When Tamborine Mountain game developer Nathan Hoad noticed how quickly his cat Coco could solve food puzzles, he had a thought: what if she was the star of her own video game?
“She’s a very, I think, in my opinion anyway, a high IQ cat,” Nathan said.
“We give her those little food puzzle things and she solves them really quickly. None of the other cats we’ve seen have that aptitude.”
That idea became Bravest Coconut, a pixel adventure game where a clever cat named Coco navigates the mysterious Tambryn Valley, solving puzzles and breaking the fourth wall along the way.
The project recently received funding from Screen Australia, a major milestone for the solo developer.
“It’s wild,” he said.
“Not that long ago, I thought had to be in Victoria to be recognised at all, but then I started going to some of the meetups here and started hearing about all these grants. I never really thought it would be a thing for something I was doing.”
The game draws inspiration from classic titles like Monkey Island and Zelda, with plenty of puzzles, quirky characters, and a heavy dose of self-awareness.
The story in the game is very silly, that’s probably the best word for it,” Nathan said. “Coco tends to break the fourth wall and she’s a pretty sassy character who likes pointing out the plot holes.
“Obviously the real Coco can’t actually talk, but just the way she kind of looks at you and the way she behaves, you can easily give that kind of character.”
Nathan has been a software engineer for over 20 years but started creating games through hackathons and game jams alongside his brother, Ben Hoad, and wife, Lilly Piri.
What started as a hobby began to snowball.
“We started winning a few of them, so it was kind of interesting,” he said.
“It’s still a bit of a hobby, but it’s starting to turn into something bigger.”
Bravest Coconut began as a fantasy test game for a custom engine, but after switching to the Godot Engine, Nathan rebuilt the game from scratch and began creating popular Godot addons along the way.
He’s done everything himself, coding, art, music, and story, but said it’s all part of the creative process.
“It’s just a lot of experimenting,” he said.
“You step back far enough and everything is basically math, right?”
Partner Lilly, who is an artist with her paintings appearing on the Tamborine Mountain Arts Trail, also makes an appearance in the game.
“Lil’s in the game as well as a little character,” he said.
“Some of her actual paintings are scanned in, so you can walk around and you can actually look at her paintings in the game.”
The fictional Tambryn Valley is loosely based on Tamborine Mountain and includes landmark places like Curtis Falls.
Nathan is hoping that Bravest Coconut will be near completion in the second quarter of 2026.
