new year, new games, same silliness! / January Future Friends Newsletter
Staying true to our name in this friend-tastic edition!
Oh boy,
How is it 2026 already? Are you also wondering how January was somehow both the longest month and yet, gone in a flash? Did you create any New Year’s resolutions that you are also now rethinking? Just us?
Anyway, we have many exciting things planned for this year at Future Friends because it’s so important to still have hope even during these times *gestures wildly at everything* … There’s so much to catch up on and so many indie gaming news to shout about so let’s go!
Hang out! Lock in! Repeat!
Our virtual co-working game On-Together launched this month! In under two weeks, this little gem has sold 20k copies, and went super viral on Instagram! PC Gamer described it as “... like going to the office in Animal Crossing” and Polygon wrote “Meta spent billions just to be outdone by this Steam game made by four people”... suck it Zuckerberg!
If you haven’t yet grabbed the game for yourself, firstly, why the heck not? Secondly, if you do decide to get a copy, you may see some of the team from FFG working hard in there, so be sure to say hi!
Future Friends Roundup!
🕸️ A Webbing Journey launched on mobile (iOS and Android)! The mobile version is free to start and levels can be purchased individually or played by watching ads. Have no fear, all versions of the game will receive regular updates and new content! Yippee for options!
⚔️ Queen’s Domain reached 100k wishlists! Since being announced last month in the PC Gaming Show, this retro-fantasy RPG has reached that wishlist milestone, gone viral on social media, and has been streamed by huge content creators like Vinesauce and Splattercat. Very cool!
New Year, New Future Friends!
We are hitting the ground running this January with MULTIPLE new Future Friends starting their very real new jobs at this very real company! Introducing…
Adam!
Lovely family man Adam has been with Future Friends for a while as a part-timer but we simply couldn’t get enough of him, and now he’s officially full-time!!! Lucky us!! Some fun facts about him are:
from Newcastle but now lives in Cornwall
made his first video game when he was 16
Bakes his own bread
Once beat a cult leader at a push-up contest
Hot dog enjoyer
Cruz!
The jack of all trades, master of publishing… Cruz is here! Does this man maybe have more experience working with videos games than all of us combined? Maybe. Are we super grateful that he’s joined Team Publishing? Absolutely.
Loves cooking, and making Future Friends jealous with his many food pics
Has loved everything games related since he was a kid. Video games, card games, board games, table top games… you know name it!
Favourite game to play and collect is Magic the Gathering!
Frequently pesters his friends in an attempt to teach them how to play Magic the Gathering…
Henry!
Dust off your headsets and say hi to Henry! This expert on all things virtual reality has joined the team to help support all our lovely VR developers on their cool projects. You may already know him, and you probably and/or should already love him. If you don’t (wtf?), then here’s some fun facts to get you started:
Spent far too long in Facebook groups for The Simpsons
Had a dog (rest in peace, boy) named after Dizzee Rascal
Spiritually bald, allegedly shaved after being told it was time by Pitbull (no one can prove this didn’t happen)
Foolishly continues believing it’ll be Ferrari’s year in Formula 1 🤞
Team Lore
🎤 Thomas announced he is returning to GDC for the 8th time with his new talk ‘Your Steam Page Needs a Soul: How to Get Your Game’s Magic Across on Steam’. This man can’t be stopped. If you happen to be in the San Francisco area between March 9th until March 13th then you should totally go listen to Thomas be very wise.
📈 Speaking of Thomas, he did his annual very professional company-wide meeting. We never know what to expect, and he certainly didn’t expect us to be able to draw on his slides live as he was talking…
☀️ Kris, Grace, and Henry all met up in the coastal paradise of Bournemouth. They got a lot of work done, avoided the paparazzi successfully, had many laughs, and even more cocktails (allegedly)!
🧠 Laura’s past life as a researcher came back to haunt her in the form of a newly available edited collection called ‘Television and Empathy’. Although it was in publishing limbo since 2020 (don’t ask), this research is somehow still the first to be exclusively dedicated to the study of television’s role in fostering empathy.
🐛 Future Friends were thinking about starting an informal and internal book club until we all got distracted with learning Thomas’ literary lore. He has allegedly only ever read 10 books. The top two? The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Rainbow Fish, of course.
Friends of Future Friends
It’s unusually quiet for our friends as everyone took a very well deserved winter break. That hasn’t stopped these three dev teams from dropping sick new updates from their very cool games!
New demos and new DLC to enjoy!
🍻 Gentle Troll, the developers behind D&D inspired visual novel indie hit Tavern Talk and not just a slightly questionable nickname we’ve game them, have launched a brand new demo for their new title Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker! Step into the role of a tavern owner, meet adventurers, and alter their fates by mixing them magical drinks. Gentle Troll have also launched their new Kickstarter with some cool digital and physical rewards to pledge for.
🐔 VR studio TREBUCHET have dropped an expansive Grind & Shine DLC for Prison Boss Prohibition. The DLC is out now on Quest and SteamVR for $4.99, and features a whole new neighbourhood, new tools, a vast catalogue of riches to make by hand. Very silly bird fun!
🔍 Blink Industries (production studio behind Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared!), art director Frederikke Frydenlund and development company Uwu Biz, announced Nippets, a handcrafted hidden-object game inspired by the joy of people watching. Pet cats, shake trees, peek through windows and discover a delightful world filled with secrets and stories. Perfect for all nosey people out there! (and there might be a demo on Steam already but don’t tell anyone shhh…)
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What a start to the year!
It’s almost the one year anniversary of this little newsletter (!!!) so thank you all so much for subscribing. We are very honoured that there are people who want to read our word vomit about what goes on in the Future Friends world, despite our questionable grammar. Stay tuned for more!
With silliness for the first time in 2026!
Future Friends
