#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 to talk your ear off about today. Expect more updates in the coming episodes as we consider our regrets over the ones we cut for time, but in the meantime we hope you enjoy our enthused round-up of what we've been playing recently, including BUSTAFELLOWS season2, Jump the Track, Look Outside, Squeakross: Home Squeak Home, Sword of the Sea, and Tiny Bookshop.

Plus – for only the second time ever – your intrepid Indieventurers actually managed to coordinate our schedules outside of recording to play a co-op indie game together! We'd love to do this more often, but alas, adult life is a harsh mistress. But, on the other hand, it's bloody PEAK! Yeah, of course we had to play PEAK.

When the time rolls around for hyperfixations, Rachel immediately figures out that she can cheat and sneak another excellent summer indie in from her list by talking about Cipher Zero. Rebecca, unsurprisingly, has heard the siren call of Tears of Themis – something everyone predicted she'd love because it's literally an Ace Attorney-inspired otome game made by HoYoverse – which she's found compelling if (spoiler alert) a little less lovable than she'd always expected. And slightly more surprisingly, Liam has also fallen for the allures of a gacha game… but it's Pokémon TCG Pocket, which is allowed.

Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts. Don’t forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord too, and be sure to check out our new Steam Curator page if you simply still can't get enough of us!