“We liked the idea that the dangerous environment is above you” - Box Of Greebles’ Thomas Welsh on Tokamak, a new horror game set within Glasgow’s subway system

This month, Indie Horror Gamer caught up with Thomas Welsh of Box Of Greebles to discuss its new game, Tokamak. Tokamak is set underground, inside Glasgow's subway system, a small but ancient network serving the Scottish city. Originally called Loop, Tokamak and its developer have recently hit the Scottish news after the game was nominated as a finalist for the Create Change Challenge at Converge 2026. Read on to find out more.

Hi Tom. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I started writing about ten years ago as a novelist and short story writer, then moved sideways into games as a writer and narrative director on a few projects. Some of the stuff I've worked on includes Cloudpunk, Best Served Cold and Nivalis Nights, which is out soon.

What's the meaning behind your studio's name?

We decided to start our own company for some mad reason, considering the state of the industry right now. So you know that bit in Star Wars where the big spaceship, the Star Destroyer, goes over? All the little bits are called Greebles, random bits you stick onto a model to make it look more impressive. We were having a meeting with someone who was giving us some advice and support when Karl [Poyzer, art director on Tokamak] said we were like a box of Greebles, where all these wee bits add up to more than the sum of our parts. We realised right then that that was our studio name.

Box Of Greebles: Eliott Poyzer, Stark Holborn, Karl Poyzer and Thomas Welsh.

Have you always been into horror games?

I'm 46, so I would go all the way back to playing games on the Spectrum. My first horror game was Friday The 13th on the 48K Spectrum, and then came those seminal titles, Silent Hill and Resident Evil. Akira Yamaoka's music in Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2 really influenced me. I think actually more than the game, the music was so creepy and evocative that it gave me loads of ideas.

Let's get on to Tokamak – why did you change its name?

Loop was a working title, and we shifted to Tokamak a while ago. The tricky thing with the title Loop was that if you searched for it, you're not really going to find your game, but a loop is a big part of [the game], and Tokamak is actually a kind of loop as well. It's an experimental nuclear reactor that loops around and goes on infinitely; that's my understanding of it. Karl came up with the name.

You set the game underground after travelling on the Glasgow subway.

Yeah, the underground is a good setting for horror, and the idea of being trapped down there. We liked the idea that the dangerous environment is above you, it's the rest of the world, and it's seeping down—something's followed you down there. Things have gone wrong, but you're not exactly sure what, so we're playing with that kind of mystery and idea of trauma.

Tell us about the actual Glasgow subway.

I think it's the second-oldest underground in the world, after London. And it's tiny, literally just a loop, which is where we got the initial title from. It's not very big, and the train almost looks like a toy train, it's so small, which I think makes it even creepier in a way.

We have a constant fear of underground stations thanks to a certain early-Eighties horror movie…

You're not the first person to say that! American Werewolf In London seems to be a really influential movie, and there's that shot in the movie where he's going up the escalator, and as he looks down, you see the werewolf crawl into frame. It's such a beautiful scene, but absolutely terrifying!

Agreed! What can we expect in terms of gameplay in Tokamak?

There's definitely some light puzzling, and we have a bit of a hint system so people don't get too stuck. But it's very heavily narrative-based. We all come from writing backgrounds. I'm a novelist, Stark's a narrative director, has written lots of books and was the lead writer on Shadows Of Doubt. Karl writes a web series called Floaters, which is great. Ben [Thomas, not pictured] writes novels, including Jack Be Quick, and he's written lots of short stories. So it's definitely story-based and narrative-driven. There are a lot of characters to meet and choices to make, hard decisions about who lives and who dies down there on the subway. We're all fond of black humour, surreal situations, and real absurdist horror. If you like, say, the kind of scary monster bits of Alien Isolation combined with some of the storytelling and darkness of Mouthwashing, you've got general idea for what we're doing with Tokamak.

Will the game have voice acting?

That's certainly our plan. We're lucky, as again, we've got all sorts of talent within the team. Stark does a little bit of voice acting as well, so she's filled in for some of the characters. But we will be looking to expand out that cast and get local voices, Glasgow-based voice performers, hopefully. Karl comes from photography and film, so he's got lots of actor friends to help with all the cameras, and we're playing with some interesting FMV elements to shake things up.

How is development going? What stage are you at now?

If anyone asks, we tell them we're still at the prototype stage. We're not a million miles away from a demo, and we'd like to have a Steam page soon, too. But you're catching us early, and you're the first person to chat with us. We've been shortlisted for the Converge competition here in Scotland, and the profile that's brought us, competing with these other big businesses, has shot us into the spotlight a bit earlier than we expected. But we are quite excited to tell people about [our game]. Scotland has good regional funding, such as Creative Scotland. There are the big studios, with Rockstar and GTA the biggest, not just the biggest game or entertainment product, but the biggest thing in the world right now. So there's definitely talent here in Scotland, although we've got a pretty multinational team.

But you're in Glasgow?

I'm in Glasgow, yeah. But I would say, although we're making a horror game, Glasgow is pretty friendly on the whole. Like anywhere, we've got our ups and downs, and I think there's a little bit of talk just now about Glasgow getting demonised in the news. But I've lived here all my life, and for the most part, it's been a pretty friendly place.

Where can people follow you on social media?

We're most active on Instagram and Bluesky as Box Of Greebles. We've got nothing more than a few screenshots at the moment, but we are close to having an announcement trailer. So yeah, that's probably where you would want to follow us if you're interested.

Thank you so much for your time, Tom, and we look forward to seeing Tokamak's demo soon. Keep an eye on Indie Horror Gamer for a coming soon preview.