Tommy Gun Marionettes - An Indie Game Interview with Cosmic Void
- Cosmic Void is an indie game development studio specialising in point-and-click and text parser adventure games with pixel-art graphics.
- They currently have 17 titles on Steam, including titles: Devil’s Hideout, Midnight Saturn, The Corruption Within & more!
Keeping it Geekly - Hello and welcome. I really appreciate the opportunity to dive back into written interviews with Indie Game Developers. It’s nice to revisit my original roots in journalism, and diving into a gory noir adventure feels like a perfect start. How are you doing today?
Cosmic Void - Thanks for having me! I’m doing well, and I’m happy to be here!
KiG - What was your first step into indie game development like? I noticed you are also a fan of the 90s era of video games. Were there any titles in particular that pushed you to want to become a developer?
CV - When I started at the end of 2019, I had zero experience in coding or art. I had to learn everything from scratch. I picked GameMaker as my engine because it felt beginner-friendly (and the fact that you can draw all your artwork in it was a huge bonus). A coder friend helped me survive the early days of ‘why won’t this compile.’
And yes, I’m absolutely a fan of games from the 80s and 90s. Anything Sierra, Westwood, or LucasArts touched was pure magic to me, but in particular I loved the Space Quest series. Fan-made games like Chad Goulding’s Time Quest and AGDI’s remake of King’s Quest II were a major inspiration, too.
KiG - What goes into the development of a Point-and-Click adventure game? As a solo developer, what does your average day look like when working on a title?
CV - As a solo dev, I’m basically a one‑person circus: art, coding, design, writing, puzzle‑crafting, etc. Every game starts with an idea that gets me excited enough to commit a year (or more) to it. I’m very ‘art first,’ so I usually begin by sketching a few backgrounds to get a feel for the world before I dive into story structure.
A typical day? If I have free time, I’ll start the morning drawing a background, after coffee, naturally. Later I’ll switch gears and write dialogue, design a puzzle, or code a scene. The art is always the biggest time-sink, but it’s also where the world really comes alive, so I don’t mind the grind.
KiG - Tommy Gun Marionettes is a dark and grim world in which witches kill and harvest organs as Special Agent Bram attempts to stop them. What was your inspiration behind this world and its colorful palette?
CV - It can be grim, but it’s got a heart, too! And a sense of humor, because even the darkest worlds need some of that. Tommy Gun Marionettes is the spiritual successor to Tommy Gun Witches, a short freebie game I made a few years back with the same core idea: a world much like ours, except witches exist, and special agents are tasked with dealing with crimes related to them.
As for the colors, I wanted a vibrant, bold, and loud palette. The colors needed to pop. If the world is going to be grim, the colors might as well dance.
KiG - What type of world and environment will players find Special Agent Bram investigating in? How does it tie into your previous title, Tommy Gun Witches?
CV - Players will be stepping into a world that looks a lot like ours, if ours had taken a detour into retro-90s tech and was populated, among other things, by witches and chimera like octofolk and pigfolk. It’s familiar, but off-kilter.
You’ll also get to explore the dimension where witches have been banished - that part is brand new. It’s meant to feel zany, colorful, uncanny, and just a little bit ‘what did I just walk into?’ The chimera are new, the other dimension is new, but the core ingredients- witches, agents, and crime- all carry over from Tommy Gun Witches.
KiG - Can you describe your process when creating pixel art for your titles? Are there any special techniques you use when designing an image, and what programs do you like to utilize?
CV - Recently I’ve been using Aseprite, but for the longest time I relied on GameMaker’s built‑in tools. My process usually starts with brainstorming locations that would be fun to explore. I’m always thinking, where can the colors really pop?
Once I have a location in mind, I start sketching. I work with a limited palette, around 20 colors this time, and I never stray outside it. It forces consistency and gives the world a distinct visual identity.
KiG - What are some elements that you feel help set this title apart from other games in this genre? Are there any special Easter Eggs or hidden details for players that explore deeper than normal surface-level point-and-clicking?
CV - Well, for starters, it’s a detective story… with witches! That alone gives it a different flavor. At its core, Tommy Gun Marionettes is a story about belonging, who gets to belong, who doesn’t, and what the cost of that is. It’s a theme that runs underneath all the noir, magic, and organ‑harvesting zaniness.
And yes, I absolutely hide Easter Eggs in my games. Let me know if you find the Transformers reference!
KiG - Where can readers find you to stay up to date with any upcoming news from your studio?
CV - My group on Discord:
You can follow me on X:
Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/cosmicvoidonline.bsky.social
KiG - Thank you so much for the opportunity to chat about this game. I can’t wait to see what else you drop in the future to come!
CV - Thank you so much, it’s been a pleasure!
Tommy Gun Marionettes is set to drop in Q3 of 2027, but you can download a demo over on its Steam page here!
Support Cosmic Void on Patreon for regular gamedev updates and artwork previews:
https://www.patreon.com/cosmicvoid
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