These are the studios, creators and projects that will participate in the fourth edition of the Ultimate IndieMash playful contest! Save the date, on Saturday May 24th, from 20:00 to 22:00 it will be broadcasted on 

This is an inmersive game created on twine talking about how passivity boosts the current aggressive system.

Inés Alcolea is a multidisciplinary, award-winning fiction writer who sees art as a channel for meaningful conversations. She loves to explore the boundaries of normativity through essays, poetry, and impactful short stories for books and videogames. With over 10 years of experience in the gaming industry, she also brings a strong background in marketing and works on projects that boost talent from underrepresented genres. She's also an avid punk-rock listener

Ré Ni Fhloinn (she/they)
Body Focused Repetitive Behaviour

Body Focused Repetitive behaviour is a small game about a weird stim I picked up where I rub my eyebrow and pull out the hairs. I got so intense that I started to make my eyebrow tail slightly bald. I sent photos to my friends asking “hey i’ve rubbed the tail of my eyebrow off is this weird?”. I remembered my college friend's sister had a condition where she pulled out her own eyelashes and I thought “wait is this eyebrow thing that thing?” Because it certainly is a compulsion, my hand feels like it has a mind of its own. I did sometimes pull the hairs too and pluck them. I also had a friend who had a problem with skin picking and I kind of realised like oh maybe this is a thing. After doing some research I found the phrase Body Focused Repetitive Behaviours. This was one of the first dominos to fall to lead me to being diagnosed with ADHD. It was Pippin knocking the skeleton in the Mines of Moria leading to the destruction of the ring so to speak. I've spoken to other neurodivergent friends and many can relate, whether it's nail biting, playing with your hair, picking at scabs, they're small innocuous things that can be comforting but can also feel like a crutch or a compulsion.

Ré: I'm a game developer and love personal games, emotional games, thoughtful games and games that tell a story about a perspective you might not have heard before. I want to challenge people with what they think of as a "game". In the future I hope to make political games and games that pass on stories.

Outer Plays
Eszter (she/they) & Joanna (she/they)
Something To Reach For

Have you ever found yourself elbow-deep in a sewer? Or followed ants disappearing into a hole? But most importantly, have you ever lost something that was important to you? Then you and Leah have something in common. "Something to Reach For" is a short interactive fiction game. To play, all you need is a mouse and some decision-making brainpower.

Features:
- multiple holes
- multiple endings
- right-handed and left-handed versions (choose based on mouse position)

Outer Plays is a young studio specializing in art games and playful projects for social impact. It was founded by Saskia Joanna Rauhut and Eszter Várhidi. Joanna, a creator of games and playful media, is curious about reflecting on established game design conventions. Eszter, a playful adventurer in the realms of games and game-likes, is drawn to illustrating human experiences. They were blown together by the wind of Copenhagen and connected over their shared interest in experimental games and interactive art.

TELE is an experimental narrative game for imagining and deeper understanding of others. The players are supposed to observe the certain rooms or spaces through the scope, think about what kind of situations and background each character lives in. The prototype idea of this game was made at Kyoto Game Jam: Games for Good and we are progressing the development to release in Steam and itch.io by Q2 2026.

TELE is also designed as a social impact game, including specific themes such as isolation and depression under the remote working (which comes from the director's lived experiences). And we are planning to have some more interviews to with my colleagues at Avatar Robot Cafe DAWN, who have difficulties going out for their own reasons.

This unique process of the creation will hopefully make our game meaningful and might bring some possibilities to show what the games could achieve as a form of expression. Adding more kindness to the world as well.

Yuta: I'm a freelance game journalist, streamer and curator. You can see most of my works and activities through the links here (https://linktr.ee/dragonwasabipotato). I have passions about finding and sharing experimental games, art games, social impact games and so on. I've been challenging some of the new things this year, such as being an ambassador of Safe In Our World, taking a role of the jury for a certain game award (I can't mention the name for now sorry), and creating a game as well!

Samuel Baidoo (they/them)
Plum Road Tea Dream

In Plum Road Tea Dream you'l discover seven sanctuaries created by the mysterious ‘S’. These structures hold untold stories, memories, the need for a safer world and the potential for healing. In an emotional, narrative-driven adventure you are invited into a beautifully crafted world of personal discovery, identity, and connection.

Features
- A profound story that takes place over the course of 7 chapters.
- Based on autobiographical experiences, and real-world events
- 2 – 3 hours of gameplay

Inspires real-world reflection on topics such as grief, identity, crying, human touch and rituals.

A deeply personal story: Plum Road Tea Dream tells the semi-autobiographical story of 'S', a young game designer who creates virtual spaces that reflect their own introspective journey. As you delve into the complexity of pain, joy, grief, celebration, self-actualisation and the need for new rituals in 'S's life as a queer person of color, Plum Road Tea Dream invites you to slow down. Awakening in you the urge to confront your own thoughts, to question and to feel. Deeply.

Seven unique chapters, spaces, games, sanctuaries: Navigate through seven unique chapters, each offering distinct gameplay styles. Collect tablets to create animistic gods with a futuristic machine and encounter challenges in empathy to be able to manifest the Sword of Sadness and shape its myth. Meet NPC’s that portray multiple selves of 'S' as they reveal the secrets of their surroundings.

From hyper realism to PS1-era graphics: You travel through an eclectic range of landscapes and thought-provoking mini-games, with visual styles ranging from hyper realistic modern graphics to the nostalgic pixelated charm of PS1-era games.


Slow down & Take your time: With the main action in the game being walking, sitting and listening, Plum Road Tea Dream is an invitation to slow down and wonder, that is best enjoyed with a warm cup of tea.

Queer & POC perspectives: Centering queer narratives and characters of color, Plum Road Tea Dream celebrates diversity, self-expression, and acceptance, offering stories and perspectives rarely explored in games.

Healing & Hope: Plum Road Tea Dream acknowledges pain that needs to be felt but aims to surpass the hardships—it’s a transformative journey of self-acceptance & resilience, culminating in an uplifting and hopeful conclusion.

My name is Samuel Baidoo I'm a transdisciplinary artist currently working as dancer, theatermaker, mentor and game designer. I graduated as illustrator and graphic designer and 3 years later as dancer. Shortly after graduation I was mainly performing for other choreographers. Gradually the focus shifted to creating my own work. In my personal practice (and as part of the Hanafubuki collective) the play between form and content has always been present. Throughout different creations I experimented within a performing arts setting with: work for young audiences, podcast- and movie performances, ongoing installations and movement based performances. My latest artistic research into the potential of the virtual as a sanctuary led me to create Plum Road Tea Dream my first videogame & in the future hopefully videogame performance


Stanwix Buster (he/him)
The Shaman, The Outsider and the Diet of Worms

This is a multi-medium experience, presented as a collection of in-universe materials centred around the book The Shaman, the Outsider, and the Diet of Worms, an autobiography of an anthropologist visiting a remote village. This includes the book itself, a republication with a preface, and a wiki page made 400 years after it was published. It is up to the player/reader to decide what parts of these materials, if any, are truthful.

Stanwix Buster is a narrative games dev making experiences that are satirical, horrifying, or queer, and sometimes all at once. He makes games for exactly 3 people to lose their minds. The Shaman, the Outsider, and the Diet of Worms is an experimental emergent narrative piece that is a collection of in-universe texts, where the player must decide for themselves who's telling the truth, and if there's even a truth in the first place. It features art and graphic design by Wren Computermilk, an artist inspired by the old web, ringtone commercials, and that one bizarre edutainment game you played when you were 6.

Turns out, exploding a guy has consequences. Corporate spies Zoë and Gabe have messed up. There's only one thing they can do: escape to an alternate universe. But running can only get you so far. An interactive episodic story that shifts between comic, game and animation.

When the Macromedia Flash era of the internet died decades ago, its ghost kept following nuel, like some weird imaginary friend. Now, they create stories about spies, dystopian corporations and queer people with an existential crisis.

Alecu (él/them)
Ventilastation Game Console

Alecu is an obsolete tech fixer and repurposer. Ventilastation is the first game console from Latin America. A large fan spins a bar with lots of LEDs and a tiny computer, creating an odd circular display where games literally run at 600 RPMs. Players control the spinning action with a hacked testing lab dashboard, a submarine-grade gamepad or even a dance-dance mat.

A dozen games, old school demos and artwork, all made specifically for this console's polar-coordinates-based display, have been contributed by the community of indie games folks in Argentina. New ones are easy to develop with a Linux and Mac based emulator using Micropython, and we'll encourage any devs or artists in the Ultimate IndieMash audience to try their hand at building more.

All the source code, electronic schematics and even mechanical hardware blueprints for this console are Open Source, so if you have some basic maker skills, plus a faulty fan, a battered blender, or a wrecked & wasted washing-machine you can also build your own Ventilastation.

This project is part of the Cybercirujas collective (which could roughly be translated as “Cyberhobos”), a collective based throughout Argentina that fights Planned Obsolescence by recycling discarded hardware into playful experiences, by restoring slow or sluggish computers with Free Software for the poorer parts of the country, and by giving talks on related topics at local Arts + Videogames events.

Playful Systems LLC
Jonah Warren (he/him)
Sloppy Forgeries

I am an independent developer and professor of game design. I'm particularly interested in interactive art, experimental games, and alternative interfaces. Over the years I've created a suite of games using a camera as an input device (Full Body Games), a multitouch mobile game (Pangolin), a word game with multiple keyboards (Word After Word), a painting game with multiple mice (Sloppy Forgeries), and a VR sculpting game (Choppy Copies). These games have been shown in exhibitions at GDC, E3, A Maze, and EGX among others.

Sloppy Forgeries is a fast-paced, two-player local multiplayer painting game. Two players compete on a shared screen, each armed with a mouse, a blank canvas, and a few simple paint tools. Tools consist of three different size brushes, a limited color palette, and a few assist tools. Each round, players select an abstracted version of a famous painting from art history. Players race to copy the painting as quickly and accurately as possible. As each player paints, an accuracy bar gives them immediate feedback on how close their painting is to the original. Accuracy is scored by comparing each pixel of a player’s painting with the original. If a pixel is the same color, it’s counted as correct. Players can also use their assist tools: reference pins that map locations on the players’ paintings to the masterpiece and a toggleable grid which can be revealed for 30 seconds each round. After three minutes, overlays showing incorrect colors are revealed along with the exact accuracy scores, and a winner is declared.

I began development on the game about five years ago although development stalled for a few years. In the past year, the game has been rebuilt from scratch, with a revised design, updated paintings, performance playback, and additional feedback among other things. A Steam release is planned for 2025 with leaderboards and online multiplayer.

SWARM is a twitch-plays game (the audience can play through the chat) featuring volumetric captures of performers and musicians.

Ultimate IndieMash Contestants 

KO(O)RTS is back in 2025!
The Short Film Festival of the weird, wicked and wonderful, organized by Sickhouse, returns for its second edition in collaboration with 

. To be held in Enschede, Netherlands the 26 & 27 of September.

KO(O)RTS is a vibrant 2-day short film festival. It provides a platform for (emerging) local and international filmmakers to showcase their work, celebrate creativity and connect with each other. At the same time, the program offers the public an alternative, never-before-seen and fun selection of films, presented with care, multisensory setups and
playful ways. 

In addition to the various screenings, the festival includes workshops, a filmmakers meet-up, and an awards ceremony. In this way, we strive to create a vibrant event that brings together both filmmakers, film lovers and celebrates the art of short film.

 and submit your film before May 1st (read the terms for applying on the open call page).

KO(O)RTS Short Film Festival OPEN CALL

After a year and a half of being nomads, on May 1 we will finally receive the keys to our new location at Oldenzaalsestraat 128. This will be our home for the next four years, and we are bursting with excitement about the new era ahead.

For five years, Sickhouse inhabited the third floor of the WARP building at Stationsplein, before being evicted due to plans for a housing project that has yet to be launched. Sickhouse was without its own physical location for 19 months (to be exact), during which time we continued to hold our events thanks to the support of friends and colleagues from the cultural circuit in Enschede, who generously lent or rented us their spaces and helped us in various ways to continue our programs.

Thanks to this support, our monthly events (TableTop Game Nights, Colliders: Playful Makers Meet-up, Sickhouse Cinema, and Stitching to Resist), our playgrounds (interactive exhibitions with guest artists), and our special events (like KO(O)RTS Short Film Festival, the Summer Film Camp, and The Overkill Festival) could continue while we searched for a new home. A thousand thanks again to Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Concordia Cinema & Kunstruimte, Het Vestzaktheater, DesignLab, GrensFrequentie, B93, Performance Factory, and many more.

It wasn't easy, but finally, an opportunity opened up. Last October, we signed the lease for Oldenzaalsestraat 128 — a building that housed a pool hall for many years — which will now become Sickhouse's new home.

 After receiving the keys, the next challenge will be fitting out the space: rebuilding our small cinema, stage, exhibition area, and bar. We will start hosting events already in May, but we will continue adapting the space to meet our community’s evolving needs.

. In the meantime, we will keep you updated on the progress we're making in this space that, like our previous location, aims to be a safe, fun, very pink space, where everyone can find a place and feel at home.

Sickhouse's New Location