Podcast Summary: Building an Indie Hit in Godot with Jay Baylis and Tom Coxon

Podcast: Software Engineering Daily
Date: September 25, 2025
Guests: Jay Baylis (Art/Design, Bitten Studio), Tom Coxon (Programming/Game Design, Bitten Studio), Host: Joe Nash
Topic: The technical and creative journey behind Cassette Beasts, an indie RPG built on Godot, from early team formation to design philosophy, technical challenges, and commercial success.

Episode Overview

This episode dives into the indie hit Cassette Beasts, focusing on Bitten Studio’s journey as a small team developing a standout RPG using the open-source Godot engine. Jay Baylis (art, narrative) and Tom Coxon (programming, design) discuss the game’s genesis, core mechanics, innovative technical solutions, localization, commercial strategies, engine choice, content pipeline, and porting to mobile. Throughout, the conversation balances design inspiration, business realities, and practical engineering advice, offering a full-spectrum look at indie game development.

Team Structure and Origins (01:02–02:23)

• Team Roles:
  • Jay Baylis handles art, animation, narrative, and visual assets.
    • "I am not a technical man. I do art and writing and narrative things and words and animation and all that." (01:13)
  • Tom Coxon leads programming and game design, with frequent role overlap due to team size.
• Studio Genesis:
  • Both met at a prior developer.
  • Collaboration began on Lenna’s Inception, initially a side project that grew into a full-time endeavor and set the stage for Cassette Beasts.
  • “We released it in 2020 while we were starting work on Cassette Beasts.” (02:14)

Genre Choice and Differentiation (03:19–06:41)

• Cassette Beasts is a “monster recording RPG” with inspiration from Pokémon and Zelda, but with a unique twist: players record creatures to cassettes and transform into them.
• Business Meets Passion:
  • The decision to pursue the monster-collecting genre was strategic:
    • “We sat down for a long time and we kind of discussed what's the intersection between what we're passionate about and also from the business side of things, what markets might be underserved...” (03:53)
  • Noted reluctance in the industry to compete with Pokémon, despite the genre’s popularity, created opportunity.
• Distinctive Focus:
  • Instead of a pet sim, focus was placed on “character development” and transformation mechanics, spotlighting human protagonists.
    • “It’s not pets... The focus can stay on those characters and those humans, and you can bond with them.” (05:34)
  • “Cassette Beast came together so quickly and it was so strong that it seemed silly to do anything else.” —Tom Coxon (06:32)

System Innovations and Monster Fusion (08:09–12:19)

Rethinking Elemental Systems

• Aimed to add “tactical complexity” for an older or more RPG-savvy audience.
• Drew inspiration from RPGs with rich elemental interplay (e.g., Divinity: Original Sin 2).
• Designed from scratch rather than iterating on existing formulas.
  • “We started from the base scratch, a blank slate of we've got these points of iconography. What interesting stuff can we do with that?” —Jay (08:21)

Fusion System and Procedural Generation

• Any two monsters can fuse, creating tens of thousands of combinations.
  • “Some people ask us if the game uses AI to create these Fusions, but it’s a lot simpler than that, actually. They're basically just paper dolls.” —Tom (10:23)
• Fusion content scales quadratically with asset creation due to the modular "paper dolls" system.
• The pixel art style makes this procedural combination visually (and technically) viable for a small team.
  • “It does mean you get a lot of horrible looking fusion monsters, but I consider that a feature, not a bug.” —Jay (11:48)
• Prior experience with procedural systems in Lenna's Inception informed this design.

Choosing and Hacking Godot (12:19–24:16)

Engine Evaluation and Decision

• Trialed Unreal and Godot. After experimenting:
  • "Godot is so straightforward and so simple in its concepts that I was able to learn how to use it in the amount of time it took to build Unreal engine from source." —Tom (12:51)
• Noted preference for Godot’s extensibility, open source nature, and GDScript.

Tooling and Plugins

• Built custom localization/editor plugins:
  • “Localization is not just a checkbox... Our translation team have repeatedly praised us for this…” —Tom (15:14)
  • Provided context for translators down to the joke/pun explanation per string.
• Used Godot’s script extensibility for internal tools.

Localization Challenges

• Major effort went into culturally-adapted names and puns, leading to unique monster names for each language.
  • “Every single monster has more or less an entirely different name for every single language.” —Jay (17:32)
• Translators were encouraged to be "liberal" with localization for humor and puns.

Deep-Diving into Godot Engineering (19:12–24:16)

Open Source Advantage and Engine Modifications

• Open-source nature allowed direct modification for performance and bug fixes.
• Example: Disabling a Godot 3D grid map optimization boosted the game's performance.
  • “...One of the modifications I made to Godot to support our game was just to disable the optimization. We got a big boost out of that.” —Tom (21:15)
• Sometimes submitted fixes upstream; sometimes kept them private due to niche applicability.

Collaboration & Discoverability

• Kept a close eye on Godot’s GitHub issue tracker and often exchanged patches with other devs.
  • “Most of the time when we come across a bug, somebody else has already created a PR for it and they've got their own development branch...” —Tom (23:11)

Godot Versioning

• Cassette Beasts shipped on Godot 3.5 despite major engine transitions, for project stability.
  • “3.5 is still quite stable. Yeah, it's remarkably stable for a project that is just supported by a community.” —Tom (24:09)

Asset Pipeline and Bridging 2D↔3D (24:16–28:25)

• Jay’s Journey:
  • Transitioned from pure pixel art/animation to 3D asset creation using Cubicle (voxel editor) → Blender.
  • Relied on Godot’s Grid Map feature for placing 3D tiles, offering a “2D tilemap” feel for a 3D world.
  • Early, inefficient workflows (lots of small tiles) improved over time; later assets were more optimized.
    • “If I was now starting again, I would probably use, like, larger tiles that have more detail...” —Jay (27:51)
• Godot’s tooling made onboarding into 3D approachable, especially for artists from a 2D background.

Contemplating the Future: Sticking with Godot (28:25–29:09)

• The team plans to continue using Godot, including for plugin development and internal tool improvements.
• Tom contributed to community tools like terrain3d for Godot 4.

Supporting the Game Post-Launch (29:40–32:23)

• DLCs and updates (e.g., Growth Gauntlet, Pier of the Unknown) were partly planned and partly responses to the game’s popularity.
  • “I think there was an early on thought... if the game has enough legs we'll eventually get around to doing this, but it's not guaranteed.” —Jay (30:09)
  • “There wouldn't have been this much support post release... if we didn't have the kind of support enthusiasm from... the community for sure.” (31:18)
• Ongoing support for Cassette Beasts is seen as community-building for future projects.
  • “Everything we do that the community appreciates and likes helps launch whatever we end up doing next.” —Tom (32:00)

Technical and Business Aspects of Porting to Mobile (32:23–38:53)

Mobile UI and Input Design

• UI adaptation to mobile was the biggest technical/design challenge.
  • “You have to throw all that out the window when it comes to mobile. It's completely different beast...” —Tom (33:00)
• Relied on publisher (Raw Fury) and porting partners for expertise in mobile design and market fit.

Mobile Pricing Strategies

• Pricing on mobile set by publisher guidance, reflecting market expectations.
  • “There just is a culture of games on mobile being cheaper... we defer to people who have more experience.” —Jay (34:37)
• Mobile stores (Apple/Google) favor free or low-price games, making premium pricing hard to sustain.

Platform Technical Variance

• Porting to iOS/Android affected by device fragmentation; less standardization than consoles.
  • “I wasn't aware of how many iPhones there were and they all have different specs...” —Jay (37:40)
• Mobile audiences have different expectations; not all are accustomed to performance issues being hardware-related.

Game Modes, Challenge Runs, and Customization (39:07–41:13)

• Implementation of challenge modes (randomizer, Nuzlocke) lets players experience custom runs.
  • “We actually have custom game modes... you can essentially launch a new game and you can change all sorts of traits throughout the game.” —Jay (39:34)
• Randomizer can dramatically change difficulty and traversal, making replays more interesting.

Looking Forward: The Studio’s Future (41:13–41:54)

• Ongoing content for Cassette Beasts remains in the pipeline.
• Teased new projects, but no official announcements yet.
  • “We've got some cool stuff in the pipeline for cassette piece. Beyond that, who can say, you know, I think we know what we'll eventually be moving on to, but we're not public with that kind of stuff...” —Jay (41:31)

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “No one is afraid of making an FPS game because Call of Duty is so big, but everyone is afraid to make games about collecting monsters because Pokemon is so big.” —Jay Baylis (04:23)
• “They're basically just paper dolls. Jay makes body parts for each of the Fusions, one set... and then the system takes some parts from one species and some from another and combines them to make the Fusion.” —Tom Coxon (10:23)
• “I was able to learn how to use [Godot] in the amount of time it took to build Unreal engine from source.” —Tom Coxon (12:51)
• “Our translation team have repeatedly praised us for this… and I think it shows because players have also praised the game for the quality of its translations.” —Tom Coxon (15:14)
• “It does mean you get a lot of horrible looking fusion monsters, but I consider that a feature, not a bug.” —Jay Baylis (11:48)
• “Every single monster has more or less an entirely different name for every single language.” —Jay Baylis (17:32)
• “Porting to Nintendo Switch, you have the benchmark... But iPhone is not iPhone. As it turns out, there's like a million iPhones. I wasn't aware of how many iPhones there were and they all have different specs.” —Jay Baylis (37:40)
• “Everything we do that the community appreciates and likes helps launch whatever we end up doing next.” —Tom Coxon (32:00)

Key Timestamps

• 01:02 – Team structure and responsibilities
• 02:41 – Engine choice for previous/future projects
• 03:19 – Genre selection process for Cassette Beasts
• 08:09 – Gameplay systems and innovations
• 10:23 – Fusion system and procedural generation
• 12:51 – Godot vs. Unreal and engine learning
• 15:14 – Custom localization tooling
• 17:32 – Localization and adaptation challenges
• 19:54 – Modifying open-source Godot for performance/bugs
• 24:41 – Asset pipeline and adapting from 2D to 3D
• 28:42 – Future plans with Godot
• 29:40 – DLCs and post-launch support
• 32:23 – Porting and design for mobile
• 39:34 – Custom/Challenge game modes
• 41:13 – Teasing future projects

Memorable Moments

• The “paper doll” system for monster fusions, embracing both brilliant and “horrible-looking” combinations (10:23–11:48).
• Jay’s honesty about learning 3D asset pipelines on the job, with assets improving over the project’s duration.
• Open discussion on commercial strategy, the business side of indie games, and mobile market realities.

Takeaways

This episode offers a comprehensive, candid look at building an indie game that stands out in a crowded genre. Jay and Tom provide not just technical insight (from procedural asset creation and custom Godot patches to localization) but also honest reflections on business decisions, workflow evolution, community engagement, and the challenges of growing a small studio.

Their experience with open-source tools, localization, asset pipelines, and post-launch commercial support serves as both inspiration and practical guide for developers considering their own indie projects.

For listeners seeking to understand the blend of technology, artistry, and business in modern indie game dev, this episode is a must-listen.