Join us for our second year of GOTY festivities at the Draknek & Friends Official Podcast. Syrenne and Alan are once again joined by Mairi and Joseph for this look at a lot of our favorite games from the last year.



Games discussed:
Blue Prince

Is This Seat Taken?

The Roottrees are Dead

Glowkeeper

Öoo

The Mr. Rabbit Magic Show

Strange Jigsaws

Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping

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Ligo

Golden Idol DLCs

Lab Rat

Kaizen: A Factory Story

Adam Saltsman's small PICO-8 games

Gentoo Rescue

The House of Tesla

Escape Simulator 2

Escape Academy 2 Demo

Gnosia (2022)

LOK Digital

The Electrifying Incident

Spooky Express

Episode 44: Our Favourite Games of 2025 (with Joseph Mansfield)

In this episode, hosts Alan and Syrenne are joined by Pip, the writer and narrative director of A Monster's Expedition and Spooky Express. Topics include the development of A Monster's Expedition, worldbuilding in non-linear games, and writing localization notes about comedy.

Pip lost her train of thought at a crucial point and forgot to mention a really important part of the writing process on A Monster’s Expedition: involving sensitivity consultant Helen Gould! Helen’s feedback was invaluable in helping us make the exhibits fun for as many people as possible, while working with the museum framing.

Episode 43: Pip Warr (A Monster's Expedition, Spooky Express, Little Kitty Big City)

In this episode, Alan is joined by Luis, the developer of Sushi for Robots and the new "Thinky Dailies." Topics discussed include the Thinky Dailies, his weird and lucky career, and the Draknek New Voices Puzzle Grant.

Episode 42: Luis Díaz Peralta "Ludipe" (Sushi For Robots, Thinky Dailies)

In this episode, while Syrenne was on a much-needed vacation, Alan took the opportunity to chat to Adam deGrandis for an hour about all things game dev!

Episode 41: Alan and Adam deGrandis have a rambly chat

In this episode, hosts Alan and Syrenne are joined by Oolimry, the developer behind Glowkeeper. Topics include the development of Glowkeeper, designing a Metroidbrainia, and how to test secrets in game.

Episode 40: Oolimry (Glowkeeper)

In this episode, hosts Alan and Syrenne are joined by the majority of the development team behind our recently released game Spooky Express. Listen to over an hour of development anecdotes and discussion about how the game came to be! This episode contains minor spoilers.

Episode 39: Spooky Express Retrospective

In this episode, hosts Alan and Syrenne are joined by Priscilla Snow the composer who worked on games like Spooky Express, A Good Snowman is Hard to Build, and Patrick's Parabox. Topics include the getting into composing for games, the specifics of working on Spooky Express, and weird bespoke instruments.

Episode 38: Priscilla Snow (Spooky Express, A Good Snowman, Patrick's Parabox)

In this episode, hosts Alan and Syrenne are joined by Melanie Zawodniak the editor of this very podcast! In this very casual episode, we talk about puzzle games, livestreaming, and Kingdom Hearts.

Episode 37: Melanie Zawodniak (Gamer, Podcast Editor)

In this episode, hosts Alan and Syrenne are joined by Adam deGrandis, the art director on Spooky Express and A Monster's Expedition. Topics include the development of the games, his time teaching, a dive through some gaming history, and a surprisingly long tangent about music.

Episode 36: Adam deGrandis (Spooky Express, A Monster's Expedition)

In this episode, hosts Alan and Syrenne are joined by Zach Barth, one of the developers behind Kaizen: A Factory Story and Zachtronics. Topics include the development of Kaizen, making accessible Zach-likes, and systems design.

Episode 35: Zach Barth (Kaizen: A Factory Story, Opus Magnum, etc.)

Join Alan and Syrenne from Draknek & Friends as they talk to developers of some of their favorite puzzle games, shedding light onto how games get made and the people behind them!