Killscreen

05/24/2026

Most artists can name the exact moment they realized someone like them could actually do this.

For Toby Alden it was Cave Story, a Metroidvania built by a single developer over five or six years, ambitious and polished and free. As soon as they saw it was possible, they started trying.

No proof or plan needed!

Full conversation at killscreen.com.

05/23/2026

Working with family is supposed to be a disaster. It usually is.

Toby Alden made Love Eternal with their brother for over eight years. No screaming matches. They consider it one of the things he's most grateful for, not just in making the game but in his life.

Full conversation at the link in bio.

05/22/2026

Toby Alden had one rule going in: the first two minutes of Love Eternal had to be strange, compelling, and then immediately let you start playing.

What happened after that was less planned. The early sections were careful and expository. But the back two-thirds became him and their brother just chasing whatever felt most outlandish or funny or out there. That's when it started to find
its character.

Most things do. Full conversation at killscreen.com.

05/22/2026

There was a trend in the 2000s where games had to justify their stories through their mechanics. The platformer had to feel like grief. The puzzle had to enact loneliness.

Toby Alden thinks players are more willing to accept abstraction than designers give them credit for. You can do arbitrary platforming and then get a story beat and it doesn't break the spell. It feels like a dream.

That dream logic is one of the things games do that nothing else can. I talked with Toby about how they built Love Eternal around that idea. Full conversation at killscreen.com.

05/21/2026

Red flag or foundation?

Toby Alden's first game, Love, was ridiculously hard. Deliberately. They designed it for his own enjoyment, and that self-indulgent energy became the bedrock of their practice as an artist.

I talked with Toby about Love Eternal, ambient music, and what it means to trust your own taste before anyone else does. Full conversation at killscreen.com.

05/21/2026

In this conversation, Toby and I discuss the influence of ambient artists like Aphex Twin, the perils of working with your brother, and how to make games that feel like playing music.

More like this in bio or Killscreen.com

05/02/2026

05/01/2026

04/30/2026

04/29/2026

A fun aside for the Canadians out there - I learned about Timbit.