Hi everyone, and welcome to today’s episode of the Indie Dev Game Break Podcast. Today’s guest is Kai Oliver. Kai hails from the United Kingdom originally and now moves between Halifax, Nova Scotia and the UK. Kai is a Game Designer and Developer with a range of skills and projects behind him. Kai is also a co-founder of the participatory theater partnership BAGEL+BALLOON.

Among his professional pursuits Kai also found the time to enter the Just Play Jam in 2023, focused on themes of justice and accountability, where their team's game Drawing up Dust won an award, and he traveled down to SXSW, Texas to accept and showcase the game. 

The recent devastating rounds of layoffs in the game industry has inspired Kai to dig deeper into co-operatives, specifically worker-owned organizations with highly democratic governance, minimal pay gaps, and a focus on growing the working conditions over profits as a metric of success.

Our conversation included:

• Moving to Nova Scotia from the UK

  
  



• His journey into the indie game industry

  
  



• Party games and handcrafted games

  
  



• Interactive theater and VR combined with real world spaces

  
  



• Indie Game Co-Operatives

  
  



• SXSW and his award for the game Drawing Up Dust

  
  



• His trip through the the Dust Bowl of America to SXSW

  
  



• And of course, the top 5 games that influenced him

  
  

Resource Links:

• Affinity Photo / Designer - https://affinity.serif.com/

  
  



• Audacity Audio Editing - https://www.audacityteam.org/

  
  



• Freesound: https://freesound.org/

  
  



• Trello Project Management: https://trello.com/

  
  

More on Kai Oliver and BAGEL+BALLOON:

• Website: https://kaioliver.co.uk/

  
  



• BAGEL+BALLOON: https://bagelandballoon.org/

  
  



• Drawing up Dust on Itch: https://gradiustheguide.itch.io/drawing-up-dust

  
  



• Twitter or Twitch: @Kraydius

  
  



• Discord: @Kai_McDulover

  
  

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Stray Voltage Games on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2221440/Kip_and_Odosan