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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan)

@oliverjoyce.bsky.social
326 followers 189 following 98 posts

Owner, Whiskeybarrel Studios. Currently working on Lair of the Leviathan. Creator of the Swords and Sandals series. Grizzled game dev greybeard.

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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
At long last, my Swords and Sandals 2 Classic ( yes, the one from 2006! ) is *finally* available on a mobile phone. Twenty years in the making, kinda. play.google.com/store/apps/d...
play.google.com
Swords and Sandals 2 Classic - Apps on Google Play
The legendary ORIGINAL classic Swords and Sandals 2, finally here on your phone!
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I'm back! First YouTube video in over 8 months. 🎥 This is what happens when you get *serious* about game dev, you don't have time for pursuing the bright lights of YouTube stardom anymore. www.youtube.com/watch?v=irQY...
youtube.com
I come back to you now ... at the turn of the tide
YouTube video by Whiskeybarrel Studios
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Gameplay of a five-a-side match between two spirited rivals in Heroic Sports Football. ⚽️⚔️ If you like a healthy dose of violence with your sport, check it out - coming to Steam this August 28! store.steampowered.com/app/4301960/... #wishlistWednesday #football
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Surprise drop! Heroic Sports Football, a combat football game way back in the ancient days of 2009, returns! store.steampowered.com/app/4301960/...
store.steampowered.com
Heroic Sports Football : Enhanced Edition on Steam
With very few rules, on field fatalities and quick, hectic matches, Heroic Sports Football : Enhanced Edition is the remedy against stat-heavy, lumbering football simulations. It’s football the way it...
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Woke up this morning feeling like I could take on the whole universe. Working on a massive RPG like Lair of the Leviathan is the most challenging / most fun project I've ever been part of. It's the journey, not the destination, and what a journey.
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Here's another classic mage spell for targeting multiple foes at once!
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Like what you see? Check out the latest dev news on Lair of the Leviathan here. Lots of info about combat, new larger towns and adding 'juice' to special FX. store.steampowered.com/news/app/275...
store.steampowered.com
Lair of the Leviathan - News from the Lair - July - Steam News
*We have fireballs!* Exploring combat, new special effects and a closer look at the new improved towns.
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
You can't officially say you're making an RPG until you've implemented a fireball spell.
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Reposted by Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan)
Edmond Tran @edmondtran.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
One thing I've learned from operating an independent reader-funded games publication is that I'm absolute dogshit at self-promotion and I need to get better at that. Anyway, just letting you know This Week in Videogames had its first anniversary like two weeks ago lol pls subscribe to keep us alive
thisweekinvideogames.com
Sign Up
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
In this month's big Lair of the Leviathan developer update: * Towns have been reworked (Now at the same scale as dungeons!) * Fiendish new traps to disarm! * Loading and savegame system And more ... if you're a fan of old school CRPG's, join us! store.steampowered.com/news/app/275...
store.steampowered.com
Lair of the Leviathan - News from the Lair - June - Steam News
Exploration at scale, dangerous new traps, persistent savegames and more!
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
"It's a trap!" Discovering and disarming traps is now possible for the skilled rogue while you explore one of the many dungeons of Lair of the Leviathan. (This trap of course was a zero difficulty for test purposes, otherwise there's every chance poor Gwydion would be skewered.)
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Ah thanks for saying so! Hoping to get a short demo out around October this year and then Early Access October next year ( and then probably a full year after that until full launch ... these RPGs take forever to build, I'm discovering!)
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
You just stumbled upon the final boss for the game!!!
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
In Lair of the Leviathan, the party switches from free movement to a tactical grid when battle begins. The idea was to try and capture that feeling of the classic "Gold Box" era with the large tactical grid (minus the weird isometric angles!) #rpg #gamedev
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
BATTLE BEGINS! First look at combat in Lair of the Leviathan in this month's Steam post. This is a really cool update. store.steampowered.com/news/app/275...
store.steampowered.com
Lair of the Leviathan - The Battle Is Joined! - Steam News
Showing off some in-game tactical combat. Melee / ranged attacks, opportunity attacks and more!
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Reposted by Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan)
Just2D @just2d.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Drova for mobile (Android/iOS) is out now! * Fully customizable controls * Customizable menus and fonts * Full controller support * No microtransactions * Try the demo now!
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Reposted by Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan)
D13 Michael -> Gamescom 2026 @crashoberbreit.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Has been quite a ride to get Drova on mobile. So let's take a look at why it happened. And why experts call us crazy and why Apple and Google lack a lot of things. Thread incoming.
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
April's nearly done and finally we're working on the combat section of Lair of the Leviathan. So many numbers and dice rolls! Here's the latest on our retro RPG, including some really cool new pixel art town interiors. store.steampowered.com/news/app/275...
store.steampowered.com
Lair of the Leviathan - April Updates: Battle Begins! - Steam News
In this month's news, we're *finally* working on combat. Also, some cool new town interiors.
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Gladiators! Once again, Swords and Sandals Classic Collection is a featured Steam Daily Deal. There's never been a better time to play a game from 2006 (in gaming terms, basically older than the actual colosseum) store.steampowered.com/app/1055430/...
store.steampowered.com
Save 60% on Swords and Sandals Classic Collection on Steam
"Gladiator, gladiator, gladiator, Swords and Sandals, Gladiatorrrrr!"You grew up playing the legendary Swords and Sandals turn based combat game series. These games have been played over half a billion times. Swords and Sandals is nostalgia, Swords and Sandals is life.
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
(Meant to say tankard, but hell lets make it a whole tavern!)
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Cheers, innkeeper! A tavern in your honour!
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Time for the March game dev update from Lair of the Leviathan! Road testing the editor tools! New character art, tons of new props, NPC interactions, pathfinding and more... store.steampowered.com/news/app/275...
store.steampowered.com
Lair of the Leviathan - March Update : Taverns and forges, building a world one room at a time - Steam News
Road testing the editor tools! New character art, tons of new props, NPC interactions, pathfinding and more.
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Great to have you aboard, Deus!
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Thanks Jim - yeah it's funny, I never set out to make an editor at all, what started as a small series of tools for us to be able to work on maps together has spiralled into a full on RPG maker! Appreciate the support mate.
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Yeah been a while, but slowly but surely we're ramping things up - will have some nice announcements coming soon. Been mostly building editor tools the last 18 months!
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
High praise indeed, I LOVE Dungeonmans!!! You're an icon in the indie RPG/roguelike space Jim!
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
You have impeccable quality in gaming, friend!
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
The other games? Knights of Legend, the Gold Box SSI D&D games and Ultima VI. ⚔️Find out more and wishlist Lair of the Leviathan here: store.steampowered.com/app/2752020/...
store.steampowered.com
Lair of the Leviathan on Steam
Lair of the Leviathan is an open world RPG that aims to capture the best parts of classic RPGs of the past where you lead a party of heroes as you fight your way through a large, completely hand craft...
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
The indie game I am making and three of the inspirations behind it.
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Greetings from the Lair! Let's take a deep dive into the powerful suite of editor tools we've created for our RPG Lair of the Leviathan. Everything from terrain and lights to encounter logic and more. store.steampowered.com/news/app/275... #gamedev #indiedev
store.steampowered.com
Lair of the Leviathan - Checking out our POWERFUL RPG Editor Tools - Steam News
Take a look at some the powerful custom RPG editor tools we're using to build Lair of the Leviathan!
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
News from Lair of the Leviathan! Join me as I regale you with what we achieved in 2025 and where our epic retro RPG is headed to for next year and beyond. store.steampowered.com/news/app/275...
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Gladiators! Swords and Sandals 3 Redux is now on Google Play, so you can experience the glory of the arena wherever you are in the world. play.google.com/store/apps/d...
play.google.com
Swords and Sandals 3 Redux - Apps on Google Play
The classic Swords and Sandals 3 is back, the most metal gladiator game ever!!
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
The single greatest Swords and Sandals video ever made just dropped. Absolute masterclass cinema comedy. youtu.be/C3calLMX3bY
youtu.be
Swords and Sandals 3 Redux Is the Best in the Series
YouTube video by BubberTubber
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Cheers for a century of reviews, gladiators. May fortune smile upon you in the arena, except for those who left a thumbs down, may you live a long life watching in fear from the arena stands. #gameDev
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
The duality of Steam, an emotional rollercoaster told in two reviews. #gameDev
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
You're one of the good eggs! I can appreciate that, it's unfortunate that there's so much noise to sift through for both devs and content creators, as there's so much we rely on each other for to survive in this crazy biz.
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Hell yeah, without genuine content creators my games would have disappeared long, long ago. Solidarity! Sometimes a lot of the nuance is lost on a post. Launch days can be a hellscape of stress for all involved, even after so many I get stressed out of my mind.
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
As an aside, @shaunmusgrave.bsky.social , I just checked out your site and it is fantastic, so much good stuff about the golden era of retro consoles (Neo Geo!!). I'm a huge Sega fan from way back in the Wonder Boy in Monster Land days so this is fascinating to me.
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Only takes a minute to do a bit of research, the same way I research the content creators who have played my previous games and/or similar games and explain why my game is a good fit. Otherwise if we just hand out dozens of keys to these resellers we keep feeding the trolls who profit off our work
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
...if you're a genuine creator, tailor your email to the game you're requesting! Try to help us sift through the waves of key scammers (cause they are prodigious now!) Like you might mention my name, what caught your eye about the game specifically and why your audience might be interested.
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Alright fair points and I should have phrased my post better but before the pile-on continues, I literally received over 60 emails in the last 24 hours and all were generic scam requests. I go out of my way to find and email many relevant streamers with keys (as they are a vital cog!), however...
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Pro tip when you launch a game. You're gonna get *so many* key requests - ignore them all. Straight into the bin, report them as junk. They're 99.9999% scammers and key resellers. Any streamer/reviewer worth their salt will buy the game or be one that *you* contacted. #gameDev
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
You can buy the game in mere hours here: store.steampowered.com/app/2116620/...
store.steampowered.com
Swords and Sandals 3 Redux on Steam
A legend returns! The beloved classic Swords and Sandals 3 is back, re-forged in glory! Step back into the Gladiae Ultratus once more and prepare to take on the greatest gladiators in all Brandor. It'...
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
The trumpets ring out, the arena gates open the heralds call your name. Destiny awaits, gladiator! (Actually releases later today, in my infinite wisdom I messed up my timing on these countdown pics)
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Wishlist Swords and Sandals 3 Redux here: store.steampowered.com/app/2116620/...
store.steampowered.com
Swords and Sandals 3 Redux on Steam
A legend returns! The beloved classic Swords and Sandals 3 is back, re-forged in glory! Step back into the Gladiae Ultratus once more and prepare to take on the greatest gladiators in all Brandor. It'...
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
As the hours dwindle, the pressure intensifies. The anticipation of battle and brimstone weighs heavy on the heart of every gladiator.
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Wishlist Swords and Sandals 3 Redux on Steam here: store.steampowered.com/app/2116620/...
store.steampowered.com
Swords and Sandals 3 Redux on Steam
A legend returns! The beloved classic Swords and Sandals 3 is back, re-forged in glory! Step back into the Gladiae Ultratus once more and prepare to take on the greatest gladiators in all Brandor. It'...
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Gladiators from beyond the stars shall also join the battle, wielding powerful armour-shredding weapons on their way to glory and fortune.
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
Wishlist Swords and Sandals 3 Redux here: store.steampowered.com/app/2116620/...
store.steampowered.com
Swords and Sandals 3 Redux on Steam
A legend returns! The beloved classic Swords and Sandals 3 is back, re-forged in glory! Step back into the Gladiae Ultratus once more and prepare to take on the greatest gladiators in all Brandor. It'...
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Oliver Joyce (Lair of the Leviathan) @oliverjoyce.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
There is courage and honour to be found amidst the horrors of the arenas ... small mercies shown, acts of generosity ... lives spared. The Gladiae Ultratus will reveal the true nature of the gladiator.
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