AdventureX 2025 - Episode Two: Listen to those voice actors (and also some extra devs)

Dominic Armato!

Highlight of AdventureX 2025, responsible for a full auditorium, was a presentation given by none other than Dominic Armato, voice actor of Monkey Island's Guybrush Threepwood. He talked about impostor syndrome, a heavy case of self-doubt that makes people think they aren't skilled or talented at all, making them constantly fear exposure as a fraud. It even got emotional at one point. After his talk, Dominic was so kind to see his fans, take pictures and sign stuff. He signed my boxes of Curse Of Monkey Island and Escape From Monkey Island! At the Sunday afterparty, we saw him again and had a nice chat, where it became very obvious he would love to return to voice work for adventure games. So if any developers are interested in hiring him: you know where to find him!

I knew Ivy Dupler would be coming to AdventureX, since she posted that on her socials. For two days I'd been keeping an eye out for her. I spotted her once, but she was having lunch and you don't disturb people when they're eating. Finally on Sunday afternoon I saw her again, but she was already talking to one dev or other. Then I saw my chance when she was standing with a dev team I was already familiar with and had grown to love deeply over the course of this weekend: David and Sophie Younger of Inklingwood Studios! So I grabbed my chance, joined the conversation and was able to get my much anticipated selfie with one of my most favorite voice actors, who played the lead in Midnight Margo and had roles in many, many other games, including Twilight Oracle, Kathy Rain 2, Rosewater, Lamplight City, Monorail Stories, and the upcoming Nighthawks!

Ivy Dupler!

 

Most special was meeting recent BAFTA Breakthrough Sally Beaumont near the end of the Sunday afterparty! As with Julia Minamata, she seemed to be all over the place during AdventureX - though she did always wave at me as she was hurrying down some hallway - and she was also part of the comedy writing panel. And suddenly there she was, and we could have our photo moment. There are so many games she has a part in - PRIM, Hob's Barrow, Loco Motive, Harold Halibut, Lucy Dreaming, Blake Manor, and many more - but of course now she's most famous for not only voicing Fia Quinn in Old Skies but also writing for the game alongside Dave Gilbert!

Sally Beaumont!

And while I don't have a photo with her, I also had a short chat with Brogan Farr during the Saturday afterparty! I don't know her very well, but somehow we connected on the socials a little while ago. She has a role in Duck Made of Wood's D3AD HAND, which I played a little of at AdventureX (but more on all those demos in my next blog post!)

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Of course it's only after you hit the publish button and share your blog post about meeting a bunch of adventure game devs on the socials, that you start to think: "Wait a minute, I've met several more people! I just didn't take a picture with them..."

Indeed, I also met the team of Tag of Joy, who made Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit, a game I very much enjoyed due its style similar to Broken Sword and Secret Files. This very hip developer team is currenty working with Bill Tiller on a sequel to A Vampyre Story! I better hurry up and finally start playing the original game!

I also met publisher Chris Tikkos of Dionous Games, which was a very hearty encounter. Dionous Games got me into game testing, when they posted an ad looking for testers for Not Another Weekend, which led me to test Lucy Dreaming by Tom Hardwidge, who then suggested I'd become reviewer for the Adventure Game Hotspot! And of course with him being part of the organisation, I met Tom on several occasions during the weekend!

Tom Hardwidge!

A very special meeting was with Kevin Wickenden of Polytely Games who developed Last Christmas, and with whom I once made the jam game The Crete Escape (together with a bunch of other people).

I'm probably still forgetting some others I met, so lets hope my memory will come back when I'm writing my third blog post when I talk about the demos I played!