Shows
Indieventure#55. Retro '90s Dating Show but with Indie Game Characters (for Valentine's Day)Being firmly children of the '90s, all three hosts of Indieventure are at least passingly familiar with Blind Date, the British dating game show that ran from 1985 to 2003 which was iconically hosted by Cilla Black and Paul O'Grady. Look, I promise this is relevant. When we realised we couldn't do our originally planned topic for this episode and needed to come up with something else at short-notice, and also that the release date fell right around Valentine's Day, we threw around some ideas and eventually realised we'd just re-invented Blind Date with extra steps. Such is the millennial...
2026-02-191h 35Indieventure#54. What we've been playing this winter (TR-49, Cairn, Strange Antiquities)There's still officially six weeks of winter left – seriously, look it up, the groundhog saw his shadow this year and everything – but here at Indieventure we've been bundled up cosy playing so many lovely games that we figured we'd just talk about them right now!
In keeping with our general commitment not to force ourselves to always play brand-new stuff, this episode's line-up is a respectable mix of games that were released in 2026 and games that are just… new-ish. Okay, in all honesty, none of our picks have gone back more than a year – the oldest one is only...
2026-02-052h 05Indieventure#53. Our most anticipated indie games of 2026Happy New Year, Indieventurers, welcome to 2026! What's new, what's good? Well that's what we're here to tell you of course!
Last year may have been a bit of a washout for AAAs, but the indie game scene is still going strong, despite the many obstacles presented by the modern games industry and… our contemporary world in general. Happily, this year looks set to continue the indie gem trend; even though the calendar is so far looking pretty empty of firm release dates as every game developer and their mum attempts to edge away from the all-consuming spectre of...
2026-01-221h 44Indieventure#52. The Best Indie Games of 2025Ring out those solstice bells, the longest night of the year is now behind us! But we've still got weeks and weeks of winter left to go, so if you're looking for some indie games to help pass those cold and dark nights, you're in the right place: it's the third (or maybe fourth, depending on how you count) annual Indieventure GOTY episode!
This is our smallest GOTY cohort ever, with just 12 games – not because this wasn't a great year for indies, but because your trio of hosts are in greater agreement than ever before as we sl...
2025-12-222h 20Indieventure#51. Was 2025 a great year for indie games?The festive season is well and truly upon us, which can only mean one thing! …Actually that's not true, it means loads of things to all sorts of different people. But to an Indieventure listener, it means our increasingly established tradition of putting together a two-part end-of-year round-up! Tune back in for our Game of the Year list discussion on December 22nd, but first, it's time for a more free-form look at the year that was.
If you've listened to one of these before you'll know that this episode can end up being quite… cathartic for your trio...
2025-12-182h 02
IndieventureEXTRA: Emotions and empathy with Lucy Blundell (VIDEOVERSE & One Night Stand)It’s time for another episode of Indieventure EXTRA, our bonus series where we interview key members of the games industry.
In this episode, Rachel chats with award-winning indie developer Lucy Blundell! Lucy is someone the Indieventure gang have wanted on the podcast for SO LONG, so we are very honoured to have her insights on what it’s like creating semi-autobiographical stories, the challenges of putting your personal life into your work as an artist, and the ways players can connect to the games they play on an emotional level.
If you’d like to kno...
2025-12-111h 20Indieventure#50. The Indieventure 50th Episode Spectacular & Also Happy Belated 2-Year Anniversary!The title says it all really: the Indieventure podcast is celebrating a couple of milestones, and you're all invited! Hope you like parties where three people indulge in absolute bullshit banter at length because that's what we've got for you today as we mark both our 50th episode and our podcast's only ever-so-slightly belated second birthday.
You really do deserve to hear some of this without being spoiled by any pesky context beforehand, so suffice to say that Rebecca has put together a quiz with a heavy visual component (check out our blog for the companion piece...
2025-12-042h 21Indieventure#49. What We've Been Playing (Ball x Pit, Easy Delivery Co., PowerWash Simulator 2)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...
2025-11-062h 02
No Small GamesEp. 54 - In Stars and Time feat. Rachel WattsIn Stars and Time is a time loop RPG from insertdisc5, that follows a ragtag found-family of adventurers, at the very end of their long quest to defeat The King. You play as Siffrin, the party's rogue, as they try to piece together why they find themselves stuck living out the same day over and over again. The writing is heartfelt and at times heartbreaking, the characters are charming, and the game features a strangely addictive system for turn-based combat.
Thank you for tuning in to episode 54!! In this episode, Kate and Emily are joined by special guest...
2025-11-062h 32
IndieventureEXTRA: Rachel wrote a book!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...
2025-10-231h 51Indieventure#48. The Vault: Spoooky EditionThere'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...
2025-10-161h 36
IndieventureEXTRA: Leaving the games industry with Ed ThornThe 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...
2025-10-092h 08Indieventure#47. The Silksong in the Room: Indie Game SequelsOK 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 o...
2025-10-021h 50Indieventure#46. Witch Girl AutumnHello, 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 hug...
2025-09-181h 30Indieventure#45. Listener Mailbag 4: Revengeance
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 r...
2025-09-041h 55
IndieventureEXTRA: 50 Indie Games That Changed The World with author Aaron PotterIn 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...
2025-08-281h 35Indieventure#44. What we've been playing (Sword of the Sea, Tiny Bookshop)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...
2025-08-211h 43Indieventure#43. Indie Game Media BundlesThe 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...
2025-08-071h 45IndieventureSIDE QUEST: Oops, all cold open!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...
2025-07-101h 10Indieventure#42. Our Mid-Year Best Indies Check-In 2025Hello, 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...
2025-06-262h 03Indieventure#41. Switch Retrospective: Nintendo's Greatest Indie Machine?
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 o...
2025-06-121h 44Indieventure#40. What we’ve been playing (Skin Deep, Many Nights a Whisper, The Beekeeper's Picnic)
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 fee...
2025-05-291h 54
IndieventureEXTRA: The power of puzzle games with Thinky Games’ Joseph MansfieldIn 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!
2025-05-281h 15Indieventure#39. The 76th Annual Legally Distinct Indie Game Death Match Battle Royale - Live!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...
2025-05-151h 46Indieventure#38. Games we forgot to cover in 2024!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...
2025-05-011h 58Indieventure#37. Blue Prince group review: Home is where the GOTY isNot 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...
2025-04-172h 01Indieventure#36. The Vault: Best Indies from the First Half of the 2020sI 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...
2025-04-032h 00Indieventure#35. What is a cosy game? A love letter to gaming's gentler side (feat. Wanderstop)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...
2025-03-201h 55
IndieventureEXTRA: Spilling the tea with Wanderstop's Davey Wreden & Karla ZimonjaHello and welcome back to Indieventure Extra, our bonus series where we interview key members of the games industry.
Liam recently sat down with Davey Wreden (The Stanley Parable, The Beginner's Guide) and Karla Zimonja (Gone Home) to chat about Wanderstop, their recently released game about a burned-out warrior attempting to find solace by running a tea shop in the woods.
If you've yet to play Wanderstop, there are no spoilers to be found here, so don't worry. Davey and Karla mainly chatted about how the game came to be, what it's like to make...
2025-03-131h 34Indieventure#34. Listener mailbag V3 + Lost Records Tape 1 chatDo you need to say #SPON #AD if all you're advertising is your own free-to-join Discord server? That's the question our intrepid Indieventure trio ask ourselves this episode, as we return to answer more of your listener questions in a shameless plug for the lovely little community space we've built up for ourselves over the past few months!
If you've ever wondered which indie game character would react best to their beloved partner waking up one morning to discover they were just a tiny little mealworm lying on the pillow, amazingly it turns out you're not alone – un...
2025-03-061h 36
IndieventureEXTRA: From murder to mascots with Kaizen Game Works (Paradise Killer & Promise Mascot Agency)Welcome back to Indieventure EXTRA, our bonus series where we interview key members of the games industry.
In this episode, Liam sits down with the directors at Kaizen Game Works to chat about their highly anticipated next title: the open-world mascot management crime adventure Promise Mascot Agency. Rachel Noy (Art Director), Oli Clarke Smith (Game Director) and Phil Crabtree (Technical Director) discuss the game's unusual origins, what it's like to work alongside Ikumi Nakamura and the - quite frankly - bizarre story of how the voice of Kazuma Kiryu himself, Takaya Kuroda, came to voice their protagonist.
2025-02-271h 09Indieventure#33. Dark Valentines: Indie horror and the 2020sIt's Valentine's Day(ish, still, shush) and so naturally the Indieventure trio have turned our attention to… horror games! Yes, we're really on-form with our historic refusal to do normal seasonal celebration episodes, as it's recently occurred to us that it's been about a year and a half since we last did a dedicated horror deep dive. And since resident goth-at-heart Rebecca is steering the ship this week, and the only thing she craves more in games than a relatable love story is a good spookening with a side-order of existential dread, this theming makes total sense, trust us....
2025-02-201h 49Indieventure#32. What we've been playing (Citizen Sleeper 2, Nurikabe World, Eternal Strands)In this episode, the Indieventure trio ask ourselves a surprisingly complicated question: how do you play video games specifically in January? Do you take the time to go back over some exciting titles from the year before that you still haven't got around to yet, or do you write all that off and start the new year with a blank slate ready to fill up with brand-new releases?
Obviously we're all games media types, so our answers are slightly skewed from the norm – listening back, it's only just occurred to me that none of us said "in Ja...
2025-02-061h 53Indieventure#31. Our most anticipated indie games of 2025Happy New Year, Indieventurers! It's 2025 and there are so many flavours of existential dread tied up in that particular statement that we have no choice but to distract ourselves for at least a couple of hours a day with lovely video games – or (we hope you make this choice, at least) with podcasts about video games!
While there's a lot of uncertainty ahead, one thing we can be reasonably sure of is that there are some absolute bangers due to make their debut on the indie gaming scene this year – although as ever, we 100% support devs who put...
2025-01-231h 48
IndieventureEXTRA: The reality of covering indie games with Reviews Editor Ed Thorn
This episode of Indieventure Extra is a long-awaited reunion between Liam and Ed Thorn, reviews editor at PC-focused website Rock Paper Shotgun (we've never heard of it).
Ed discusses his history with games, how he became a games journalist and the challenges of balancing indie game coverage alongside more financially stable AAA content. The pair also chat about what makes a good video game review, Ed reveals his favourite indie from 2024, and there is a 5-minute section where the phrase "Beast Mode" is uttered about 45 times. It makes sense in context. Sort of.
2025-01-091h 31Indieventure#30. The Best Indie Games Of 2024As 2024 draws to an end, the Indieventure trio return to discuss their favourite indie games of the last 12 months. That's right, folks, it's time for our annual Game Of The Year episode!
We won't spoil which games we chat about here in the description (you can find that over on our website if you're the type of person who hunts around the house looking for their Christmas presents in mid-November like a wrong 'un) but what we can say is that although we each brought along a personal list of our five favourites, we only ended up...
2024-12-232h 12Indieventure#29. Was 2024 a great year for indie games?Christmas is almost upon us, and before we ring in the New Year with our GOTY picks, it's time for us here at the Indieventure podcast to pour ourselves a generous glug of mulled wine and reflect on the year as a whole as it pertains to indie games.
Has it been a good year for indies? How did it stack up against previous years – especially the wall-to-wall hit machine that was 2023? And, putting personal preferences aside (because we'll be digging into that in-depth in our next episode, don't worry) what have been the biggest indie games of...
2024-12-122h 12
IndieventureEXTRA: Chatting about PlayStation indies with Oscar Taylor-KentIt’s time for another Indieventure EXTRA, our bonus series where we interview key members of the games industry.
We’re pretty PC-focused on Indieventure so in this episode, Rachel has a chat with Oscar Taylor-Kent about PlayStation indies. Oscar is the Games Editor at GamesRadar+ and previous editor of PLAY Magazine and Official PlayStation Magazine so he’s the perfect person to discuss this topic with. Have a listen if you’d like to hear us both take a trip down memory lane and have a gab about Sony’s history with indie games.
You can fi...
2024-12-051h 17Indieventure#28. Does games media change your relationship with gaming?Like it or not, 2024 is almost over, and Indieventure is closing out the year with a trilogy of episodes looking back on our recent experiences of the games industry. We're saving the more targeted analysis of the year in games and of course our big GOTY reveal for the two episodes due out in December, but today we're starting out with a more general question: how has working in games media impacted our experiences of gaming as a hobby?
What starts out as a light-hearted "day in the life of a games journalist" chat quickly turns into...
2024-11-282h 00Indieventure#27. Our Fantasy Indie Console Draft PicksTime for one more bit of silly fun before we settle down to the serious business of 2024 GOTY picks? We certainly think so, as in this week's Indieventure episode, we're doing an indie game draft! That's right, three people who clearly know nothing about sports have nevertheless kitbashed the idea of fantasy football together with something we're actually interested in, and have designed our dream indie gaming consoles following a curious set of rules that Liam explains very well in the episode and so I won't repeat here, even though I do remember and understand them, honest.
...
2024-11-142h 02
Indieventure#26. Trick or Treat: AAAventure Halloween Special
Happy Halloween Indieventure listeners! With the serendipitous launch of this episode on the spookiest day of the year, we couldn't resist the opportunity to peer into a parallel universe and imagine what life would be like if we became the thing we fear the most: yet another podcast dedicated to the biggest games everyone's already talking about. That's right: it's time for AAAventure (pronounced as scream-venture, with an apology in advance to headphone users).
But horror mother Rebecca is at the helm and because she can't just be normal ever, there's a bit more to today's discussion than a dry r...
2024-10-311h 45
Girl ModeEpisode 98 - Demo Fiends with Rachel Watts!Willa has taken a vow of silence in honor of her beloved Mets, so this week Robin is joined by writer, editor, and podcaster Rachel Watts! Our giggly, tangent-filled conversation covers our favorite demos from the most recent Steam Next Fest, with lots of recommendations for promising upcoming indie games. Timestamps(00:30) Hello Rachel Watts!(03:45) Citizen Sleeper 2(08:15) *computer voice* Wormhole(14:25) Great God Grove(21:20) 30 Birds(27:20) Scarlet Deer Inn(34:15) Proverbs(38:20) Keep Driving(45:50) Touch Type Tale(50:55) Sorry We're Closed
2024-10-231h 28IndieventureEpisode 25: Happy 1st Birthday, Indieventure!Believe it or not it's been one whole trip around the sun since we released the first ever episode of Indieventure! And to celebrate, we've opened up the mailbag once again to answer your listener questions.
Ever wondered how we find out about exciting upcoming indies to talk about on the podcast, or which indie video game we'd most like to see get the tabletop treatment? Maybe you're curious as to our respective favourite games on the late lamented indie machine that was the Nintendo 3DS — or want to hear us go off-topic once more while we de...
2024-10-172h 08IndieventureEpisode 24: The best free indie games money can't buyThe last quarter of 2024 is somehow already upon us, and while it's definitely too early to be putting up the Christmas decorations (bombastically side-eyeing my local pub there), it is the time of year when many of us stop buying so much stuff for ourselves so we can write wish lists, and/or start saving up our hobby money to spend on the people we love instead. Which makes this a totally seasonally appropriate episode and not an excuse for Rebecca to launch a thorough examination into one of her many special interests: free-to-play games.
The free-to-play...
2024-10-041h 56
IndieventureEXTRA: The power of scope, sustainability, and intent with Strange Scaffold's Xalavier Nelson Jr.Welcome back to Indieventure EXTRA, our bonus series where we interview key members of the games industry.
In this episode, Liam was joined by Xalavier Nelson Jr., the creative director at Strange Scaffold, an indie studio responsible for hits like El Paso, Elsewhere, Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator and An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs. Joining the industry as a journalist at age 12, this BAFTA-nominated creator has worked on over 100 games over the last eight years.
Xalavier spoke to us about scope, sustainability and the power of intent.
You can find...
2024-09-261h 08IndieventureEpisode 23: Indieventure Jukebox: our favourite indie game soundtracksMusic is undeniably a huge part of what makes video games special, both individually and on an industry-wide level. Not only is no gaming award show complete without a gong for the year's best soundtrack, but even the Proms have started acknowledging that video game scores have come a long way since the 8-bit days (without throwing any shade on chiptune, a legitimate genre in and of itself with some stone-cold classics). That's probably why, from huge AAAs to smaller indies, music can account for a significant chunk of any game's budget — and it's definitely worth the investment.
...
2024-09-192h 17IndieventureEpisode 22: Our Indie Cup Europe '24 Jurors' DebriefThis summer, the good folks over at Indie Cup once again asked three podcasters known for opining at length on the subject of indie games to be jurors at their festival, and once again Liam, Rachel, and Rebecca were all too happy to take part. This time was a little different, however, as instead of the UK having a branch of the festival all to itself like last year, for 2024 Indie Cup held one big festival encompassing all of Europe!
Even though we were only jurors in one category (Critics' Choice, thanks so much again to the...
2024-09-051h 56IndieventureEpisode 21: The Vault - Our First Indie Game Loves (Recorded In-Person!!)This week sees all three of us being extra excitable since — for the first time ever — we got to record an episode in-person! The lack of Discord delays and occasional internet outages really takes the energy up a notch, you'll no doubt be pleased to know. Since it's been the best part of a year since we were last able to get together in person, naturally the first thing we did when we were in the same room again was watch the Ace Attorney movie, which of course we have to discuss a bit before getting into today's main topi...
2024-08-222h 15
IndieventureEXTRA: An interview with Coal Supper, the developers of Thank Goodness You’re Here!This week, we’re trying something different on Indieventure: an interview!
We’ve wanted to interview developers on the podcast for a while now, especially those responsible for games that mean a lot to us. We’ve been talking about how we might do this since the days of [REDACTED PODCAST], but have always struggled to find a way that feels right. You see, the thing we love the most about Indieventure is that it’s basically just a long, chaotic Discord call that we publish to the wider world. However, that’s not a vibe that’s very - let’...
2024-08-081h 01IndieventureEpisode 20: Our Mid-Year Best Indies Check-In 2024Wow, how are we halfway through 2024 already?! No need to point out that we're actually closer to 60% of the way through the year by the time this episode is released; better late than never! Yep, it's time for our GOTFHOTY nominations, also known as Games Of The First Half Of The Year, but Rebecca is very proud of having potentially originated an acronym that could totally enter common parlance if people were just willing to give it a chance.
Not quite as formal as our totally scientific Christmas GOTY list, GOTFHOTYs are when we name a bunch...
2024-07-251h 55IndieventureEpisode 19: Next Fest and Chill, a.k.a. what we've been playing this summerUnbelievably, it's been almost exactly five months since the Indieventure trio last checked in and just chatted about what we've been playing recently — and with June being a touch busy, what with it being Pride Month and our need to arrange travel plans both real and fictional, we totally missed a Steam Next Fest in there too. Time to fix both of those oversights with a laid-back episode which, I'm afraid, is going to put several new games on your wishlist.
Liam has been going all vigilante in noirish imsim Fallen Aces, having a surprisingly rel...
2024-07-112h 04IndieventureEpisode 18: Planning our indie game summer holiday tourThe UK is enjoying its annual two weeks of good weather and so the Indieventure crew have decided to get together and plan an indie game (well, indie-led) summer holiday! That's right, it's another list episode, featuring a whistlestop tour of some of the greatest vacation destinations in video games according to, as it turns out, three potentially nightmarish travel companions.
Our dream trip turns out to include stops in: Abzu, Anemoiapolis, Animal Crossing: Wild World, BioShock, Book of Travels, Botany Manor, The Coin Game, Danganronpa 2, Dishonored 2, Doomsday Paradise, Dorfromantik, En Garde!, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture...
2024-06-271h 56IndieventureEpisode 17: Pride Month Special (even gayer than usual)Happy Pride Month, Indieventurers! Regular listeners to this 100% LGBTQIA+-fronted podcast will know that we're not exactly quietly closeted for the other 11 months of the year, but this June we've elected to challenge ourselves to make an episode that is our gayest yet. This takes the format of an open-ended chat where we discuss everything from our favourite queer characters and stories in indie games, to some maybe less-than-flawless examples of queer representation (be it explicit or just heavily implied) that we still love, to games that maybe don't have any reference to gender or sexuality at all but...
2024-06-131h 54IndieventureEpisode 16: Indie May-hem (send help)TOO MANY GREAT GAMES RELEASED IN MAY. Don’t get us wrong, we love being bombarded with cool indies but, MY GOD, May has been wild. In this episode, the Indieventure gang sit down to chat about this phenomenon and get into which games they played out of the torrent of releases.
Liam’s been exploring a creepy abandoned theme park filled with monstrous weirdos in the survival horror game Crow Country and brushing up on his spelling in the fill-in-the-blank dungeon-crawler Cryptmaster. Rebecca flirted with cute monsters (classic Rebecca antics) in horror dating sim Sucker for Love...
2024-05-302h 17IndieventureEpisode 15: Indie games we missed from 2023There are two groups of people who agree that the year really ends in April: finance nerds, and gaming award show nerds. No points for guessing which the Indieventure crew belong to as we deep dive into our impressions on awards season now that 2023 is officially done and dusted with the conclusion of the BAFTA Game Awards! Expect some spirited discussions of the indie greats of last year including Viewfinder, Venba, Chants of Sennaar, Tchia, Jusant, Goodbye Volcano High, and many many more, as well as the obligatory sidetracks into Baldur's Gate 3 chat and of course, Dave the Diver.
2024-05-021h 52IndieventureEpisode 14: Is Harold Halibut 2024's gaming babygirl?It's been a while since the Indieventure crew did a group review, but here we are at last once again, this time having a proper gander at newly-released (by the time you hear this, anyway) stop-motion narrative adventure game Harold Halibut. Drawing its inspiration from mid-20th century TV — namely an unusual blend of hard sci-fi and gentle animated comedy shows — Harold Halibut proved somewhat divisive among the Indieventure trio, although we find it so hard to argue with each other even when we disagree that once again we end up negotiating a reasonable middle ground. What can I say...
2024-04-181h 44IndieventureEpisode 13: Our favourite short indie games that you can play in a single sittingLittle known fact about the Indieventure crew: we're all pretty tiny. Like, 5'9" at the outside, the types who really need a tall friend to accompany us to the supermarket so we can reach the interesting condiment jars that always seem to be hanging out on the top shelf. So, short queens/king that we are, of course we stan a short indie game. How could we not? Just like us, they're perfect the way they are, taking up exactly as much space as they need to make their point without feeling the need to be all imposing (on...
2024-04-041h 58IndieventureEpisode 12: Listener Mailbag #1Let's be honest with you, dear listeners: the Indieventure trio are making this podcast in our spare time around our full-time day jobs and, sometimes, we simply can't find the time or just don't feel like writing a detailed script. Which is why, on this occasion (and at random intervals going forward) we've crowd-sourced our theme for this episode! We asked and you lovely people answered, throwing out some great questions that we were only too delighted to respond to in the form of our trademark lengthy rambles.
Ever wondered what everyone's first indie game was? Which...
2024-03-212h 19IndieventureEpisode 11: It's About Time (Loops)It's a Leap Year, and the strange minds at Indieventure have taken this as a sign that we need to do a thematically appropriate episode about a gaming trope all three of us happen to love! Yes, since 2024 has an extra day, we decided to dedicate that sliver of bonus time to talk all about time loops. Trust us, it makes sense.
Because of the fluid nature of this discussion we don't limit ourselves just to indie games on this occasion, although they remain a heavy focus because, y'know, if there's a good theme out there then...
2024-03-071h 50IndieventureEpisode 10: What we've been playing in February 2024This week's episode of Indieventure has a bit of a show-and-tell format, since it's been a while since we just checked in with the indie games everyone's been playing in their down time.
After our last episode on this February's Steam Next Fest, Rachel has mostly been playing loads more demos! Mech-pilot farming sim Lightyear Frontier has emerged as her most-played Next Fest demo this time around, and might even be poised to find its way onto the best-ever farming sims list of our resident connoisseurs of the genre. She also has a lot of good words...
2024-02-222h 02IndieventureEpisode 9: Our Steam Next Fest Highlights for February '24The Indieventure crew are back and, once again, everyone's a little bit fried. But like, really out of it this time. The vibes reach a new level of unhinged as we attempt to corral ourselves into a semi-sensible discussion of just a few of the many, many lovely indie games demoed at this month's Steam Next Fest: the thrice-annual celebration of mostly-indie games that aren't quite out yet, but are ready for you to take a good look at.
After a quick detour to reminisce about our recent group foray into multiplayer sci-fi horror game Lethal Company...
2024-02-081h 32IndieventureEpisode 8: The Return of the VaultIn Episode 8 of Indieventure, we re-introduce an old favourite concept of ours from days gone by: the Indieventure Vault, an eclectic mind-palace of our own construction where we store the very best indie games, blending personal favourites with undeniable classics.
Previous inductees — which we take the time to re-induct, since this Vault is completely legally distinct from any other indie game Vaults you might be thinking about — are two all-time favourite indie games from each of us. Rebecca carefully places Monster Prom and Firewatch on a commemorative shelf, Rachel chucks Kentucky Route Zero and Return of the Obra...
2024-01-252h 26IndieventureEpisode 7: Our most anticipated indie games of 2024Happy New Year to all our lovely listeners! Whether you've been with us since the old days of [REDACTED PODCAST] or are joining us for the first time today, we hope you'll be adding plenty of new recommendations to your wishlist over the course of this episode, where we discuss our most-anticipated new indies coming up in 2024.
First though, a quick chat about what we all played over our Christmas break. Rachel's been enjoying eco-fiction visual novel South Scrimshaw, Part One; Rebecca was pleasantly surprised by 2023's latest video game adaptation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the...
2024-01-112h 03IndieventureEpisode 6: Our 2023 Indie Games of the YearWell, here we are, folks: our final episode of 2023! It's been a wild ride of a year and we've had some wonderful times recording podcasts and, of course, playing indie games. Lots and lots of indie games. So many, in fact, that our GOTY episode ran a little long despite our best intentions — but, since we're taking a slightly longer three-week break between episodes while we all head off for the holidays, we hope this feature-length episode will tide you over until we come back on January 11th!
Usually this is where we'd list the games we ta...
2023-12-212h 31IndieventureEpisode 5: The Indieventure Christmas Special'Twas eighteen nights before Christmas, when all through the house,
We were recommending indies, to a skeleton and a mouse.
Jolly Saint Nick is a guest on the show,
Spreading good cheer with a wink and a ho.
His cough is persistent, a fun phlegmy hack,
But he gains a pile of indies to put in his sack.
The trio wraps up with some dinner guest chatter,
A parade of indie characters who feast from food platters.
When all's said and done, another...
2023-12-072h 04IndieventureEpisode 4: What does success look like for indie games?It's Indieventure Episode 4, and this week we're doing things a little bit differently and having a freeform chat about how we measure success when it comes to indie games. Traditional success in the gaming space is, of course, financial: games that are a commercial hit and sell loads and loads of copies. But we also consider other factors, such as positive critical reception and the growth of a dedicated fanbase even in the absence of breakthroughs in term of money, fame, and accolades; meeting a dev's personal goals for the project enough to allow them to invest in creating...
2023-11-231h 55IndieventureEpisode 3: Our favourite autumnal indie gamesIn the third episode of the Indieventure podcast, the gang are all about those autumnal vibes, picking out some of our favourite indie games that are more cosy than sipping pumpkin spice latte dressed in a chunky knit sweater while kicking through fallen leaf piles in the park, or whatever.
In fact, the autumn air was so crisp when we recorded this that it got right into Rachel's microphone and made her audio a bit, erm, crispy. Which is my clever(?) way of saying sorry for some minor technical difficulties in this one! Don't worry, though, the...
2023-11-091h 54IndieventureEpisode 2: Our most anticipated indies for winter 2023It’s episode 2 of Indieventure! This week the gang chat about their most-anticipated indies set to release at the end of 2023 and - thanks to October’s Steam Next Fest - some upcoming 2024 picks too.
This episode features Underground Blossom, Inescapable: No Rules, No Rescue, Little Goody Two Shoes, SteamWorld Build, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, 1000xResist, and Another Crab’s Treasure.
Hyperfixations: The Odyssey by Lara Williams, Castlevania: Nocturne, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Alice in Borderland.
Music is Cigarette Boat by Marc Torch.
2023-10-261h 57
IndieventureEpisode 1: We’re back babyyy!If you love indie games and love listening to friendly folks chat about indie games, congrats! You’ve found the right podcast! It’s the first official episode of Indiventure and after an exciting reunion Liam, Rebecca, and Rachel get right into what they’ve been playing recently.
This episode features A Space for the Unbound, Goodbye Volcano High, The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, Cocoon, The Case of the Golden Idol, and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk (plus a bit of Gunbrella).
Liam's video! 2023 Is An Unbelievable Year For Games.
Music is Cigarette Boat by Marc Torch
2023-10-182h 18