We build things people actually want to talk about.

Koala Works is a small Australian studio making games and software at the intersection of AI, conversation, and play.

See what we're building

Now in Alpha

Smalltalk

Smalltalk is a social game where conversation is the whole point. You arrive somewhere temporary, meet a cast of characters, and build relationships through what you actually say to them. No scripted dialogue trees. Every conversation is real, freeform, and shapes what happens next.

The people you meet have their own personalities, moods, and boundaries. Pay attention and be genuine, and something real develops. Be careless, and they'll drift away. Here's the twist: not everyone you're talking to is who you think they are. Some characters might be played by other people. Can you tell the difference? Does it matter?

There's no score and no winning. Just the story that unfolds from how you choose to spend your time and who you choose to spend it with. We're keeping the finer details close to the chest for now, but if you like games that reward curiosity and conversation over reflexes and min-maxing, this one's for you. Alpha invites are going out to our first round of testers right now.

Smalltalk gameplay — a freeform conversation with Simone Aubert in The Dining Room

Click to expand — this screenshot uses an older model and system prompt, and doesn't reflect the current quality of the game.

Want early access?

Drop your email and we'll let you know when the next wave of invites goes out. No spam, just game news.

Updates

Beta phase reached

After months of alpha playtesting and a mountain of feedback, Smalltalk has officially entered beta. The biggest changes: conversation pacing feels more natural, character memory is sharper across sessions, and the "who's real?" tension lands way better now that we've reworked how human players blend in. Thanks to everyone who tested early and didn't hold back — your notes shaped every major call we made. Beta invites rolling out over the coming weeks.

Play testing against other RPG engines

We spent a week running Smalltalk sessions side-by-side with a handful of other RPG engines to see where we stand. The goal wasn't a shootout — it was calibration. We wanted to know if our freeform conversation model actually felt different to players, or if we were just telling ourselves it did. The short answer: it does. Players consistently stayed in character longer and initiated more unprompted interactions in Smalltalk than in any of the scripted alternatives. The surprise finding was how much our character memory system matters — players noticed when NPCs forgot things, and they really noticed when they didn't.

Alpha invites sent

Our first batch of Smalltalk alpha invites went out today. A small group of testers across three time zones will be putting the game through its paces over the next few weeks. If you signed up for the waitlist, check your inbox. We'll be expanding access as we iron things out, so keep an eye on this space.

Smalltalk playtesting begins internally

We've been running internal playtests for the past week and the results have been really encouraging. The core loop feels right. Conversations get weird in the best way, and games consistently run longer than planned because nobody wants to stop. Tweaking the balance of a few mechanics before we let anyone else in.

Hello, world

Koala Works is officially a thing. We're a tiny studio out of Australia building at the intersection of games, conversation, and AI. Our first project, Smalltalk, is coming together faster than expected. More soon.

About Koala Works

Koala Works is a bootstrapped tech startup based in Australia. We split our time between two things we care about: building games that bring people together, and helping other companies build great software.

On the consulting side, we offer software engineering services with deep expertise in modern agentic AI systems (think tools like Claude Code and frameworks like Openclaw), alongside general full-stack development. We're especially good at helping teams figure out where AI agents can actually add value, not just where they sound cool on a slide deck.

On the games side, we make role-playing and social games that lean on what makes real human interaction interesting. Smalltalk is our first release.

Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Founder

Get in touch

Whether you want to chat about a project, try Smalltalk, or just say g'day.

hello@koala.works