In this episode, we interview 3 members of Soft Not Weak, the team behind the newly released Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To! We chatted about the development of the game, the game's release, and the team! Thank you to Réjon Taylor-Foster, Alex Abou Karam and Morgan Lavelle for the time and to Jenny Windom for organizing this interview.

Check out Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To: https://spiritswapgame.com/

You can find the team on Bluesky:

• Alex: @dirtbagboyfriend.bsky.social
• Morgan: @justmorgantime.bsky.social
• Réjon: @maximumcrash.com
• Soft Not Weak: @softnotweak.bsky.social

Find timestamps for this episode below:

• 0:00 - Intro
• 3:00 - Icebreaker: "Favorite Gaming Trend of 2025?"
• 8:10 - Start of the interview
• 8:25 - What inspired the mix of puzzle & narrative
• 15:00 - How did you put your stamp on the genre?
• 23:20 - How do you balance new/existing players to Panel de Pon-esque games?
• 32:00 - How did the narrative come to be?
• 33:45 - Were there any fun challenges that you had to overcome?
• 41:45 - Work with meltycanon
• 44:00 - Structure of Soft Not Weak
• 52:40 - Launching a game on Kickstarter
• 1:01:15 - What's next for Spirit Swap and the team?
• 1:03:35 - Outro

Resources:

• Jacob's Final Impressions of Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To
• Luke's Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To Review on LukeWarmGames

Find us on BlueSky for show updates and more:

• Podcast: @crossplayconvos.bsky.social
• Jacob: @jacob.bsky.social
• Luke: @lukewarmlewis.bsky.social
• Joseph: @th3hoopman.bsky.social

Check out our other shows:

• Player Player Podcast
• Left Behind Game Club
• The LukeWarmGames Podcast
• Cutscenes: A Video Game Movie Podcast
• Video Game Trivia