For decades, the independent toymaker has been eclipsed by corporate toy marketers funding defense-department-sized ad budgets across print, radio, TV, and the internet.

Our chat with thoroughly modern indie toymaker Bobby Vala gives us hope that this hopelessly stacked landscape is shifting, as savvy small operators find ways to harness the power of story to hook and retain players, and engage fans directly through the leveling effects of social media as a direct, two-way communications channel.

Surely this is happy news for players everywhere, from the smallest child to young-at-heart “kidults.”

Recorded over zoom.

Check out Valaverse to see what Bobby’s up to these days.