Getting hitched & feeling nostalgic // December Future Friends Newsletter
Read to the end for our personal highlights of 2025 💖
Hey gang,
We did it! We made it through 2025 and what a year it has been!! Together we survived the summer of games, the rapture, and a whole lot of other nonsense the universe has thrown at us! All we know is, we couldn’t have done it without you guys.💖
We’re going to be going through all our festive highlights in just a minute, but firstly we have some juicy Future Friends news!
Anyone feeling nostalgic? We know we are!
Queen’s Domain, a retro-action RPG with brutal combat, was announced at the PC Gaming show and that’s not all! A very cool demo is available now on Steam!
What’s it all about? Well PC Gamer described it as:
“…just the thing for fans of classic FromSoftware games”
Which is super neat considering the lovely dev duo, Freshly Baked Games, were inspired by King’s Field! If you like crunchy retro nostalgia vibes, fantasy games, embarking on a quest to find your father who disappeared (classic), and/or wielding magic swords then check it out!
Future Friends Roundup!
🐠 Tiny Aquarium is getting ready for Fish-mas in this festive update! The update includes gift boxes, Christmas tree decorations and a snowy background so it can snow in your tank! You can turn on idle mode and shake the tiny tank aggressively to pretend it’s a snow globe. ‘tis the season.
🚂 Islands & Trains have rolled out their Christmas update too! On the festive island of trains, everything is covered in snow, train carriages carry gifts and reindeer pull Santa’s sleigh! There are also lots of extra decorations so get in there! ❄️
⛰️ Laysara: Summit Kingdom is launching in 1.0 and on consoles February 27th 2026!! For our retro gamers, you can also order a physical edition or maybe upgrade yourself to a fancy collector’s edition here. We may be biased but we think you should because there are tiny yak figurines, and who wouldn’t want that???
🎰 CloverPit is now available on iOS and Android! Take the rogue-lite slot machine nightmare anywhere now!!!
That’s not all! CloverPit also received a new update with a bunch of quality of life improvements, such as: difficulty curve overhaul, better memory card progression and accessibility tweaks!
Team Lore
💒 Our lovely Laura C decided to elope with the love of her life this month in the magical city of Copenhagen! Just for the absolute banter! It goes without saying she was the most beautiful and most iconic bride ever as she ended her wedding day on a roller coaster (still in her dress btw).
🚆Not only is she a beautiful bride, but Laura also got a promotion to train conductor! Or at least we assume so because she was ushered to the private conductor seats where she had plenty of buttons she could (but didn’t…) press and was also served a delicious breakfast spread? All we know is that DSB train man known as K310 is a real one and also we ♥️ Denmark.
🧟 Grace and Abi attended the Horror Game Awards on our devs behalf and behaved very professionally of course…
📚 Good news!!! Thomas learned the alphabet and we’re really proud. A is for Abi and also Alex 🙂 No one ask him what comes next…
🍌 Banana kid is a hero. This was in our notes but honestly? we can’t even remember the context. Much to think about.
Friends of Future Friends
NEW GAMES AVAILABLE NOW!
🏹 The afterlife awaits you in CROSSINGS, a Norse-inspired first person VR soulslike, out now on Quest and SteamVR! Explore and fight your way through an ever-changing world in a quest for vengeance and survival in this epic roguelite adventure, developed by VR indie developer Neat Corp (Budget Cuts) and published by Creature (Maestro, Prison Boss Prohibition, THRASHER).
📦 Deliver packages and avoid monsters in this new horror VR co-op Deadly Delivery, out now on Quest and SteamVR! This is another cool game from our friends at publishing label Creature and developers Flat Head Studio (We Are One). Armed with questionable equipment, you’ll sneak, sprint, and scream your way through the mines with some friends. Try to pay off student debt (oof) and stay alive! Or, just slap each other into pits and stick “kick me” signs on each other’s backs. It’ll be kinda funny either way!
🖨️ Feeling peckish? Well don’t worry, Drywall Eating Simulator is out now on Steam for all your wall eating needs! Developed by indie team Peripheral Playbox, Drywall Eating Simulator is a comedic narrative adventure about the pressures of ordinary life, and what happens when they get to be too much. Maintain your composure and try to fit into society. Or don’t. Bite some walls. Go wild. Chomp chomp!
🦆 Hit series ‘Duck Detective’ sequel The Ghost of Glamping is out now on mobile! Now you can be a depressed and recently divorced duck on the go via Android and iOS!! Inspect evidence, make de-duck-tions, and solve this no-murder mystery by indie studio Happy Broccoli Games!
🧛 Claim your throne as Vampire Lord in Night Swarm, a new roguelite RPG bullet heaven that is out now on Steam! Developed by Fubu Games, Night Swarm takes the survivor-like genre to the next level with a Hades style overworld, boss fights, colourful companions and a deep progression system. Can you conquer the night?
⛷️ Hit the slopes with Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders, now available on the PS5! Slice through deep snow, glide over ice lakes, and leap into the air in spectacular jumps (just hope that you can stick a cool landing!). Play solo or bring your friends along for the ride.
REALLY COOL ANNOUNCEMENTS!
🌊 Fabraz, the indie studio behind the upcoming Bubsy 4D and 3D platformer Demon Turf: Neon Splash have announced the release date for their expressive 3D platformer Demon Tides! Explore the open seas and uncover the kingdom’s dark secrets from the 19th February 2026! Shapeshift, stack combos, and propel yourself across a dazzling open world.
The team also announced that Demon Tides will be coming to Nintendo Switch (release date tba!). There will also be a physical release combining Demon Tides, Demon Turf, and Demon Turf: Neon Splash courtesy of Fangamer. So many demons!
🐸 Panic Stations, the new development studio founded by veteran Fall Guys developers, has announced their debut project: froggy friendslop game Frog Sqwad! Use your sticky tongue and the power of teamwork to solve physics-based puzzles and hunt down delicious food… before you’re eaten yourself.
👚 Sticky Business devs Spellgarden Games announced their new title, a thrift Shop sim conveniently named Thrifty Business! Design and run your very own nostalgic thrift shop! Befriend the regulars! Sort through boxes to find hidden treasures and arrange nostalgic displays of clothes, antiques, toys & more!!! How fun!
Wrapping up 2025
What a year it’s been! For us here at Future Friends, we’ve had quite a busy 2025! Or as Thomas put it:
“last year was crash, this was brat and 2026 is remix album world fame (yes our company is mapped out by charli xcx albums)
And he’s so right! We had a TONNE of amazing launches as a publisher, including CloverPit, Slots & Daggers & Tiny Aquarium. We’ve also announced some new and exciting games like Queen’s Domain and On-Together, with many more secret projects going that we can’t share quite yet… 🤫.
In 2025, we’ve also worked on a million and one client games, from full PR retainers through to short consulting missions - what a year! Some more personal highlights include: welcoming new friends to the team (the amazing Emma & Louisa); the most chaotic FF’s meetup yet; loving Nanny B aka the realest FFG fan around; and reviving this newsletter!! We personally don’t even want to THINK of a world without it.
From everyone here at Future Friends, we wish you happy holidays and a great new year!
Bring on more silliness in 2026!!!
Future Friends 💖
