indie game garden

Ben Naulls is a programmer, game developer, and educator with over 2 decades of experience working with people and technology. We connected online after I had a look at the cool work he’s currently doing on Project Mammut, an HTML5 engine designed for games such as visual novels and motion comics. However, after reviewing his portfolio in doing research for this interview, I was absolutely blown away by his amount of experience in games and the obvious joy he brings to working in the medium. He’s helped ship over 30 commercial projects during his career, in addition to founding the Technically Games conference, an industry event focused on the technical side of making games AND Aptetut – a tutoring service that helps students learn different aspects of game development, including programming, art, design, and broader life skills. The company now has 4 tutors teaching different disciplines one-on-one to a wide range of students, with a particular focus on students on the spectrum. Ben is such an accomplished artist, game dev, and just all-around person who has lived all around the world, from Wellington, NZ, to Melbourne, Australia, and all the way to Dublin, Ireland.Run, don't walk – check out Project Mammut! https://noweekend.itch.io/project-mammutFind the rest of Ben's projects on his lovely portfolio site :) https://portfolio-ben-naulls.web.app/

Today on Indie Game Garden, we have a very special treat. The Theropods team, called Lost Token, is joining us from all across the world to discuss their scintillating new point and click adventure. As listeners know, I have a soft spot for the genre, especially modern takes happening here in 2026. Theropods fits that bill and absolutely smashes any expectations I could have had coming in. A wordless point-and-click adventure through a prehistoric world with a sci-fi twist that is painstakingly hand drawn in gorgeous pixel art, Theropods takes players through all they could want out of a straight-down-the middle adventure story before veering into the weird. I loved my time with it. The creators are Kostas Skiftas, an animator by trade who was born and raised in Athens, Greece. In university in the UK, Kostas developed a portfolio of silent animated films and then went on to work as a commercial director in movies and TV. He’s also written and directed his own feature. Sarah Duffield-Harding met Kostas at University in Farnham, U.K., where they both studied animation. She’s an artist with a stop-motion animation background who later became interested in pixel art. Though not a programmer by trade, Sarah learned some basic programming on the job in order to make Theropods. Matt Frith eventually joined the team to help with the programming on top of making beautiful background art. Although Matt’s not joining us today, I love giving his work a shoutout.Go play Theropods! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1091870/Theropods/

Inklingwood Studios is the wife and husband team of Sophie (lead programmer) and David (writer, director, and producer) Younger. In November, 2025, they released their first commercial project, a point & click adventure called Foolish Mortals after four years of development. Sophie and David have described Foolish Mortals as Monkey Island 2 + Broken Sword, with a “merry & macabre” tone. This is true to a degree, but one of the reasons I’m most fascinated by Foolish Mortals is that Inklingwood has managed to create something entirely unique in their spooky-but-not-scary haunter manor game set in Louisiana, 1933. The game also has a fascinating development history, including a successful kickstarter that allowed the Youngers to hire Francisco González and Jess Haskins to help with voice casting for the final game. It’s such an honor to have Sophie and David on the show today!Check out Foolish Mortals on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1848440/Foolish_Mortals/And the website! https://foolishmortalsgame.com/Inklingwood YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@inklingwoodstudios

Scott is the founder of Wacol Studios, an indie gamemaker specializing in visual novels based in Phoenix, Arizona. After learning how to program in high school and joining a few game jams before going on to study IT in college, Scott wanted to challenge himself by working on a commercial visual novel. In 2024, he created Wacol Studios to do just that – and began work writing and programming Princess of Worlds End. One successful Kickstarter campaign later, Scott was able to hire artists and release the game in 2026. Now, Wacol is hard at work on their second commercial visual novel entitled Raven’s Imaginary Friends. It’s an honor to welcome Scott to the show! Find all of Scott's projects on his website: https://wacolstudios.com/Buy Princess of Worlds End on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3730050/Princess_of_Worlds_End/Fate/stay night on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2396980/Fatestay_night_REMASTERED/

Today I’m joined by Osama Dorias, a veteran game designer and one of the co-founders and Creative Director of HeartLoop Games, an indie studio Osama helped bring to life in 2025. Osama has spent more than two decades in the games industry, working at well-known development studios like Gameloft, Ubisoft, Warner Brothers Montreal, Unity, Blizzard, and Brass Lion. He’s also spent years teaching game design at Dawson College in Montreal.Now, with HeartLoop, Osama is helping create the game he’s always wanted to make: Polyfighter, a single-player roguelike fighting game where players are empowered to step into a ring where every victory rewards them with an opportunity to learn a new move, reshape their fighter’s style, and climb through escalating leagues.Go play Poly Fighter! https://store.steampowered.com/app/3977340/Poly_Fighter/And check out HeartLoop's website: https://heartloopgames.com/

Dan DiIorio is the solo game developer behind Luck Be a Landlord, Maze Mice, and What’s the Password? Dan is a generous soul who loves games and sharing in the collective play experiences they have the unique capability of creating.Find everything we talked about on the show and more on Dan's website :) https://trampolinetales.com

Badger Punch Games was founded by Ricki Sickenger and Henning Ludvigsen back in 2011. Both Ricki and Henning are Norwegian game developer veterans and have worked and had fun together since they met in the Amiga Demo scene way back in 1993. Now they are creating games they love for the retro platforms they grew up with, like the Commodore 64 and Amiga line of computers. They also make modern games, but always with a retro foundation and their own passion and love for the interactive experiences that have been with them throughout their lives. It’s such an honor to have Ricki and Henning on the show today to discuss their newest game, Roguecraft – a turn-based roguelike dungeon crawler with elements of Lovecraftian horror that they first made to run natively on the Amiga and is now getting a Steam release. We’ll also hear more about their origins in games and their longtime collaboration that has become Badger Punch.Check out the Roguecraft DX Steam page! https://store.steampowered.com/app/3674680/Roguecraft_DX/Find the rest of Ricki and Henning's collaborative work on the Badger Punch website: https://www.badgerpunch.com/And follow them on socials :) https://x.com/badgerpunchhttps://bsky.app/profile/badgerpunch.comhttps://www.facebook.com/badgerpunch/https://www.threads.com/@badgerpunchgameshttps://www.instagram.com/badgerpunchgames/

Before Scott Christian was making games, he helped bring musical theater productions to life. A composer, pianist, conductor and musical director, Scott built a career across the Canadian performing-arts scene, with credits ranging from Once, Shrek and The Addams Family to original musical theater and work in composition for stage, film and other media. He also trained in piano and composition at the University of Toronto and York University. When the pandemic brought live performance to a standstill, Scott took the opportunity to help found Hilltop Studios. Hilltop’s first game, Lil’ Guardsman, is an award-winning, character-driven comedy built around Scott’s writing and music. Now, with Curse of Resthaven, Scott has taken Hilltop in almost the opposite direction: from bright fantasy comedy into gothic horror, while taking on the roles of studio director, narrative designer, and composer. It’s such an honor to have Scott join me for a conversation today!Wishlist Curse of Resthaven right freaking now!! https://store.steampowered.com/app/3796150/Curse_of_Resthaven/And play the demo for free: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4661280/Curse_of_Resthaven_Demo/Find all the other cool stuff Scott and team are up to at their website: https://www.hilltop.so/

Yann, who is also known by his solo development studio name–Goloso Games– is an independent game developer from France who focuses on making narrative adventure games. His most recognizable character in this genre is Inspector Waffles, a hardboiled cat detective whose games feature creative puzzles, accessible clue-finding missions, and plenty of feline puns. Yann has also expanded the Inspector Waffles universe and genre style over the years, creating Inspector Waffles Early Days (an original GameBoy Color game which tells a prequel story featuring the intrepid detective), Spike II (on Panic’s handheld Playdate console), Chance’s Lucky Escape (another Playdate game), and Waffles’ Cranked Stories (coming soon to Steam). It’s an honor to welcome such an innovative artist onto the show today.WISHLIST Antenna Dilemma: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3853730/Antenna_Dilemma/WISHLIST Waffles' Cranked Stories: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4018520/Waffles_Cranked_Stories/Inspector Waffles! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1055850/Inspector_Waffles/Inspector Waffles: Early Days https://store.steampowered.com/app/2614580/Inspector_Waffles_Early_Days/Yann's Playdate Games! https://play.date/games/studios/com.golosogames/Visit the Goloso Games website to keep up with Yann's great work :) https://www.golosogames.com/Follow Yann on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/golosogames/& Bluesky! https://bsky.app/profile/golosogames.bsky.social

Mike Bithell is an independent gamemaking titan who I am absolutely honored to get to talk to today. In 2010, he created the prototype for his breakout game, Thomas Was Alone, which saw a commercial release in 2012. Thomas is my favorite PS Vita game that I still play to this day, a graphically simple and philosophically layered platformer that shows what indie video games can be. When Thomas took off, Mike founded his own studio, Bithell Games, and has been making stellar games ever since. Some of his more recent games that strike a particular chord with me are The Solitaire Conspiracy–a supercharged take on classic Solitaire featuring a narrative of near-future espionage–and John Wick Hex–an outrageously stylish, action-oriented strategy game that was created in close collaboration with the creative teams behind the films. Mike is on today to discuss the announcement of his newest project Vampirium: 1997 and chat with me about his life and work. WISHLIST VAMPIRIUM: 1997 – https://store.steampowered.com/app/4035190/Vampirium_1997/Find all of Mike's important links: https://linktr.ee/bithellgamesSign up for the mailing list to read the novela! https://mailchi.mp/bithellgames/thenextgameRead the back issues of Mike's novella set in the Vampirium universe: https://www.bithellgames.com/thelastportraitNorth Star Rising, Mike's radio play: https://www.northstarcrew.com/For all your other Bithell games needs, visit their site! https://www.bithellgames.com/