Tom Hardwidge – Curses, cats and AdventureX 2025

• Interviews by Laura Cress
• Published:

Already well on his way to earning his “Busiest Person In Adventure Games” achievement badge, Lucy Dreaming developer Tom Hardwidge of Tall Story Games clearly decided that making two games (Heir of the Dog, the retro-styled point-and-click set in Victorian London, and the more child-friendly but equally hilarious Adventures of a Cat in Space) at the same time was not enough. He’s also joined as one of the organisers for this year’s AdventureX, the London-based narrative gaming conference taking place in November. 

My Adventure Game Hotspot colleague Vicky Sykes and I will be checking out the conference and writing a round-up here in due course (I’m personally very excited about getting to meet keynote speaker Guybrush Threepwood– I mean, Dominic Armato!) but for now I caught up with busy bee Tom to find out more about the challenges of organising such a popular expo, and of course, those two games he’s making as well.

Hi, Tom! Tell us, for those who haven't been before, what is AdventureX?

Tom Hardwidge: AdventureX is a UK-based conference with a focus on narrative-driven gaming. It started from humble beginnings in 2011 when a small group of enthusiasts met in a room above an Oxfordshire pub to talk about adventure games and eat sausage rolls and sandwiches provided by the organiser’s mum. Over the past fourteen years, it has grown steadily into a truly special and unique event which brings together an inclusive community of adventure game fans, developers, writers and other industry professionals who all share a deep passion for narrative games.

The schedule contains a huge range of thought-provoking and inspirational talks, panels, master classes and other activities through a single track which all guests can enjoy. In addition to this, we provide an exhibition hall where developers can showcase their games throughout the weekend. This year, despite moving to a larger venue and accommodating more exhibitors than ever before, the competition for our coveted free exhibition stands has been fiercer than ever, and our selection committee works tirelessly to play through every single submission to ensure that AdventureX represents the wide range of incredible and original narrative-driven indie games out there.

That’s not all! After enjoying a packed schedule each day, all attendees are invited to our famous afterparties, where they can catch up with old friends, make new connections and keep the conversations going late into the night while we provide free food and even pick up the bar tab. It is this unique blend of inspiring content and a vibrant, welcoming community that makes AdventureX a truly unmissable addition to everyone’s calendar.

How did you get involved in AdventureX? You clearly knew about it quite well on the developer side.

Tom: Last year the inimitable director and organiser of AdventureX, Tom Cole, stepped down after many years at the helm, leaving some enormous shoes to fill. Within the AdventureX Discord server, he invited people to take up his mantle and keep AdventureX alive. There were a few tentative hands raised, but no single person in the channel had the time or energy to take it on in isolation. A few of us chatted and agreed that the best thing to do under the circumstances was to create a committee and split the various roles between us.

Despite being the named “director” of AdventureX, I am very much playing second fiddle to Amy Tant, who is doing a fantastic job handling the huge amount of organisational work for this year’s event. I think it’s also worth mentioning at this point that AdventureX is entirely run by volunteers and, in addition to the new management committee, there is a wider network of incredible human beings who have supported the event in the past and are continuing to do so. Without the help of everyone involved, AdventureX simply wouldn’t exist.

On a personal note, please bear in mind that until 2020 I had never even heard the term “indie developer” before, and if you had told me there was a real-life community of equally passionate adventure game fans out there with their own dedicated event, I would have raised a very skeptical eyebrow in your direction. I learned of the legendary AdventureX’s existence during the COVID lockdown and, based on the state of the world at that point, no-one knew if it would ever come back.

Later that year the organisers set up the first two-week AdvXJam as a consolation for the physical event not taking place, and I submitted a short point & click adventure game. Two years later, AdventureX returned as a physical event and I was able to experience the magic for the very first time. It was one of the most warm, welcoming, inclusive and inspiring events I had ever had the privilege to attend. By 2023 I had developed my original 2020 AdvXJam submission into a more polished demo for a new game called Heir of the Dog, and was fortunate enough to be selected to exhibit it in person. I wasn’t able to watch any of the talks and panels that year as I was tethered to my table, but the experience as an exhibitor was intensely enjoyable and rewarding.

You joined when the team was starting afresh. What challenges were involved in coming in on the organiser side?

Tom: I still feel very much like the new kid as many of the other members of the management team and volunteers have been part of the AdventureX cohort since the beginning. I’ve only attended the event in person twice, but as I have experienced it from both sides of the exhibition table, I hope I have been able to offer useful and pragmatic insights from both perspectives.

I am also very conscious that I don’t want to change too much too soon. I tend to throw myself into things full bore and, if I were the sole organiser, it would be all too easy to run around making wholesale changes willy nilly without fully appreciating the impact on a community I have only recently joined. AdventureX has a unique vibe and energy, and with that comes a feeling of fragility. We’ve all been to events which have lost their direction over time and ultimately ended up becoming something completely different, but our entire team is dedicated to preserving what makes AdventureX unique, ensuring any changes are made thoughtfully and with input from the community.

Can you tell us about some of the talks or demos you're particularly looking forward to this time around?

Tom: I don’t want to show too much bias towards anything in particular, but I have made no secret of the respect and fondness I have for a certain Mr Threepw…  mean Armato. I had the pleasure of working with Dominic on my last game and got the chance to meet him in person at the inaugural Adventure Game Fan Fair in Tacoma last year. We were chatting about AdventureX and he mentioned that he’d love the chance to travel to London, so when we started looking at potential keynote speakers this year’s programme I contacted him again and we’re absolutely thrilled that he accepted our invitation.

The talks on writing interest me personally, and I am very much looking forward to a talk by academics Steph Rennick and Seán Roberts on some of the issues surrounding women’s dialogue in video games. I also have the honour of chairing a panel on comedy writing in narrative adventure games myself this year. In terms of the exhibition floor, I usually spend more time meeting and chatting to the studios than actually playing the games, and there are a few developers showcasing this year who I have had regular digital contact with over the years but never met in real life, so I am very much looking forward to finally being able to say “hello” in person.

What makes AdventureX different from other expos you've been to?

Tom: At the risk of sounding like a politician, it’s “Community. Community. Community.” The vibe at AdventureX is ludicrously welcoming and positive; everyone is there to have a good time, and that shines through every aspect of the event. It’s no surprise that, at the end of each day, most attendees have either partially or totally lost their voices. The conversation and laughter flows from the moment the doors open ’til the afterparty winds down late into the night. Like many events, there are constant opportunities for industry networking, but at AdventureX they are not forced into rigidly scheduled roundtables or some awkward speed-dating scenario. Instead everyone mingles and chats with each other as equals throughout the weekend, brought together by a shared love for the genre.

Any favourite memories you have of the times you've been at AdventureX?

Tom: Despite only attending on two occasions, it’s still hard to pick just one favourite memory. I absolutely loved being part of a panel with Dave Gilbert, Tony Warriner and Charlotte Sutherland in 2023. Being on the same stage as legends like that was an amazing honour for me but, like I mentioned before, there were no egos to contend with and everyone just had a good time chatting as equals.

And how is development of Heir of the Dog going?

Tom: After a slower period earlier this year, the development is actually going really well. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t experiencing “difficult second game” syndrome and I still have the same ongoing issues I had with Lucy Dreaming, where my organic game design process means that I keep adding more and more stuff as I go along until it doesn’t even vaguely resemble my original design document. As a result of this, I’m never 100% sure exactly how far along I am with the game development itself, but I am enjoying the process more right now than I was a few months ago when I decided to help organise an event (see above), start working on another adventure game (see below), offer development and console porting services to other developers, and release Lucy Dreaming in another three languages with additional PS4 and PS5 ports.

It’s not the only thing you're working on. There's also Adventures of a Cat in Space. Where did that come from?

Tom: That was a completely unexpected opportunity that landed in our inbox last year and was too good to pass up. I’ve wanted to work on a musical game for a while now, and when David and Ellie from Little Seeds Music approached us to collaborate with them, we just couldn’t say no. Our son, Robin, has been a member of David Gibb’s fan club for a number of years, but we had never really chatted to them. David had spotted the domain name on our email address from his fan club mailing list and was interested to see what we did. They visited our website and, as he and Ellie are huge point & click fans themselves, this got them thinking about how they could potentially collaborate with us to turn their music into a wholesome family adventure game.

Due to the initial phase of the project being predominantly funded by a third-party organisation called The Space, we only had a few months to develop and release a short demo as a proof of concept. Since then, it has been hugely well received, and it’s a delight to read the messages from players young and old who are excited to play the full game, even if they can’t get the songs out of their head! We are currently looking into more funding options for the full game (I have enough Kickstarter obligations already), so it is currently on hold while Heir of the Dog and AdventureX take priority.

Any updates on when either of them will be released?

Tom: I thought I was safe when I originally said 2025 for each of them, so I am reluctant to make the same mistake again. I’d like to think it will be 2026… but we all know what an unpredictable beast indie game dev is, especially when the solo developer involved insists on making the neck of their figurative bottle progressively smaller as they go along.

Where can people buy tickets and find out more about AdventureX? 

Tom: AdventureX is taking place on 22-23rd November at the LSBU Hub building in London. To learn more, you can visit the AdventureX website for all the details.