
A full review lands most Thursdays around 9am Melbourne time, with an indie spotlight every second Monday. Bigger teardowns take longer because we finish the whole game first.
Can I pitch my own game or a story?
Absolutely — indie devs especially. Use the contact form or email us with a link and a sentence on why it matters. We read everything, though we can only cover a fraction of what lands.
Is there really a paper edition?
Yes. Once a month we fold and photocopy the best pieces into a proper zine and post it for AU$6 within Australia. It started as a joke in 2016 and never stopped.
Say hello
Pitch, praise, or pick a fight.
Drop us a line and we'll usually reply within a couple of days. The loft is open to visiting devs by appointment.
- Phone
- +61 3 9417 4782
- Address
- 52 Smith Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065
- [email protected]
- Hours
- Mon–Fri, 10am–6pm AEST