indie game garden

14 - Allen Goode of FloWHOA, the makers of Scallywags

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 – with over 20 years of experience working on mass-market, AAA, franchises such as Wayfinder, Warframe, Halo, Bioshock, SOCOM, and Company of Heroes. SCALLYWAGS IS MAKING ITS DEBUT AT STEAM OCEAN FEST RIGHT NOW! Go play the demo and give it a wishlist :) https://store.steampowered.com/app/3770820/Scallywags/ Check out FloWHOA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flowhoa.inc/

13 - Val Hawes of Little Kitty, Big City

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 – Richmond, Virginia’s homegrown game dev community. She hosts a number of free games on her itch.io page and for her day job she works at Double Dagger Studio, the makers of Little Kitty, Big City. Little Kitty, Big City: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1177980/Little_Kitty_Big_City/ Val's game jam games: valociraptor.itch.io [http://valociraptor.itch.io/]

12 - Char Putney of Sparrow Warfare

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, wrote the award-winning indie game NUTS, and was Story Lead at Die Gute Fabrik, a Copenhagen-based game design studio. Char has lectured university classes on interactive fiction, RPGs and project management and spoken at a number of game conferences and game jams. When she’s not busy with all this cool stuff, she works as a creative yoga teacher and on her own creative writing projects. What’s more, Char recently cofounded the indie game studio NEON AURELIUS with her partner Martin Pichlmair. They're currently working on their first commercial release. It’s called Sparrow Warfare, a roguelite deckbuilder that features beautiful birds alongside Mahjong-adjacent strategy and lots of very weird stuff. It’s a treat. Just like it’s a treat to be talking to Char today. Go wishlist & pickup & play & review Sparrow Warfare! https://store.steampowered.com/app/3473440/Sparrow_Warfare/ Check out Char's website: alphachar.com Watch the Sparrow Warfare documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4ic-Z1-ya0 Char and Mar's card game preservation efforts! https://youtu.be/A_ZmJlrzVnw?si=enhCSg__jjs_QH1T Check out Oaken Tower: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3692220/Oaken_Tower_Demo/

11 - Dustin Andrews of HorrorVale

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/ Check out the HorrorVale website! https://horrorvale.net/about/ Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/3GDQJ9D

10 - Dylan Smith of Fair Play Collective

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.  Check out Fair Play Collective's website! https://fairplaycollective.org/ Join Fair Play Collective's discord! https://discord.gg/2yNQVxDxtu Read the "Manifesto" that started it all: https://fairplaycollective.org/manifesto VICE article on FPC: https://www.vice.com/en/article/finally-a-manifesto-i-can-get-behind-the-fair-play-collective-looks-to-give-power-to-players-and-developers/ Support the journalist we mentioned in the episode, Shaun Cichacki: https://linktr.ee/shauncichacki