In episode #3 of Who Made That, we sit down with Tomas Sala. Tomas is a Dutch solo developer behind The Falconeer, Bulwark, and the just-launched ShipShaper. After nearly 20 years co-running a 25-person studio doing work-for-hire, Tomas burned out, walked away, and rebuilt everything from scratch. This time, as a solo dev.We talk about what it actually takes to survive solo, why his games are unconventional, his pragmatic approach to franchises and financial freedom, and why he'll be making games until he's 65 whether he likes it or not.

In episode 2 of Who Made That, we sit down with Jake Birkett and Helen Carmichael of Grey Alien Games to talk about Forbidden Solitaire -- their first proper hit after 20+ years of indie dev and a famous GDC talk about surviving without one.

From marketing the game before it was made to shipping it on a 2004 codebase, this is a candid conversation about what it really takes to stay indie for two decades and come out with a hit.Forbidden Solitaire:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3414580/Forbidden_Solitaire/

0:00 Intro

0:40 What's your background?

4:16 What have you been playing recently?

14:19 How do you feel after the release?

19:14 Did the game meet your expectations?

25:31 Wishlist quality

30:38 Early demo reactions

33:41 Where did the idea for the game come from?

40:20 Did the trailer come before the game?

42:36 What if the trailer had failed?

44:09 Is your game honest?

49:06 Did you always know where the development was going?

55:32 Partners as developers

1:04:01 Would you promote a game before development again?

1:07:37 Do you still use your engine from 2004?

1:12:00 Jake's GDC talk

1:14:59 Does anything besides Steam work?

1:17:33 Why didn't you localize the game?

1:25:53 Where is the best place to be an indie developer?

1:29:12 How do indie developers survive today?

1:33:24 Indie marketing opportunities

1:41:27 Collaboration between indie studios

1:45:00 Why did you choose the casual genre?

1:49:47 Did players come for the horror or the solitaire?

1:51:23 Why do you track playtime?

1:55:38 What are your plans for your next project?

2:00:31 Monotasking vs. Multitasking

2:04:39 Outro

In the first episode of Who Made That, we sit down with Tom Eastman of Trinket Studios, to talk about the making of Battlesuit Aces, a narrative deck-builder with a fully voiced cast and a development story packed with hard-won lessons.

Tom takes us through Trinket's journey from their Adult Swim days to self-publishing with Outersloth, the chaos of recording 25+ SAG-AFTRA actors while the script was still being written, and how a studio without a dedicated designer iterated their way to something that works.Battle Suit Aces:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2870530/Battle_Suit_Aces/

00:00 Intro

02:45 What have you been playing?

14:21 What's your background?

30:35 How did you make the ports?

32:44 Team rotation technique

34:27 Did you work on Torque?

40:36 What is Battle Suit Aces about?

43:43 What came first: narrative or gameplay?

53:40 Voiceover changed the game

59:55 Recording sessions are amazing

01:06:29 How is voiceover implemented?

01:14:03 Japanese and Chinese localization

01:17:58 What kind of surprises did you receive after launch?

01:24:00 Publishing or funding?

01:36:10 Are you happy with self-publishing?

01:44:16 What are the results across platforms?

01:47:38 Reviews of Battle Suit Aces

01:50:11 Game pricing by region

01:52:05 Battle Suit Aces mechanics

01:54:04 Card deck game scalability

01:57:13 What are your future plans?

01:59:04 Ending