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May 2, 2025 • 14 mins

Sam speaks with founder and creative director of Lightmare Studios, Elphie Coyle, about Lightmare's work over the past 25 years and their initiatives, including a social gaming group and newly-inaugurated coding initiative aimed at technology-minded individuals with disabilities to share common interests, join together and learn new skills in a fun, relaxed environment.

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Episode Transcript

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S1 (00:04):
Elfie Coyle is the founder and creative director of Nightmare Studios,
a games company and training academy for people with disabilities,
to get involved in creating games and joining together to
enjoy gaming in a social setting. But more recently, we

(00:28):
can reveal on Talking Vision that they are set to
launch the Vibe Coding initiative, kicking off late this month
for early adopters to the program, and it's my great
pleasure to be joined by Elfie right now to talk
all about it. Elfie, welcome to Talking Vision. Thank you

(00:49):
very much for your time.

S2 (00:51):
Thanks for having me, Sam.

S1 (00:53):
Now, firstly, Elfie, let's jump into some details around your
company Light Mare Games. Tell our listeners all about it.

S2 (01:02):
Yeah, so Light Mare Studios is a video game studio, primarily. Um,
but we've also been supporting those who want to learn
how to make video games and want to learn social
skills as well, through making and playing games. For the
last 17 years. So yeah, we've basically been very well
known within the game development, education and the broader disability
sectors over that time.

S1 (01:23):
Before that, 17 years. So 17 years ago, around that time,
how did Nightmare Studios come about? Where did the idea
spring from?

S2 (01:32):
Yeah, so I started in 2007 because I become financially
independent through a couple of phone shops and had just
really got obsessed with playing video games. And then after
a few months of trying to become a pro gamer
and failing miserably, I decided to actually combine my two
passions of games and business and create a game studio.
That's where it began.

S1 (01:51):
Okay. And, um, what's been the main things that Nightmare
Studios have been up to over the 17 years? Give
us a bit of a highlight package.

S2 (02:02):
Yeah, absolutely. So we started in a garage back in 2007, 2008.
We ended up moving into and purchasing an internet cafe,
and then we operated out of that internet cafe during
the day, and then at night it was internet cafe.
That's kind of our humble beginnings. We made a few
small titles, eventually got some success with a title called

(02:23):
Infinity Wars, and people have been playing it since 2011. Uh,
we've been going pretty much that whole time with that
game and continuing to to serve that across the world
to over half a million players have played our game.
And so that's one of the highlights during that time,
we also got the rights to, uh, Star Trek The
Next Generation and have that as part of our card
set as well. But the whole time that we've been
doing video game creation in the background, we've or in

(02:46):
the foreground as well as the background, we've been making
programs for participants who want to learn either game development
skills or social skills. And so through that time, we've
actually helped over over 3000 young people gain qualifications and
even employment in game development. And a good third of
those are actually those with a disability.

S1 (03:04):
Oh, wow. And has Nightmare Studios always had that focus on,
you know, disability and accessibility from day one, or did
that organically develop over the time where you sort of
saw a niche and thought, you know, this is something
we really want to be a part of and really

(03:24):
get into that space and make a difference there.

S2 (03:29):
Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, the idea of actually working specifically
in disability wasn't something that we intended to do. We
had organically done that through, you know, having these participants
come in and do, um, game development courses with us
and traineeships and actually get paid to, to make video games.
And through that process, we noticed that there was a
large number of those, um, coming through that had some

(03:50):
form of disability. It turns out that the industry itself
has at least a 30% number of people who are
identified as having a disability. So it ends up really
lending lending itself well, particularly to those on the spectrum.
So yeah, we kind of stumbled into that fact that
we had helped so many people with disabilities and had
done that for years and years before. We even looked
at other ways we could directly help those with this disability.

(04:13):
So we've only directly gone out to have programs that,
for example, could have participants in it using using NDIS services.
Only about three years ago. But we've been helping people
with disabilities that whole 17 years.

S1 (04:23):
Oh, wow. And had you or, you know, members of
your team had much experience with disability before encountering it,
with clients and people coming in and taking part in,
you know, the activities that, like Mayor Games had to offer.
And what was that learning curve like for you and

(04:44):
the team?

S2 (04:46):
Sure. Well, it wasn't that hard a jump for us
because we, like myself, I have ADHD and a number
of other our staff members have got, um, various disabilities
of some sort. So we found that we actually ended
up really resonating with those with disability, particularly those on
the spectrum very naturally anyway, because a number of us,
upwards of half of us had some form of, uh,

(05:07):
something on the spectrum or something, uh, that made us
able to relate to those who were coming through. So obviously,
as we've expanded to focus on those with a disability,
we've encountered people with different disabilities that we haven't come
across before, which is obviously provided some accessibility challenges that
we've had to work through. But yeah, we've been very
happy to work through those and just, you know, even

(05:27):
just feeling the impact on the participants who, you know,
have received our services and have made a huge difference
in their lives, um, that's definitely made any kind of, um,
issues with, with trying to get that coordinated. Very much
worth it.

S1 (05:41):
So cool. And, um, following on from that, Alfie, I'd
love to have a chat about a couple of programs
that Nightmare Studios are involved with lately, starting off with
the Vibe coding initiative. Tell us a bit about that one.

S2 (05:57):
Yeah, so the Vibe Coding initiative is a brand new initiative.
So I would need to talk about the broader group
that we're focusing on lately first. But basically we have
a social games community that connects our veteran game developers,
as well as community managers and even those who work
in various other roles in a clinical sense with those

(06:17):
that are passionate about video games. And yeah. And then
a lot of those participants are actually secretly suffering from
loneliness and social anxiety as well. So the community basically
gets together and either plays games or creates games. And
then that allows a space for people to develop their
social skills whilst engaging with them, something that they love

(06:38):
as it could be like Minecraft or digital art, or
game design, or even virtual Dungeons and Dragons that we
do as well. And so ultimately, our purpose is to
transform lives through games. And so we'll we'll find various
means to do that. And the latest one of those
is the coding group. So happy to cover that unless
you've got another question in the meantime.

S1 (06:59):
No, that's um, that's really interesting. Um, did you have
any more details about the social games groups? Because that's, um,
that's quite, um, intriguing as well. How long has that
been going for and what sort of reception have you
had over the years when it has been running.

S2 (07:17):
Yeah. So it's only been going for about three years now,
which is probably a long time in the space. But
certainly the program itself has had a great reception. So
participants obviously a lot of them love video games, and
there's a lot of people out there who love video
games and are missing like a third space, what they
call a third space, or a safe space where people
can come together and not be at work or be
at home like, yeah, so that allows them to actually connect.

(07:40):
A lot of them connect online. So it is actually
done primarily through online, but it allows them to still
enjoy that social aspect, no matter where they are, and
have that community of people that they form genuine connections
with and genuine friendships with. And yeah, we've had a
lot of participants come back to us saying that they
love the program and it's changed their life. It's become
like an extension of their family for some of them.

S1 (08:00):
Oh, that's fantastic. And it certainly is a great time
to jump back into the details around vibe coding. Now
we've got a bit of that context and you know
how it's become that offshoot of the social games groups.
Why don't we jump into the details around vibe coding?

S2 (08:20):
Yeah, so vibe coding as a concept has only been
around for a couple of months now. It's very recently
started to hit the mainstream of people who are interested
in AI or interested in game development in some way.
And so it's a, it's a, it's a form of
coding that's available now. People can just jump in and
actually start coding today. They can connect up a large
language model to their coding environment and then also and

(08:44):
then from there from just doing that, they can actually
type and talk to the AI like the same as
you would ask an AI about a particular topic or whatever.
You would ask it to make a game using whatever
parameters and whatever things you want to have in it,
and it would go away and actually make that game
for you. And so when you first ask it to
do it, it'll produce a bunch of code, and then

(09:05):
you can test it out. And if you find anything
you want to improve, or if you find any mistakes
that you want it to fix, then you would have
it be fixed through engaging in conversation with the AI
and not actually typing a single line of code.

S1 (09:18):
Are there any sort of details around where and when
the vibe coding sessions will take place? Is that set
in stone yet for people?

S2 (09:28):
Yeah, so we've actually teed up our first vibe coding
session for the last day of this month. So it
should be the 30th of this month, the Wednesday night.
And that'll be the first like official vibe coding session.
It'll be done still in the social games development community
that we have. That happens on a Wednesday night. And
so participants will people can just come along and check
out the program, at least before the actual Vibe coding day,

(09:51):
to just see if they find that they're a fit
for joining the community. They can come along for a
free session. And then if they enjoy that free session
and want to start coming along, then that would be
the way that they could start coming along to these
vibe coding sessions that we will be having at least fortnightly,
if not weekly, based on the interest.

S1 (10:06):
Well that's fantastic. There's a little sneak peek vibe coding
session for people to dip their toe in and have
a go check it out and see if it's the
right thing for them. That's a great way to do it.
And elfi in terms of where the sessions are taking place.
I understand it's mostly online, but have there been other

(10:30):
in-person things that have happened and possibly coming up in
the future?

S2 (10:35):
Yeah, absolutely. So we do deliver it primarily online and
as to 99% of Australia. So basically if you have
a broadband internet connection, you can join the program. And
for those that want to progress to doing something in person,
because often it takes a lot more confidence to come
in and do it in face to face. And we
prefer to actually meet our participants where they're at, what

(10:57):
they prefer to do. But we have done some in-person
things in the past, and we're actually looking at doing
some more events starting in Brisbane in the coming months
as well. In person at a yeah, a studio location.

S1 (11:09):
Alright, cool. And um, you mentioned there that one of
the initial vibe coding sessions is free, but what's the
sort of structure for prices going forward with either the
social games groups or the vibe coding sessions if people
would like to take part.

S2 (11:29):
Sure. So if people want to participate in the social
games community beyond the first discovery session, there is a
nominal charge that we would have per session if we're
doing it under a fee for service, but it is
covered completely by services like the NDIS. There's no out-of-pocket
for the participants at all if they happen to be
on the NDIS and otherwise. Yeah, we have rather nominal
charges for services each week that can come from other

(11:50):
places if they wanted to fund it, but yeah.

S1 (11:52):
All right. Cool. If people would like to find out
more about the social games groups or vibe coding, or
maybe they just want to find out a bit more
about Nightmare Studios, what are the best ways for people
to do that?

S2 (12:08):
Yeah, the best way would be to hop on to
social Dot light and it's spelled l I g h
t m a r e. So like nightmare but with light.
So that's social.light.com.au a U. And that has a page
about the social games community in general. And then as
far as the vibe coding part, they would need to

(12:30):
maybe just when they express interest on the on the form,
mention the vibe coding as an interest, and we'll try
and get them in for an earlier session so that
they can still join that session, the first session coming
up on the 30th. Obviously, we're going to have more
than just the one session, so there's no real urgency.
But if they want to be one of the very
founding people in the vibe coding group, then that would
be the best way to do that. Just go to social.com.

(12:50):
Fill out the form, and then we can coordinate for
them to have a free discovery session to see if
they like it. And then the other thing to mention
as well is, um, you know, those who have vision impairment,
there's also means and tools that we can connect the
participant to so that they can actually start to vibe
code without touching a keyboard, and they can create something
auditory or whatever they want to create, again, just through

(13:12):
vocal conversation, instead of having to type, they can just
talk to the AI and the AI talks to the Mac.
So that's another thing we'll be setting up with those
who have some form of inability to type, or they'd
prefer to just do it through voice.

S1 (13:23):
Oh, That's incredible. No, that sounds fantastic. Well, I'm really
looking forward to seeing how the Vibe coding initiative goes.
Let's possibly catch up in a few months, and we
can get a little bit of a progress report and
tell us a bit about how the first six months
have gone. So that's very exciting. Looking forward to catching

(13:44):
up with you then. I've been speaking today with Elfie Coyle,
founder and creative director of Lightmass Studios, in charge of
game development and a training academy for people with disabilities
to get involved in social gaming and more recently, the

(14:05):
Vibe coding initiative coming up very shortly. Elfie, thank you
so much for your time today. It was great to
catch up with you and chat about all the things
Lightmass Studios has been up to.

S2 (14:18):
It's been fantastic chatting with you Sam, and I'm looking
forward to potentially coming back with some of the, you know,
maybe some of the projects that some of the participants
have worked on would be really cool to check out
as well.
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