| Creator: | Janet Carr |
| Presenter: | Steven O'Donnell Stephanie Bendixsen Gus Ronald Angharad Yeo Gemma Driscoll William Yates |
| Country: | Australia |
| Language: | English |
| Num Series: | 14 |
| Num Episodes: | 586 |
| Producer: | Eliot Fish[1] |
| Runtime: | 25 minutes (2011–present) 15 minutes (2010–2011) |
| Channel: | ABC3 / ABC Me (2010–2023) TBA (2024) |
| Last Aired: | present |
| Related: | Good Game |
Good Game: Spawn Point (abbreviated as Good Game SP or GG:SP, or known simply as Spawn Point) is an Australian video game review programme.
It is a spin-off (also described as a "sister program"[2]) of the original Good Game that only carries reviews of games ACB-rated as G or PG, and professes to be "For young gamers, by gamers". It debuted on ABC Entertains (then known as ABC3) on 20 February 2010.[3] Spawn Point was hosted by Steven "Bajo" O'Donnell and Stephanie "Hex" Bendixsen from 2010 to 2016, when the latter departed; the former departed the following year. The show has been hosted by various others, such as Gus "Goose" Ronald from 2017 to 2018, Angharad "Rad" Yeo from 2017 to 2022 and William "Will" Yates from 2019 to 2020. The current host is Gemma "Gem" Driscoll, who joined in 2018.
Spawn Point began in 2010, hosted by Steven O'Donnell and Stephanie Bendixsen. The ABC has described Good Game: Spawn Point as "featur[ing] a family friendly mix of gamer reviews, stories about gaming culture and plenty of audience interaction". PlayStrat said, "The standard Good Game edition is a more adult oriented series—which includes reviews of games that fall into more mature classifications (i.e. they include violence, sexual content, profanity). It's good, therefore, that the show has the Spawn Point variant to allow the younger crowd to get their fill as well".[4]
The show originally ran for 15 minutes, but was extended to 30 minutes per episode from Series 2, Episode 21 on 2 July 2011.[5] [6] O'Donnell said, "The 30-minute show will allow us to review more games, produce more stories about game culture and delve deeper into gaming's rich history".[7] Creator and executive producer Janet Carr said Spawn Point "is achieving a total TV share of 16.2% among children 5–12 years old and its average audience share is up 114% on series one. Series two has been extended due to the enormous response from the audience and it will give gamers more ways to interact with the show and make it their own". In 2011, Good Game: Spawn Point reached 166,000 viewers per episode.[8]
As the show is "for younger gamers", it is not suitable to review games rated M, MA15+ or R18+. Bendixsen said "occasionally we might give you a glimpse of a mature title but only where it's necessary to make a point", and adds that the contentious content would always be excluded.[9] On 1 July 2011, TV Tonight said "Together with ABC2's Good Game, Good Game: SP has reached over 1.3 million vodcasts, the most downloaded vodcasts of any ABC programme this year. ABC3's Good Game: SP website has recorded 254,000 visits and 1.6 million page views since January." O'Donnell named the "Ask Good Game" segment his "favourite part of the show, reading those letters and making the noises". He added "It's my dream that one day kids might look back on GGSP in the way I look back on shows from my youth, I hope we do it well enough that this might happen."[10]
Bendixsen announced her departure from the show in January 2017; supporting host Gus Ronald and Angharad Yeo took her place.[11] O'Donnell departed from the show in December 2017,[12] and was replaced by Gemma Driscoll in 2018.[13] [14] [15] Ronald departed the show in 2018,[16] replaced by William Yates in 2019.[17] Yates departed in 2020.[18] In November 2022, Yeo announced her departure at the year's end.[19]
| Name | Nickname | First show | Last show |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steven O'Donnell | Bajo | 20 February 2010 | 9 December 2017 |
| Stephanie Bendixsen | Hex | 2 December 2016 | |
| Gus Ronald | Goose | 18 February 2017 | 15 December 2018 |
| Angharad Yeo | Rad | 17 December 2022 | |
| Gemma Driscoll | Gem | 10 March 2018 | |
| William Yates | Will | 2 March 2019 | 12 December 2020 |
| Name | Nickname | First show | Last show |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jackson Gothe-Snape | Ajax | 1 May 2010 | |
| Gus Ronald | Goose | 2 July 2011 | 2 December 2016 |
| Jax | Jax | 19 February 2022 | 10 December 2022 |
| Suraj Kolarkar | Dr. Deviser | 18 March 2023 | 16 December 2023 |
| Harry Jun | Harry | ||
The first seven series were hosted by Hex and Bajo. Episodes originally ran for 15 minutes, and were extended to 30 minutes during the second series. The eighth series was exclusively referred to as Spawn Point in 2017, and hosted by Bajo, Goose and Rad as a trio. The ninth series returned to the original title and introduced Gem as a new presenter. The tenth and eleventh series were hosted by Rad, Gem and Will. The fourteenth series was solely hosted by Gem, with Harry and Dr. Deviser as supporting hosts.
Review segments are presented by the host throughout the show. Each time a current game is discussed while footage is shown to the viewers. At the end, a rubber chicken(or star) rating (a number out of 10 [2010-2014] or 5 [2015-now]) is given to the game. Two games are usually reviewed during each show. Some reviews are also replayed from the main show.
GG: Spawn Squad is a spin-off series which premiered in 2022. Episodes run for 15 minutes and feature host Gem competing in video games against child guests or content creators. The second series debuted in 2024 and featured both Gem and Harry as presenters.