Indieventure

It’s time for another episode of Indieventure EXTRA, our bonus series where we chat with key members and peers in the games industry. In this episode, Rachel chats with fellow indie game podcast pal AJ Fillari about some of the demos they've been playing during Steam Next Fest, October 2026! Fantastic demos are shared, AI slop is lamented, and the two end the episode with some hyperfixations. If you'd like to follow AJ's work, you can find links to all their socials and projects here, AND we highly recommend listening to the indie game podcast that AJ co-hosts dotzip! Demos mentioned in this episode: Night Hike, About Fishing, Trailblazers: Into the March, Inkblood, At Fate's End, Bad Magpie, and Neuron Activation. 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.

It's another Steam Next Fest! In this episode, the gang rummage through the AI slop of October Next Fest 2026 to find some indie gems. Rachel loved surreal fishing sim About Fishing, puzzle roguelite Night Hike, and the strange, ethereal Nonolith. Liam's picks are the stakes-and-slow-mo action game El Paso Elsewhere 2, winner of the most bland game name Elta: Defy All Gods, and the whimsical Mr. Records. Rebecca's demo highlights include mischievous bird sim Bad Magpie, pirate yuri visual novel The Sea is Our Stage, goth database detective game Murder Meet Cute, and the wonderfully heartfelt Ace & Aro: Heart-to-Heart. For hyperfixations, Rachel shares a baffling arm-wrestling scene from 2007's trashy show The Tudors, Liam played Portal 2 with friend of the podcast Yolli, and Rebecca has been playing Self Care Vampire, a self-care reminder mobile game where you romance a hot, sexy vampire. We love to see it. 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!

In this memetically numeralled episode, it's back to your regularly scheduled nonsense with the Indieventure trio, as we meet back up for our first recording all together in six weeks. And since we've been apart for a little while, what better topic to tackle than what games we've all been playing in the meantime? This episode's line-up consists of banger after banger, if we do say so ourselves. Liam has been enjoying "furry Resident Evil clone" (his words) Fright Train, as well as faux retro educational horror point-and-click Endacopia. Rebecca is naturally enthusiastically romancing the literal colour out of space in Sucker for Love: Crush Landing, as well as witnessing the unexpected union of two of her favourite genres in match-3 life sim Mythmatch. And Rachel has finally experienced the long-delayed Roman Sands RE:Build in its entirety, and has also had a great time with Well Dweller, the latest adorably spooky metroidvania from the creator of Crypt Custodian. After over a month we've also accrued plenty of hyperfixations to show-and-tell about, with Rachel already all-in on the new season of The Celebrity Traitors, which leads to a lot of reminiscences about the illustrious career of Richard E. Grant. Liam has (obviously) seen the new Resident Evil movie and (less obviously but not overly shockingly) played 30 hours of Fire Emblem recently, but most of all wants to shout out his latest tragic read, "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt. And Rebecca has been checking out Silent Hill Townfall while also taking the others' recommendation to finally read "Piranesi" by Susanna Clarke, but is most eager to talk about her new favourite YouTube documentarian, theme park historian George Browning. 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!

Truly, it has been a while. It’s me, Ed, the guy who adores orange and mango squash.  And it’s my pleasure to announce that Liam and I sat in front of some microphones and ejected noise into them, which should’ve produced an episode you can listen to. Why did we do such a thing? Because it’s Q2 now and we had to submit a quarterly report to our corporate overlord: Gregg demands and we supply (no I haven’t been hired by Greggs, but go with it for this joke). There’s no time for pleasantries, only illegal triple AAA video games. We mercilessly hammer through what we’ve been playing over the last few months, as I quickly reveal that I haven’t actually played all that much. Liam reveals he has played a little too much Overwatch 2. No but really, we touch on Destiny 2’s demise and our fond memories of the Engramminator. After a bit of “Is Overwatch 2 actually back?”, we delve into our thoughts on Resident Evil Requiem’s whole bouncing between vulnerable Grace and very violent Leon. There’s also a bit of 007: First Light chat, in which we both contemplate the dissonance between its positively glowing critical reception and its entire inability to capture our attention beyond the first main mission. To round the report off, we ran through some quick thoughts on The Evil Within 2’s unorthodox nature, Ninja Gaiden 4, Grand Theft Auto 6, the Nintendo Switch 2, Mario Kart World, and assorted highlights from our holiday together in The Van - the highlight was Ninja Gaiden 4. Hyperfixations feature at the end, with mine being the Emmy-nominated Rafael Nadal documentary that’s currently airing on Netflix (here’s the trailer). Liam’s is the sad collection of essays “Love And Other Ways Of Dying” by Michael Paterniti (here’s a Goodreads link). We are nothing but on brand, let me tell you. Oh, and we also mention a magnificent trip to Duck Shack in York, a Hong Kong-style BBQ restaurant. If you ever find yourself in the home of precisely one thousand Harry Potter shops and you’re into succulent duck, do drop by. P.S Writing and gaming motivation may ebb and flow, but starring on the Indieventure pod remains a thorough treat. ‘Til next time folks xoxo

Welcome back to our intermittent spin-off concept Side Quest, where we focus on something other than indie games but like, on purpose. This episode is the second in-person recording from August's Indieventure IRL hang, and it's a double feature as we make the incredibly sensible decision to watch some bad video game movies, and then chat about them while drinking Buzzballz just because none of us had ever tried one before (and no, this episode isn't sponsored). After a brisk round of negotiations, our chosen movies were 2001's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – the first movie which loosely adapted the games, of which there were only five at the time, if you can believe it – and Return to Silent Hill, the continuation of that movie series after more than a decade-long hiatus that finally saw the light of day this year, allegedly adapting beloved series highlight Silent Hill 2. (If you're wondering why we picked these specific two films instead of, I don't know, watching some movies based on indie games… well, there aren't actually all that many indie game movies, but mainly these choices seemed much much funnier and more likely to generate lively Buzzball-fuelled discussion.) Now, neither of these films reviewed particularly well on release, but one came out barely six months ago and the other has had 25 years to really settle into its identity, so will we learn something about the art of making legendary video game movies as we go? Maybe! You'll have to listen to our chat to find out, as indeed will I, because this was a late-night discussion that took place six weeks ago and also those Buzzballz kicked in harder than I was expecting, honestly. Some questions to consider while you listen: Where's the line between a simply bad adaptation and a masterclass in campy silliness? Should Liam and Rebecca be trusted to combine alcohol, microphones, and their latent crushes on early-2000s Angelina Jolie? Will Rachel – who has a film degree and minimal knowledge of either game franchise these movies are based on – save the day with some actual high-tier criticism? Feel free to let us know over on our listener Discord, where we encourage you to join in with the watch-along if you would like! 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!

We are Liam-less this week, so instead Rachel and Rebecca have decided to deep-dive into the recent heaping serving of games announcements and news courtesy of the end of the summer events season. This year was Rebecca's first time attending Gamescom, so – after the obligatory round-up of the latest Nintendo Direct that we'd only just watched at the time of recording and were still pretty hyper about – it's time for a report from the showfloor, with a particular focus on upcoming indies Ontos and Ace & Aro: Heart-to-Heart. (The latter is the newest game by friend of the podcast Lucy! Wishlist now on Steam or Itch to help her out; this is not a sponsorship just a shout-out to a pal!) Looking further ahead, while it's still too early in the year for a proper anticipated games round-up, we are quite interested in the looming spectre of GTA6 and what it's going to mean for indie releases in Q4 2026. In particular we're keen to shout out a delightfully random grab bag of games that are brave enough to debut during November in the face of the oncoming storm – including Death at Fleming Manor, Moomin: Midsummer Madness, Milki Delivery, and (a wonderful oddity) Volvy's Adventure: Reslimed, a game about Devolver Digital's mascot that is literally the only other game releasing on November 19th. We then finish by lightly touching on a few titles that have us hopeful for a more robust and less fearful release line-up in 2027 once The Event is out of the way, including a few that were just announced at the most recent showcases, such as Onyx: The Dark Grip and Stage Fright (and a bit of illegal AAA chat because it's still pretty quiet out there). As always, we end on our hyperfixations. Rachel has been playing Sovereign Tower, a medieval visual novel with RPG elements that also lets you date your knights – seriously, what's not to love? Meanwhile, Rebecca has battled through con-season fatigue to take a couple of cinema trips, and has good things to say about the admittedly rogue pairing of Coyote vs Acme and Teenage Sex & Death At Camp Miasma. 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 that time of year again when your host trio take some time to get together in person and natter until we all lose our voices – luckily, a lot of the time we at least remember to be around our microphones while we do so! We recorded a couple of episodes (this one and a Side Quest you can look out for in a couple of weeks' time), so expect us to be extra crisp and way, way more unhinged than usual – because, despite now having a combined age upwards of 100, we're always just super excited to hang out with our besties. In true sleepover club fashion, we recorded this episode in our jammies, and what better way to pass an evening among friends pretending to still be teenagers than by playing a party game? And not just any party game: our very own Liam only went and designed a whole app to facilitate this idea! Inspired by the tabletop card game FunEmployed, Pitch Deck sees the three of us alternating in the role of indie developers pitching our game ideas to studio heads, using a series of wild card (emphasis on the wild) improv prompts that we need to adapt to as we go. It uh… goes some places, let's say. I don't want to spoil anything for you because this really is just one you need to listen to, but suffice to say there's lore here by the end. Oh and an actual real-life interruption by the UK Government's Emergency Alert system, so enjoy that if you missed it live. For once it feels like hyperfixations are actually here to mellow the energy out at the end of an episode rather than send us raring off in a different direction. Enjoy refined discussions of a couple of recent reads – "The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder" by David Grann (from Liam) and "King Sorrow" by Joe Hill (from Rebecca) – while Rachel gives us her initial thoughts on two of her most-anticipated multiplayer indies of the year: Big Walk and Peak: The Final Ascent. 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!

So far, 2026 has been a busy old year for some of our favourite genres here at Indieventure! You may remember Rebecca's deep dive into life sims a few weeks ago, and now Rachel's here with her own focussed topic: detective games. To celebrate the recent releases of The Mermaid Mask, The Incident at Galley House, and Desktop Explorer, your intrepid hosting trio are here to have a good old natter about detectives, mysteries, and investigations in indie games – and since it's probably the area of interest all three of us overlap on the most, we've got plenty to say! In addition to spoiler-free overviews of those latest releases, expect to hear about some classics of the genre, hidden gems we want to highlight, personal favourites, and loads more. We also don't necessarily contain ourselves just to video games on this occasion, since of course mysteries abound in books, films, and TV shows too, and this is one of those narrative genres where the conventions found in different media can really inform one another. As always, we end with our latest hyperfixations, and it's a three-for-two deal this week since Liam and Rachel are of course both all about the new Charli xcx album: Music, Fashion, Film. Meanwhile, in another unsurprising turn of events, Rebecca finally got around to watching I Saw the TV Glow and immediately became a Jane Schoenbrun evangelist. 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 baaack. That's right – a mere 20 months later, we're revisiting one of our most chaotic episode ideas, and it's one where our listeners get to play along! If you weren't here yet in November 2024, you can go back and listen to Episode 27 to familiarise yourself with our totally-original-we-swear indie game draft picking process; or you can just take my word for it that it's basically fantasy football with indie games and that Liam as ever gives a good explanation of the rules in the episode and that's why I'm glossing over that bit… honest. It's not because I'm still a bit confused or anything. This time around we've done away with the framing concept of "we're building our own consoles and choosing the launch titles" in favour of… well, honestly, we just kind of each assemble a list of great indie games based on some loose themes while yelling at each other a lot in a very friendly way, and we felt like that was probably enough? Oh, but this time around everyone gets one betrayal card, and you can imagine how that goes… As a reminder, this is one where you can go to our lovely listener Discord and vote on who you think should win – and also, if you don't want spoilers, please go and listen first and then come back to this description once you're ready. I'll wait, don't worry. … Hi, nice to see you again! Okay so here are the three "teams" – remember to go and vote for your favourite! Liam's Team: Ballistic Zen, The Beginner's Guide, Blue Prince, Crow Country, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, Night in the Woods, Orbitals, Promise Mascot Agency, Stardew Valley, Unpacking Rebecca's Team: Bad Magpie, Camp Palut, The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, Mouthwashing, Outer Wilds, A Short Hike, Slay the Princess, Strange Horticulture, Thank Goodness You're Here, Tiny Bookshop Rachel's Team: 1000xRESIST, Citizen Sleeper 2, Deltarune, Gorogoa, Jump the Track, Mediterranea Inferno, The Séance of Blake Manor, Signalis, Slay the Spire, Toem We'll leave the poll open for two weeks, so listen in for the results and our reactions during our next LIVE(ish) and in-person episode, coming in August! Even though the structure of this episode is just a little difference, hyperfixations remain as our constant final segment. Rachel has – of course – been playing The Mermaid Mask at long last, so look forward to her reactions in a future episode! Rebecca has finished reading underrated dark fairytale The Curator by Owen King, and also enjoyed a feminist horror double-bill of Evil Dead Burn and Obsession at a mercifully air conditioned cinema. And Liam has been happily binging another South Korean reality show, The Devil's Plan. 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 gang are all back together at last after our various summer hols, and we're happy to welcome the return of Liam after his absence from our last episode. Naturally, our first order of business is to get him all caught up on what he missed during the mid-year check-in, so we begin with a quick-fire chat that takes in Mina the Hollower, El Paso Elsewhere 2, Denshattack!, Truck-kun is Supporting Me from Another World?!, The Mermaid Mask, and – not indie, but unignorable given who we're talking about – Resident Evil Veronica. Then it's onto the main topic of this episode and, unbelievably, despite being co-created and co-hosted by a lifelong obsessive Simmer, it's taken Indieventure almost three years to put together an episode dedicated to the life sim genre. However, the early access launch of Paralives a few weeks back has given Rebecca the excuse she's always needed to go off at length about her excruciatingly detailed knowledge of life sims, how they work, how they're made, and how the genre has developed and adapted to the changing gaming landscape over the past quarter-century. Many thanks to Liam, Rachel, and you, our lovely listeners for indulging this semi-interactive TED talk, and be sure to check out the Sims Community interview quoted in this episode! Naturally you can expect some illegal AAA chat here too as it's more or less impossible to discuss Paralives in context without regularly referring back to The Sims franchise as well as InZoi; but don't worry, we also circle back to perennial Indieventure favourite and underappreciated indie life sim Tiny Life while we're at it. There might even be a Stardew Valley cameo in there somewhere, too. And like a cooling dip in the pool during Britain's third consecutive heatwave, we round off with our latest hyperfixations. One of Rachel's favourite manga series – The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All – is getting an anime adaptation early next year soundtracked by Nirvana, so there's plenty to get excited about there already even if we're six months away from seeing the thing itself. Liam has broken a bit of a dry spell in his gaming enthusiasm by getting very, very invested in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. And Rebecca has achieved her pledge to "sit by a pool and do nothing but read a stack of books for two weeks", having read nine novels on her recent break with a reading list comprised of authors Mie Takase, T Kingfisher, KJ Charles, Becky Chambers, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, Owen King, and Chuck Tingle. 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!