Bluey Meets Fruit Ninja: How a 12-Year Friendship Sparked the Quest for the Gold Pen

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Hear the full interview, only at Bluey.TV

Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen is a collaboration between Brumm and Halfbrick Studios, created in partnership with BBC Studios and Ludo Studio, the BAFTA and multi Emmy Award–winning team behind the global Bluey phenomenon. 

In a conversation launching today exclusively on Bluey.TV, two Aussie visionaries tell the story of how they brought their special collaboration together. ​ Bluey creator Joe Brumm and Halfbrick CEO Shainiel Deo share how a long-standing friendship has evolved into a creative partnership that inspired Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen, a joyful new story-driven video game launching this December. 

Their partnership began in 2013, when Brumm, who had just seen his animated pilot Dan the Man go viral, decided to reach out to Halfbrick, the team behind Fruit Ninja, the first mobile game he ever played. At the time, he was working with a company to develop Dan the Man into a game and series, but progress had stalled. “I thought, well, I might ring these guys up, these Fruit Ninja guys, they seem to know what they’re doing,” he recalls. “I expected them to be in Silicon Valley. I was Googling them, and it turned out they were just a couple of suburbs away.” Joe phoned Halfbrick, and that chance call, answered by Shainiel himself, sparked a friendship that would bring a Bluey game to life. 

Fans can now go behind the scenes in a special interview on Bluey TV, where Joe and Shainiel reflect on how years of shared ideas, creative collaboration, and a few friendly games of footy laid the foundation for the game. “We’re still just two blokes who played footy and love making weird and wacky stuff,” says Joe. That spirit of playfulness is woven throughout the game, which Shainiel describes as “a good old-fashioned game, wholesome, a bit irreverent, and full of fun.” 

(Bandit) Yeah, he’s me.” ​ - Bluey Creator Joe Brumm 

“I could see that Joe is writing himself into this story 100%” - Shainiel 

For the first time, Brumm publicly acknowledges that Bandit — Bluey’s dad — is based on himself. “Bandit’s got a gold pen that can turn everything gold. He’s a bit of a cross between King Midas and David Lee Roth. Yeah – He’s me. I like winding my kids up, creating little challenges… if there's something they really want, if they really want the gold pen, then it’s fun.” Shainiel adds, “I could see that Joe is writing himself into this story 100%. That also resonates with me… It's like every dad's fantasy, you know, just rocking out.” 

“Bluey is my visual and moral love letter to Brisbane.” – Bluey Creator Joe Brumm 

Both are proud to call Brisbane their home, and Joe and Shainiel say that the place where their friendship was formed has also helped to shape their creative work. “Bluey is my visual and moral love letter to Brisbane,” says Joe. “It’s in what they get up to, the activities, and that laid-backness. But then it’s also a dichotomy: we’re laid back, but we work hard too. 

Brumm and Deo agree that Brisbane’s unique mix of creative energy and limitations often pushes them toward unconventional ideas. Joe says Bluey grew from that same out-of-the-box thinking: “Like, Bluey is a punk rock kinda show, in that sense.”Joe then touches on the mechanics of the game and how that same creative spark of the Bluey series gave rise to the innovation in the gameplay in Bluey's Quest. “In the series, we've created a mechanic where the kids draw, their drawings come alive and we see them animated. We've done that in a couple of really popular episodes, Dragon and Escape. So, we've established that mechanic in the minds of the kids who watch Bluey, so it's not a big leap.”  

“I'm really glad that Joe introduced that mechanic of the drawn worlds,” says Shainiel. “You know, the shackles were taken off. They could create all these different prototypes which they would never have been able to do in the real Bluey world. And that just allowed for us to build this amazing experience.” 

Both old school gamers at heart, Joe and Shainiel were also able to bring their nostalgia for iconic games as the inspiration behind the project. "For me, you look at old-school Zelda games, top-down isometric, there’s heaps of that in there, like Mario Odyssey,” says Shainiel. ​ Joe adds, “What I like about the game is that it’s meant to be fun. The story I wrote feels like the simple setup you’d get from a Commodore 64 platformer - we’ve got a problem, and we’ve got a villain, so let’s go get it.” 

When asked what their hopes are for the game, both say they're driven by the desire to create joy and lasting memories for players, and their families. “This is the thing that I love the most about what I do,” says Shainiel. “When people come up to me and say, ‘This game was part of my childhood… it helped me through these times.’” Joe adds, “I want to see happy kids playing this game… smiling, loving it, showing their friends, telling their parents.” 

Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen is designed for Bluey fans who are ready for an epic adventure game full of puzzles, quests and challenges while still keeping the warmth, humour and gentle fun that younger Bluey fans and families love. Recommended for ages 7+ or fans with gaming experience. 

Hear the full interview, only at Bluey.TV

Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen will launch globally on 11 December 2025 exclusively on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Mac, releasing on Google Play Store on 10 January 2026. The game offers a free try before you buy experience, with an optional one-off payment to fully unlock all levels. Halfbrick, in partnership with PM Studios, will also be bringing the game to PC, Nintendo Switch™, Nintendo Switch™ 2, PlayStation®5, and Xbox Series X|S later in 2026. 

Notes for editors:

Apple

Google Play

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For any questions of further information please contact: Emma.Burch@bbc.com 

About Bluey 

Bluey is created and written by Joe Brumm and produced by Emmy® Award-winning Ludo Studio for ABC KIDS (Australia) and co-commissioned by ABC Children’s and BBC Studios Kids & Family. Financed in association with Screen Australia, Bluey is proudly 100% created, written, animated, and post produced in Brisbane Queensland, Australia, with funding from the Queensland Government through Screen Queensland and the Australian Government. 

The series follows Bluey, a loveable, inexhaustible, Blue Heeler dog, who lives with her Mum, Dad and her little sister, Bingo. Bluey uses her limitless energy to play games that unfold in unpredictable and hilarious ways, bringing her family and the whole neighbourhood into her world of fun. 

The series has also enjoyed a plethora of critical success at home and abroad, winning a 2022 BAFTA Children & Young People Award in the International category, and recently picked up its fifth consecutive AACTA Best Children’s Programme award – in addition to an International Emmy® and numerous craft and production awards around the world. 

About BBC Studios Brands & Licensing  

The BBC Studios Brands & Licensing division is the driving force in extending BBC Studios IP through innovative brand extensions, fostering deep fan engagement worldwide. ​ Partnering our iconic brands – including Doctor Who and Bluey – with the world’s biggest brands, promoters, and publishers, ignites the imagination of fans and creates memorable brand-fame moments. Our diverse portfolio spans consumer products, live entertainment, gaming, and publishing, while BBC Studios Digital drives over 1 billion views per month, offering advertising and branded content opportunities. Supported by award-winning teams, we focus on finding visionary opportunities to enhance global brand impact and digital growth. 

About Halfbrick Studios 

Founded in Brisbane in 2001, Halfbrick Studios has grown from a small local developer into one of Australia’s most recognizable names in games. After early success creating titles for handheld consoles, the studio became a global hit with originals like Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, which together with other releases have been downloaded billions of times. Today Halfbrick creates high-quality experiences across mobile, virtual reality, and console platforms, including Bluey’s Quest for the Gold Pen, with a focus on sparking creativity, fun, and nostalgia for players of all ages. 

About Ludo Studio 

Ludo Studio is a BAFTA, multi-Emmy® and Logie award-winning Australian studio that creates and produces original scripted drama, animation and digital stories that are authored by incredible local talent, distributed globally and loved by audiences everywhere. ludostudio.com.au