Now that the nights are well and truly closing in (for us here in the UK at least) and Halloween is behind us, there's just enough time for the Indieventure trio to take one last look at the latest batch of new(ish) indie games we've been enjoying before turning our attention to the serious business of end-of-year celebrations. We say new-ish because, while Rachel and Liam are as on it and up-to-the-minute as ever, Rebecca has wandered off on a bit of a side-quest. Basically, it's still Halloween in her heart, and if that means shining a spotlight on some spooky (and/or romantically spooky-adjacent) games from six months or two years or heck, even nearly a decade ago, then it's more than worth it to create what we hope you'll all agree is a suitably autumnal vibe. To that end, our round robin discussion in this episode encompasses games including Absolum, Ball x Pit, Easy Delivery Co., Herdling, Layers of Fear (both the 2016 and 2023 versions), Monster Prom 4, Monstrous Love, and of course, PowerWash Simulator 2. Regular listeners might already have noticed that we've had a longer break between episodes than usual, and so naturally we've found plenty to be hyperfixated on in that time. Rachel has discovered the SCP Foundation collaborative fiction project, and while it's given her a bit of a crisis over her love for a certain suspiciously similar Remedy game, she nevertheless thinks you all should go and read about an eldritch basketball game in SCP-1733 if you haven't encountered it yet. Meanwhile, Liam's been enjoying some movies courtesy of Eatflix in Newcastle, and also thanks to everyone's favourite breathtaking meme machine Keanu Reeves' latest starring role in Good Fortune. And Rebecca has finally got her hands on Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, her feelings on which are far too complex to condense down into this brief text summary, but on which she is at least qualified to speak with some authority as an OG mega-fan of the 21-year-old original cult classic. Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts. Don’t forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord too, and be sure to check out our new Steam Curator page if you simply still can't get enough of us!

This episode of EXTRA is a particularly special one, as our guest today is none other than our very own Rachel Watts! Rachel has spent the last 12 months writing a book all about COCOON, the 2023 puzzle game developed by Geometric Interactive. The book chronicles the development of the game, including its puzzle design, world-building, and soundscapes. Featuring exclusive interviews with its creators, this stunning tome is available for pre-order RIGHT NOW via the Lost In Cult website. In the episode, Rachel reveals what it was like to undertake a project of this scale, as well as providing some teasers of what you can expect when the book is released next year. Of course, this wouldn't be an EXTRA episode hosted by Liam if it didn't dive into Rachel's past a little bit, too. Listen to find out about the early days of Rachel's career in journalism, an incredible anecdote about her time studying film at university, and an absolute gem about her brief stint at Card Factory. You can read Rachel's work on FemHype here. Pre-order COCOON: Design Works here! Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts.  

There's been a bit of a scheduling pile-up at Indieventure HQ: within the next three episodes we somehow have to fit in our 2nd anniversary, Halloween, and our 50th episode, and make all of them feel as special as they deserve. Working around a lot of real-life commitments at the moment also means that we had to bulk-record a bunch of episodes back-to-back and… look, what I'm trying to say is, yes I realise now that we're technically hitting Halloween an episode early, but let's just agree that it works and feels deliberate, OK? Because we've decided to hold back the traditional anniversary bit-o'-bullshit for Ep.50 (mark your calendars for November!), we decided that this milestone deserved another trip to the prestigious Indieventure Vault. We've been toying with the idea of dedicating some Vault space to specific genres for a while, and where better to start than with horror? It's a linchpin within the indie gaming scene, after all, and as ever our hosts can get some good mileage out of the fact that we all have very different feelings towards the genre: Rebecca is a total scare-seeker, Liam won't even talk about spooky games without a light on in the room, and Rachel is a recent convert who now happily occupies a space somewhere in-between. When it came to picking our favourite spooky games to induct into the Vault, we were slightly surprised to realise that there aren't actually very many in there yet, which gave us something of a blank canvas to work with. In deference to everyone's wellbeing and in the name of keeping things interesting we were pretty loose on what we think deserves the title of "horror game", but it was nevertheless surprisingly easy to settle on our three latest submissions: Signalis, Slay the Princess, and Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, all of which we give their rapturous (and increasingly surreal) initiation ceremony in this episode. Onto hyperfixations, and you can tell we're approaching the end of the year because everyone's suddenly checking out a bunch of games. Rachel's been playing some solid gold indies as ever in the form of Öoo and Rise of the Golden Idol's latest DLC, The Curse of the Last Reaper. Meanwhile, Liam's been enjoying the glorious experiment in indie dev collaboration that is Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 1 Re-Raptored. And, because Rebecca's schedule can't be tamed at the moment, she's bucking the trend with two of the biggest AAA releases of the year instead: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (on PS5) and Silent Hill f. Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts. Don’t forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord too, and be sure to check out our new Steam Curator page if you simply still can't get enough of us!

The last time Liam spoke with Ed Thorn, he was days away from announcing his departure from Rock Paper Shotgun. Beginning his career as a guides writer, Ed climbed the ranks to become reviews editor of the prestigious PC gaming blog, before deciding it was time to finally move on. Ten months after that original episode went live (eight when we recorded this - soz for the delay) Ed returns to discuss what it's like to say goodbye to your dream job. Together, the pair discuss their reasons for moving on, the things they're glad to leave behind, and the moments they'll always look back on with fondness.  This one has a slightly different vibe from our usual episodes. It's less "three feral goblins screech about Peggle", and more "two old men reminisce about the good old days".  You can find more of Ed's thoughts in this wonderful article he kindly wrote for our website. Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts.

OK so here's the thing: as an indie game podcast – even one that we put out for free and entirely just for fun – we can't not acknowledge the recent release of Hollow Knight: Silksong, one of the most anticipated indie games ever, right? But also, as it turns out, for various reasons, none of us have actually played it. What to do, then? Well it turns out that while exactly zero out of three hosts had the time or – to be honest – inclination to jump right in and play Silksong at launch, we've all got a lot to say on the subject of indie game sequels more broadly. While Triple-A and even Double-A gaming spaces are absolutely saturated with long-running franchises, even very popular and successful indie games are seemingly more likely to be standalone than not, which makes sequels something of a curiosity when one comes along. So that's how we manage to talk about Silksong without actually mentioning Silksong very much! Be it the indie game sequels that really worked for us, the ones that never saw the light of day, or our dream indie game follow-up wishlist, it turns out we have a lot to say as usual when we throw the topic open to a wider examination of an intriguing industry trend. Why is it mainly puzzle and/or horror games that manage to turn themselves into full-blown indie franchises? Do spiritual sequels count? And is Liam over the cancellation of Dreamsettler yet? (Sadly: no, but we shouldn't rush him.) Our hyperfixations this week see Rachel once again chilling with some cute critters in Star Birds, Liam once again chilling with some factory management in Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure, and Rebecca once again seeking out the least chill time imaginable by going to see The Long Walk in the cinema (it was a great film, just… harrowing). Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts. Don’t forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord too, and be sure to check out our new Steam Curator page if you simply still can't get enough of us!

Hello, it's me again, the Ostrich that writes episode descriptions in exchange for small amounts of grain. My name is Clive, by the way. Not that any of you asked 🙄 Things have been a bit better for ol' Clive these last few weeks. Liam fell down a storm drain in early August and broke every bone in his body, rendering him unable to lock me in the glass cube that serves as my home. As a treat, I've been able to wander freely around his home, pecking at bits of bread on the kitchen floor and doing huge, violent shits in his wardrobe. The good times won't last forever, but you've got to make the most of them while they're here. In this episode, the gang decided to celebrate the changing seasons by getting all Witchy. We're talking horoscopes, tarot reading, and a discussion about their favourite witches in indie games. The trio have a lot on at the moment and had to bulk record a few episodes at once, making this a more relaxed affair compared to their usual feral nonsense. Even their hyperfixations are surprisingly tame. Rachel has been playing Tiny Bookshop - a fixation so potent that Rebecca chose to make it hers as well - while Liam has been playing through Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. See? I told you. It's like I asked an AI chatbot to generate hyperfixations. I didn't do that, btw. We ostriches are naturally sceptical about generative AI, seeing as we're experts in identifying when people have their heads stuck in the sand. Anyway, I'd best be off. Liam just rolled off the sofa and is now unable to get up. I can't miss this opportunity to lay a big egg in his cereal. Tatty bye x Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts. Don’t forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord, too, and be sure to check out our Steam Curator page if you simply still can’t get enough of us!

Hello again, it's me, the Ostrich that Indieventure hires to write episode descriptions while Rebecca is away. Well, I say hire. Liam actually keeps me in a big glass cube in his garage, and whenever my services are required, he uses a large hammer to release me. The entire process is inefficient (and don't even get me started on how much he's spending on glass per financial quarter), but he has started patting me on the head and telling me how good I am at writing words, so who am I to complain?   Much in the same way I am released from my prison in the event of an emergency, the Indieventure trio were forced to smash the proverbial glass that surrounds the listener mailbag format this week, following a last-minute embargo change to a game they were all planning on reviewing instead. That game was Demonschool, which was pushed back to November following the surprise announcement of the release date for Hollow Knight: Silksong.   The episode begins with a brief discussion about Team Cherry's upcoming mega hit, especially how much it has disrupted the indie game release schedule. Is Silksong the indie equivalent of Grand Theft Auto 6? That's maybe a question they answer here. I can't remember. Maybe listen to the episode yourself instead of expecting me to do it? You fool. You oaf.   Then, the trio answer YOUR questions! Who is the hottest Peggle character? What does a successful indie podcast look like? What are your earliest memories of gaming? You'll find out the answers to these (and more!) in this section.   Finally, it's Hyperfixation time. Liam is channeling Big Dad Energy after watching The Naked Gun, Rebecca has been listening to The Lion's Roar by First Aid Kit, and Rachel has been playing The Drifter.   Anyway, I'd best be off. A DPD van just delivered an enormous glass cube, and Liam is now standing outside of its door, tapping his watch and looking impatient. Speak soon!   Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts. Don’t forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord, too, and be sure to check out our Steam Curator page if you simply still can’t get enough of us!  

In this episode of Indieventure Extra, Liam chats to Aaron Potter about his new book: 50 Indie Games That Changed The World. Aaron is a prolific games journalist with bylines at GamesRadar, Edge, Wireframe magazine and Kotaku (to name just a few). However, real heads may recognise him as the former face of the Push Square YouTube channel, which he briefly hosted alongside a certain northerner from this very podcast. Currently working at the Daily Mirror, Aaron has also published his first book. 50 Indie Games That Changed The World is a beautiful, coffee-table-style book that explores how more than 50 notable indie releases have influenced the medium as a whole. Each chapter features interviews with key figures involved in the game's creation, including Toby Fox, Ed McMillen, and Lucas Pope. There are anecdotes abound in this episode as Aaron reveals what it was like to interview 50 indie developers, which interviews were the hardest to secure, and what it was like to create a gaming magazine in the modern era when working for the (now sadly defunct) Wireframe. Make sure to pick up a copy of Aaron's book here. You can also follow him on BlueSky. Enjoy the episode! Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Okay, technically there's still a month left before the official end of summer, but who doesn't get a bit wistful towards the end of August? It's probably a hangover from those school summer holidays, even though the Indieventure trio – along with most of our listeners – left those days behind longer ago than we'd like to admit. Still, taking the sting off significantly is the fact that Summer 2025 has already been an excellent season for indie games. So good, in fact, that it was quite the struggle to narrow our collective list down to just seven titles we want to talk your ear off about today. Expect more updates in the coming episodes as we consider our regrets over the ones we cut for time, but in the meantime we hope you enjoy our enthused round-up of what we've been playing recently, including BUSTAFELLOWS season2, Jump the Track, Look Outside, Squeakross: Home Squeak Home, Sword of the Sea, and Tiny Bookshop. Plus – for only the second time ever – your intrepid Indieventurers actually managed to coordinate our schedules outside of recording to play a co-op indie game together! We'd love to do this more often, but alas, adult life is a harsh mistress. But, on the other hand, it's bloody PEAK! Yeah, of course we had to play PEAK. When the time rolls around for hyperfixations, Rachel immediately figures out that she can cheat and sneak another excellent summer indie in from her list by talking about Cipher Zero. Rebecca, unsurprisingly, has heard the siren call of Tears of Themis – something everyone predicted she'd love because it's literally an Ace Attorney-inspired otome game made by HoYoverse – which she's found compelling if (spoiler alert) a little less lovable than she'd always expected. And slightly more surprisingly, Liam has also fallen for the allures of a gacha game… but it's Pokémon TCG Pocket, which is allowed. Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts. Don’t forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord too, and be sure to check out our new Steam Curator page if you simply still can't get enough of us!

The Indieventure trio are back from our slightly longer-than-originally planned summer break, and thank goodness, we can just about remember how to record a podcast! Luckily, we've had an idea in the back pocket for a while now that allows us to have a bit of a free-flowing chat as we ease back into the swing of things. The theme of this episode is, broadly speaking, other media we'd recommend to fans of some of our favourite indie games. Be it books, movies, music, or even (gasp!) a triple-A title or two, turns out we've all had that experience of finding something that complements the vibe of an indie game we enjoy so perfectly we swear some plucky publisher ought to sell them together in some sort of limited-edition bundle. Obviously, we kick things off with Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, a widely acknowledged must-read for any Hades fans out there, but we move on to deeper cuts as the episode progresses. Discussion topics include – but are very much not limited to – our thoughts on how Thank Goodness You're Here follows a proud tradition of British surrealist comedy best embodied by Reeves and Mortimer in Shooting Stars; which Margaret Atwood novel best reflects the vibe of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage; and of course which creature collection games are must-plays for fans of Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach books. Other games finding their perfect pairing – it's kind of like a wine tasting evening, really – include series like OlliOlli and Simulacra, as well as stand-alones such as 1000xRESIST, Frostpunk, Signalis, and let's be honest, many more besides. We end as ever with a fresh batch of hyperfixations. Liam is rounding out the regression to his mid-2000s teenhood described earlier in the episode by getting well into wrestling of all things, thanks to a surprisingly fun evening out at a NORTH Wrestling event. Rebecca's refusal to stop banging on about Tiny Bookshop for three solid years has paid off in the form of a preview copy of the game, which has immediately and gratifyingly shot straight to the top of her GOTY watchlist. And Rachel's been enjoying a couple of short and sweet recent indie releases in the form of Everdeep Aurora and Wheel World. Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts. Don’t forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord, too, and be sure to check out our new Steam Curator page if you simply still can't get enough of us!

Hey there, listener to the Indieventure podcast! Is your least favourite part of any episode the part where we actually talk about video games? Are you one of the surprising number of people in our Discord who actually seem to prefer the nonsense tangents we go off on at the slightest provocation to our years of indie gaming insight and experience? Well, do we ever have the series for you! Welcome to Indieventure Side Quest, where we pause our games industry chat to gently float down every stream of consciousness we meet along the way and that's the whole point… except we open with a brief discussion of the GTA6 delay, because we're fundamentally incapable of staying on-task, apparently. This episode was actually recorded out-of-sequence and so if you want to listen in "chronological" order (whatever that means) it should actually sit just before Episode 39, but we're pretty sure it's seamless, except for the fact that we dedicate part of this chat to our predictions for A Goofy Movie – a film we then reacted to in the episode we recorded the following night and released two whole months ago. Think of it as an artistic flashback? The other "main" topic, such as it is, is a group review of Yorkshire Dales folly garden Forbidden Corner, a cartoonishly unsettling local attraction owned by an eccentric businessman-slash-politician and which is apparently a rite of passage for people like Liam who grew up in the area, but hits quite differently when you see it for the first time in your 30s as Rachel and Rebecca both did just hours before sitting down to record. We also end up on-the-fly tier listing which Fellowship of the Ring characters we'd most (and least!) like to have brunch with, despite the three of us being casual Lord of the Rings fans at best; theorising as to why the modern cinema experience isn't as good as it used to be; sharing the best parenting white lies we were on the receiving end of growing up; and a lot more that has surprisingly little to do with video games. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we did recording! Side Quest is planned as an irregular recurring feature for us when, for one reason or another, we don't have the capacity to record a "normal" episode, and while some might be more on-theme than others in the future, we make no promises. Let us know what you think! No hyperfixations for this one but as ever our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts. Don’t forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord too, and be sure to check out our new Steam Curator page if you simply still can't get enough of us!

Hello, I'm the Ostrich that Indieventure commissions to write episode descriptions while Rebecca is on holiday. They pay me in small stones, which I swallow to grind up insects and plants in my gizzard because I don't have any teeth. That's a real ostrich fact, proving that I am indeed an ostrich. Stop EMAILING ME. On this episode of Indieventure (a podcast about indie games that has never mentioned ostriches once in its entire run, just FYI), the gang discuss their favourite indie games of 2025 so far. That's right, it's summer, and instead of running around sand dunes and flapping their big wings like, oh, I dunno, a cool bird that deserves to be paid more for its writing, they're banging on about computer games they've played instead. Liam - who looks like someone who would trap an ostrich's head in a car window at a safari park for a laugh - reckons Shotgun Cop Man might be one of this year's best platformers, but makes sure to circle back to the warm joy of tea-making sim Wanderstop. Rebecca - a known friend to Ostriches and the only host who looks me in the eyes while giving me my pebbles - is still not over Blue Prince, but finds some time to talk about The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy as well. And finally, Rachel - Ostrich enemy number one as far as we're all concerned - enthuses about a trio of truly excellent games in the form of Citizen Sleeper 2, The Alters, and Promise Mascot Agency. She may think Ostriches look like, and I quote, "if God shoved a long sparrow into a tumbleweed", but you can't deny she has good taste in games. In part two, the gang lists off the games they're most excited to play in the second half of the year. They yap about Tiny Bookshop, SHUTEN ORDER, Roma Sands RE:Build, Demonschool, Paralives, Ball X Pit, Star Birds, The Mermaid Mask and Morsels. Tbh I didn't really pay attention to this bit, I was thinking about grain.   Finally, we reach Hyperfixations. Despite the summer heat, Rebecca's still been spending time with hot boys in the visual novel Bustafellows. Rachel's been standing next to a TV with her arms folded like someone's Dad while watching a bunch of movies, including Spice World, Clueless, Longlegs, and Death Becomes Her. Meanwhile, Liam found an old script he wrote 8 years ago, and instead of never mentioning it to anyone ever again (except maybe his therapist), he's chosen to read it out on the podcast instead. Yikes!   Anyway, I'm off to look at my two toes, which is how many toes I have, because I am an ostrich. Cya, LOSERS.   Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts. Don’t forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord too, and be sure to check out our new Steam Curator page if you simply still can't get enough of us!  

Long-time listeners or observant newcomers will already know that Indiventure is a fortnightly podcast, which comes with its own benefits and drawbacks. One major plus is that it allows us to keep making this show as an extracurricular hobby without getting burned out; but the downsides include sometimes not being especially timely with our topic, if the latest big release happened to drop during our week off.   Knowing that, due to the quirks of our schedule, we'd be recording this a few days before the Switch 2 launched but releasing a week after, we decided to lean all-in to that lack of timeliness and dedicate this episode to a discussion of the Nintendo Switch. Like, the original one, that you've been able to get your hands on since 2017. Talk about keeping a finger on the pulse of pop culture, right?   In all seriousness, what better time is there to assess the old Switch's legacy than when its successor has recently taken centre-stage? In particular, with the benefit of eight years' hindsight, we really get into whether the Switch deserves to be remembered as the natural home of indie games in the late-2010s to mid-2020s.   Some indies certainly shone on the platform — there was surely a symbiotically beneficial relationship between the Switch and say, Stardew Valley, Hades, Hollow Knight, Celeste, Undertale, Untitled Goose Game, and loads more that we mention but I'm not going to list here because it's not really that kind of episode — but did that reputation built in the console's early days persist through the latter years, which saw upsets like the advent of the Steam Deck coming to eat Nintendo's lunch?   As is often the case on Indiventure, the debate gets spirited but not at all heated: Liam literally used to host a YouTube fan channel dedicated to the Switch, so his affection for the platform is evident; it's fair to say that Rachel's love for consoles generally dissipated after the DS era (she's willing to be convinced but only if they ever bring back Nintendogs!); and Rebecca makes the case for the Switch as the enduring home of niche Japanese titles that may not always be true indies but certainly get marketed like them in the west.   In this week's hyperfixations, Rachel has enjoyed sci-fi survival game The Alters very much and thinks you should check out her review on GamesRadar to find out why you probably would too. After a year away, Rebecca is once again locked in on a new playthrough of the little indie that could, a.k.a. Baldur's Gate 3. And Liam has recently resubscribed to NowTV and so finds himself finally able to catch up on all the prestige TV he's been missing out on due to not having access to that particular streaming service, like White Lotus, Succession, and The Rehearsal. Plus: Conclave (Liam discovered his hyperfixation in his own, unique, rambling way).   Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts. Don’t forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord too, and be sure to check out our new Steam Curator page if you simply still can't get enough of us!

It's episode 40(!!) of Indieventure, and this episode, we’re checking in with what we’ve all been playing recently and turns out it’s a fantastic bundle of indies! Who would have guessed!   Our May 2025 list includes the bonkers immersive sim Skin Deep, the cutesy mystery adventure The Beekeeper's Picnic: A Sherlockian Adventure, the introspective, interactive essay Many Nights a Whisper, Rusty Lake’s secret-stuffed The Mr. Rabbit Magic Show, nostalgic slice-of-life Despelote, and yes-we-know-it’s-not-strictly-indie-but-it’s-double-A-so-we’re-yapping-about-it Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.   We then launch into our opinions on the second (and final) chapter of Lost Records: Bloom and Rage. A lot of mixed feelings here, but the overall consensus is that we love Bloom and Rage, but Don’t Nod needs to chuck their stealth sections in the bin. Thanks in advance Don’t Nod, love you though oxoxo. If you'd like to avoid (minor) spoilers, we talk about the game between 1:05:00 - 1:39:00.   We round off the episode with some hyperfixations! Rachel’s pick is the Thinky Direct, a very cool showcase celebrating thinky games which you should definitely watch, PUH-LEASE (6pm BST, 29th May, and if you missed it, it’ll be on YouTube). Liam has been falling back in love with the Switch before the release of the Switch 2. And finally, Rebecca talks about about Game Performance Matters, an initiative formed by a group of voice actors who are pushing back against studios using AI in the VA space - a disgusting practice which is becoming scarily more common in the video games industry. She’s been chatting voice actor Kit Harrison, who has provided important resources for those who would like to support Game Performance Matters and the ongoing voice actors' strike in the games industry. We’ll link them all below.   Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts. Don’t forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord too, and be sure to check out our new Steam Curator page if you simply still can't get enough of us!   Game Performance Matters: https://linktr.ee/gameperformancematters Kit Harrison: @kitharrison.com‬

In this episode of Indieventure Extra, Rachel chats with puzzle bestie and Thinky Games colleague Joseph Mansfield about - you guessed it - thinky games! Joe is the head puzzle expert over at Thinky Games.com and is the brains behind the Thinky Games database, the Thinky Awards, ThinkyCon AND the brand new and upcoming Thinky Direct puzzle showcase! That's quite the puzzle-focused CV, not to mention his thinky-based YouTube channel Joe Plays Puzzle Games, which you should definitely check out. You can also find Joe on BlueSky and play his games over on itch.io! The two delve into their favourite puzzle games, different puzzle design philosophies, and have a chat about the wonderful thinky community too.  If you'd like to see the Thinky Direct, you can tune in at 10am PDT, 1pm EDT, 7pm CEST, 6pm BST on May 29th. The showcase will be livestreamed over at ThinkyGames.com, the Thinky Games Twitch page, and the Thinky Games YouTube channel.  Joe's Hyperfixation is the YouTube channel Sounds Like! Enjoy the episode! Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts.  

Welcome, welcome to Indieventure's second-ever episode recorded in-person! Your fabulous trio of hosts recently secluded ourselves once again in a caravan in Yorkshire and this time our resulting nonsense is even more unhinged than last year's "live" episode. What began life, several months ago, as an idea for a fairly straightforward character-led Vault episode has instead brought us here, to Indieventure's Legally Distinct 77th (you'll notice it changes a few times) Annual Indie Game Death Match Battle Royale!* Surprisingly this originally had very little to do with the fact that we're all quite into The Hunger Games and there was a new book out recently, but as you might guess it does come up. So, what's the plan? Well, quite simply, we fed 24 characters representing 24 indie games into a Hunger Games simulator and riffed on the results. I won't list all the contestants here but suffice to say if you've ever wanted to see a touching battlefield romance develop between Big Ron and Ábramar, know how Harold Halibut would emotionally reconcile himself with going on a killing spree once the red mist receded, or see if Tim the Terrible Boy will ever finally get what's coming to him, then I'm really glad that we've found an audience for the highly specific shared sense of humour we unleashed the day we recorded this. The winner has the honour of having their game crowned the best indie game of all time, unless we don't like the outcome, in which case they just get bragging rights. As a disclaimer, I just want to make it very clear that we're all highly media literate individuals who did actually read/watch and understand the point of The Hunger Games, but we also just love a bit that goes on far too long. If you want to sink to our level and try out this ridiculous concept for yourself – maybe at your next dinner party! – we used the BrantSteele Hunger Games Simulator, which also has a bunch of other franchises pre-programmed as well as letting you write in your own characters. We may have realised halfway through that we've slightly uncomfortably aligned ourselves with the Capitol in this episode, but you know what, that only makes it even more appropriate that we end like it was any other regular week, ignoring the screams while we talk about our latest batch of hyperfixations. Rachel has been playing Promise Mascot Agency; Rebecca recently had a video game themed weekend seeing the Until Dawn movie (bad) and attending an Animal Crossing: New Horizons event at a Sea Life Centre (good); and Liam has been reading Intermezzo by Sally Rooney and Saltwater by Jessica Andrews, the latter of whom turned out to have been in his English class at school! Small world. * No indie game characters were hurt in the making of this episode. All involvement of indie game characters was overseen by the Indieventure Association for the Ethical Treatment and Enthusiastic Promotion of Indie Game Protagonists (Except for Tim the Terrible Boy) Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts. Don’t forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord too, and be sure to check out our new Steam Curator page if you simply still can't get enough of us!

The end of April also marks the official end of the previous year's games calendar, as all of the Big 5 games industry awards shows (Golden Joysticks, The Game Awards, DICE, Game Developers' Choice, and the BAFTAs) have now been and gone. Which is useful because it means that here at Indieventure, we get to draw a line under 2024 at long last and turn our attentions firmly to the future of games released in 2025 – which, naturally, we'll be legally allowed to talk about until April 2026. It's the way of things. But before we wave a fond farewell to a year that actually ended four months ago – and don't you dare remind us that we're totally undeniably ⅓ of the way through 2025 already – we're wrapping things up here by ceremonially rolling up the red carpet Indieventure-style. If this isn't your first trip around the sun with us, you'll know that mostly means "Rebecca gets very excited about award show stats", but this year we have some insider insight as well, since Rachel actually appeared on the BBC as part of their BAFTA Games coverage! If industry accolades chat isn't your thing, don't worry, though, because we've also taken this opportunity to revisit some indie games from 2024 that we really wanted to cover but – mainly for reasons of there being so many of the things – didn't get around to until now. Stick around for belated chats about Anthology of the Killer, Arco, Arctic Eggs, Echo Point Nova, and Loco Motive, as well as brief swings by Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (again) and Vampire Therapist… plus more Blue Prince because we simply can't help ourselves. Last but not least, this episode's batch of hyperfixations sees Rebecca trying to reconcile the cognitive dissonance of falling hard for historical girl power pop opera Six: The Musical and sci-fi romance gacha game Love & Deepspace during the same two-week period; Liam confirming what we already suspected about Strange Scaffold's latest game, survival horror match-3 mashup Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 (it's really good!); and Rachel discovering that The Rehearsal: Season 2 is completely unlike The Rehearsal: Season 1 and makes for strange and compelling watching. Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts. Don’t forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord too, and be sure to check out our new Steam Curator page if you simply still can't get enough of us!

Not to get too big-headed or anything, but I think it's fair to say that here at Indieventure we knew about Blue Prince before almost anyone. The demo that sparked obsessions in both Rachel and Rebecca over the past few months has now transformed into 2025's most highly-rated game release so far, garnering early GOTY predictions not just within the indie space, but even when compared to this year's roster of Triple-As (which let's be honest, is so far pretty muted due to everyone and their mum being afraid of launching up against GTA6). So, naturally, we're dedicating this episode to Blue Prince now that it's out. And once again, we have a minority report situation on our hands, because while Rebecca and Rachel remain captivated, Liam has some thoughts that go against the general consensus on this game. But it's us, so of course we have a kind and respectful discussion that only goes off the rails through incidental chatter. There's only so much you can say about a game that's really best encountered with minimal spoilers, though, so we use Blue Prince as a jumping-off point to talk about houses in games generally. It sounds straightforward enough, but when you stop to think about it, a quite staggering number of video games touch on domestic spaces – for everything from humanising characters who might otherwise be difficult to identify with, to creating a sense of dread as the familiar turns sinister. We talk about a lot of games – including quite a few illegal AAAs who provide some vital context for the discussion – but for those of you who like to keep track, the indie game houses we touch on here include the essentials like the ones found in Gone Home and What Remains of Edith Finch, as well as The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, The Crush House, Devotion, Go-Go Town, Layers of Fear, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, Lost Records, Mouthwashing, PowerWash Simulator, The Room, Rusty Lake, Stardew Valley, Sucker for Love, Tangle Tower, Thank Goodness You're Here, Unpacking, and Visage. As always and ever, we end on our current hyperfixations. Liam has been playing Promise Mascot Agency – which launched on the same day as Blue Prince and will surely be coming up on the pod again – and has been as delighted by it as you'd expect the person who inducted Paradise Killer into the vault to be with its long-anticipated follow-up. Rebecca has been reading Elphie: A Wicked Childhood, the latest book by Gregory Maguire that staunchly refuses to make concessions to the stage/film version of Wicked compared to the much weirder original novel series that she's loved for decades. And while it's maybe not her usual genre, Rachel has been surprised to find herself really, really enjoying newly-released tower defense RTS Cataclismo. Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts, and don’t forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord too!

I don't want to alarm anyone, but the 2020s are already half over. This horrific revelation doesn't have many upsides, but one of them is surely the fact that – with five years of this rotten decade under our belts – we can start to think a little bit about the current shape of the gaming landscape, and how it'll be remembered when we inevitably arbitrarily lump it all together in another five years' time. OK, turns out that wasn't such a cheerful conversation either, but you know what is a place of loveliness and positivity? The Indieventure Vault. Yes, that's right, today we're once again opening the blast-proof doors to go over our very favourite indie games of the first half of the 2020s, at the end of which each of us selects our own #1 pick to rest safe in the Vault forever. The list we come up with is as eclectic as you'd expect, featuring as it does a blend of personal favourites and acclaimed best-ofs including Among Us, Boyfriend Dungeon, Citizen Sleeper, Cocoon, Death's Door, Immortality, Max Gentlemen Sexy Business, Sherlock Holmes Chapter One, Thank Goodness You're Here, Umurangi Generation, and Vampire Survivors. But only three from that shortlist can be submitted into the prestigious Indieventure Vault. Who will it be? (Insert reality-TV-coded pause.) I mean, come on, obviously you're going to have to listen to find out, I'm not going to give the big reveal away just like that. We end as always on our hyperfixations, and in what may actually be a podcast first, we're all about video games in our free time right now! Rebecca's new favourite is still under embargo, so all she can really say at the moment is that she's really been enjoying Blue Prince (check back next episode for more on that!). Liam sings the praises of the wonderful co-op playground that is Split Fiction while also taking the auteur to task for the many, many issues he has with the plot of Split Fiction. And Rachel loves Two Point Museum, because as we all know she's a lady of impeccable taste and it's simply great. Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts, and don’t forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord too!

Sakes alive, we're 35, and in this episode we've been inspired by the recent release of Wanderstop to turn our attention to the nebulous topic of cosy games. Is "cosy" a genre? A theme? A vibe? Are all cosy games broadly the same, or is it just a blanket term that can refer to any game without a central combat mechanic? Is "cosy" even still a valid classification now that we've moved so far past all major new titles being, essentially, Doom with a different paint job? All these questions and more will be debated enthusiastically by the Indieventure trio, even if we entirely lack the ability to form a consensus that provides you with definitive answers. What we can manage, however, is to rattle off a bunch of cosy game recommendations, drawing from personal favourites and cosy classics (and indeed both) to come up with a list that encompasses indie titles as disparate as Stardew Valley (naturally), Chicory: A Colorful Tale, Dorfromantik, Dungeons of Hinterberg, the Frog Detective trilogy, House Flipper 2, Lil' Gator Game, Ooblets, PowerWash Simulator, Proteus, Tangle Tower, Tiny Life, TOEM, Wilmot Works It Out, and Frostpunk (no, really!). We also have a crack at an informal group review of Wanderstop, which has elicited an impressive array of thoughts and opinions among a trio of people who normally tend to kind of agree on most things. Who thought what? You'll have to listen to find out, but I can reveal it's a good chat. (And if you haven't yet listened to the recent Indieventure Extra episode where Liam interviews creators Davey Wreden and Karla Zimonja, here's the link to that!) Finally, as always, we end with our current hyperfixations. Liam is still absolutely caning through an essential catalogue of new and recent game releases, and has this time turned his attention to Monster Hunter Wilds, the latest in Capcom's long-running series about invading the habitats of majestic creatures and turning their hides into some fancy pants. Rebecca is trying to live by Wanderstop's example and be kinder to herself, which mainly involves taking a lot of naps at the moment, but she also throws in a couple of bonus recommendations for anti-burnout narratives in the form of Travis Baldree's high fantasy coffee shop novel Legends & Lattes, and of course the evergreen Pokémon Concierge miniseries. And Rachel's circled back to Mindhack, a dystopian visual novel about neutralising enemies of the state with beautiful electronic flowers that painfully rewire their dissident thoughts. You might remember this one from a couple of years ago, and it's good to see it still steadily making its way through early access, and now including four chapters of a planned eight-slash-nine. Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts, and don’t forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord too!