indie game garden

Tyler McCarthy, who goes by Zzox online, is a solo game dev and musician who has completed over 25 game projects during his 8+ years of development. His most recent release is called good . It’s a game which depicts a day in the life of a typical american teenage boy who plays sports and stumbles around a world rendered in quirky 2D pixel art. The linear story has plenty of emotional punch, while...

Adrian Vaughan might just be the most interesting video game guest I can think of, and I’m not just saying that. I invited Adrian on the show after being absolutely stunned by his work on The Drifter, in which he voices multiple characters – none more impactful than the main character, Mick Carter. Listening to Adrian voice Mick changed my perspective on the value, cathartic joy, and emotional res...

Fer is the solo developer behind the chaotic and flow-state-inducing delivery roguelike Tossdown. The way I’ve heard Fer describe his game is the stylistic flair of Jet Set Radio meets the action arcade gameplay of Crazy Taxi, and if that’s not fuel for the soul then I don’t know what is. I’m super excited to sit down with Fer to discuss his experience as a Nigerian game developer and how he came...

Matt Fister is an indie game developer based in Boston, Massachusetts. He goes by the tag Freezebeam and is known for creating surreal bitscapes across genres and modes of play in his games. I’m a particular fan of his shmups: Unseelie Chorus and Escape Wizard. His game Towerbound is perhaps the most clever take on tower defense I’ve seen to date, featuring small tweaks to the tried-and-true formu...

Pete is part of a two-person development team called Chaystar Unlimited. They are the developers of Asbury Pines, an expansive, narrative-driven idle game about a small town through the ages. In Asbury Pines, Pete's unique perspective on game design and storytelling comes through in a way that you have to experience to believe. Join us for a conversation about games writing, making independent pro...

Dave Lloyd’s video games inspire me more than any other pieces of media I’ve consumed in recent memory. Dave is a champion of the adventure game genre, having explored everything from pulpy thrillers to high fantasy adventures through the art form that has become a bit of a dying breed in games. Since the heyday of LucasArts adventure games that spanned from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, the...

Nic Tringali is a game designer and director at Bithell Games, an independent game studio that specializes in sci-fi stories. Nic works at Bithell’s Lunar Division label. They are most known for The Banished Vault, John Wick Hex, and Sun Dogs, and have a particular interest in science fiction, tabletop and analog designs, and rich interactions between players and game systems. Nic’s most recent ga...

Allen Goode is a co-founder of the startup FloWHOA, the game studio currently making Scallywags, a tactical crew management roguelike inspired by FTL and One Piece, where players quest to become Pirate Legends. Allen helped found FloWHOA in 2023, alongside Mike Schmalz. Although he wears a lot of different hats at FloWHOA, Allen’s main expertise is housed in his position as Creative Director – wit...

Val Hawes is a 3D character artist, game-maker, and community organizer who embodies the exact kind of grassroots joy in games that Indie Game Garden strives to celebrate. Val specializes in stylized animals and creatures for the games that she works on. She’s been working in the games industry since 2016 and is passionate about game jams. So much so that she’s the chair for RVA Game Jams – Richmo...

Char Putney is a writer from Dublin, Ireland who is currently based in Copenhagen, Denmark. She has quite possibly the most interesting career path I’ve read about to date, having worked for both Google and Facebook in management positions before deciding to leave those jobs to pursue a more creative lifestyle. Since then, Char has worked on Larian Studios’ Divinity series and Baldur’s Gate 3, wro...

Dustin Andrews is the Lead Designer and Artist of HorrorVale, a miraculous and spooky turn-based RPG set in the underworld. The streets are crawling with Vampires, Ghouls, Ghosts, and more, and we’re so excited to have Dustin on for a conversation about horror, JRPGs, and the way pets can inspire creativity. Go buy HorrorVale right dang now :) https://store.steampowered.com/app/1114650/HorrorVale/...

Dylan Smith founded the Fair Play Collective after being laid off from Epic Games...twice. This experience prompted him to ask the simple yet radical question: what if independent game developers could make a consistent living wage? What if these types of games were patronized by a community of appreciators just like other art forms? We discuss these questions and more on this week's episode.  Che...

John Lansing’s solo development studio is called Eggplant Apps. John stepped away from his job as a staff software engineer at Uber because he had been tinkering with a prototype for a game that he just couldn’t get out of his head. That game, which would combine the classic turn-based tactics of Final Fantasy Tactics with the sport of Football, is called Fantasy Football Tactics – and, friends, i...

Jeremy Jackson’s game development process is all about joy and flow. His solo dev studio is aptly named JoyFlow Games, and he’s currently all in on making STAR SPARK, an anime tournament roguelite in which powerful characters unleash devastating combos and collect skills to topple their opponents in a series of turn-based battles. In STAR SPARK, Jeremy combines the mechanics of fighting games, rog...

Ryan Marr is a founding member of the startup FloWHOA, the game studio currently making Scallywags, a tactical crew management roguelike inspired by FTL and One Piece, where players quest to become Pirate Legends. Ryan helped found FloWHOA in 2023, alongside Allen Goode and Mike Schmalz. Before that, Ryan spent over 15 years at Digital Extremes, working his way through QA, QA management, System De...

Ezra Szanton is a joy to speak to. A game developer with a clear vision for elegant systems and the joy within them, Ezra is currently making Mr. Magpie's Harmless Card Game. It's a Minesweeper-esque horror rogue-like where you sit across the table from an office mascot that will kill you if you don’t fulfill your quota in the allotted time. I saw Ezra himself pitch the game on Bluesky as “Severan...

Rory Kelly joins the show to talk about his recent Steam release, FoxHaunt! Rory is an independent game developer based in Tokyo. A self-described “Irish transplant,” Rory has been living in Japan for almost 9 years. FoxHaunt endeavors to distill the JRPG formula down to its core elements while combining concise turn-based combat with knowledge checks. In addition to video games, Rory and Jonny di...

Cyryl Szmit is a generous and creative game developer based in Poland. He’s in the process of developing Monasterium, a game which he describes as a cozy building/life sim where you craft a monastery and manage its inhabitants. He also works for Monster Couch, the company behind the digitization of the hit board game Wingspan. To follow along with Monasterium's development, join the Discord! https...

Pierce Papke is an abundantly creative individual. He’s a visual artist first and foremost whose game making and storytelling chops show through in all he touches. I was first introduced to his work via an Instagram reel describing how his partner, Greta, supported him in 2025 while he was making his atmospheric detective game Murder of King Mere. There's a distinct vision and deep worldbuilding t...

Etienne Pouvreau is an independent game developer in France. He is the force behind the solo studio known as SMOLWARE and the engine he built from scratch which he calls SMOL. An aficionado for building elegant twists into the classics, some of Etienne’s standout games are SNOPE, an itch.io release in which he combines Snake with rope mechanics controlled by a mouse, and Sweepminer. Sweepminer is...

Our first interview is with Jakob Wahlberg, art lead on Steam World Heist and developer of Go Mecha Ball. We discuss the Swedish game scene, the downfall of Image & Form (the studio behind the Steam World series), and the importance of developing games from the heart.  If you're enjoying the show, let us know! We're @indiegamegarden on Instagram and Youtube, and our email is indiegamegarden@gm...