Inside Indie Selects: Turbo Overkill

From conception to release, the game development journey is different for every independent studio. Sure, there are parts that are similar or that nearly everyone has to go through along the way, but the actual experience differs depending on myriad factors. Some studios have dozens of employees, each of which has a specific role to fill. Others might only have one solo developer handling every step in the process. Regardless of a studio’s size, location, or experience, they’ve each got a story to share with their fellow developers. That’s where we come in.

 Every week, we’ll be spotlighting an independent developer that the ID@Xbox team has chosen to be included in the monthly Indie Select collection. This dedicated, permanent, curated collection in the Xbox Store allows us to bring more attention to games that we feel are particularly special – everything from current favorites to older gems, including games from new creators from around the world. You’ll learn more about the teams building these great games, the challenges they faced along their development journey, what they learned, advice they’d share with other developers, and much more.

 This week, we’ll be taking a look at Trigger Happy Interactive, developer of the ID@Xbox game Turbo Overkill. We had a chance to chat with Sam Prebble, the Founder of Trigger Happy Interactive, about the development journey the team took to publish Turbo Overkill on Xbox.

Tell us a bit about Trigger Happy Interactive.

Sam Prebble, Founder: Trigger Happy Interactive is a small, mostly solo development studio run by me, Sam Prebble, based in Wellington, New Zealand. Turbo Overkill, released in 2023, was the studio’s first major title. I’m largely self-taught, having started out modding games like Doom II in the early 2000s, which eventually led me down the path of creating my own.

What was the inspiration behind Turbo Overkill?

Sam: Being a huge fan of FPS games—especially Doom—I wanted to create a game that felt like the ultimate "greatest hits" of the genre, packed into a single, adrenaline-fueled experience. I borrowed mechanics I loved from other shooters, like the slide system from Apex Legends (which I was playing a lot of at the time) and the Meathook from Doom Eternal. More than anything, I just wanted to make the game I always wished existed—a fast, fluid, and over-the-top shooter that never lets up.

How did Xbox help support the development and/or publishing of Turbo Overkill?

Devon Johnson, Digital Distribution Manager at Apogee, the game’s publisher: Xbox was incredibly supportive throughout the publishing process, helping us navigate our first release on the platform. They answered questions, provided guidance, and gave Turbo Overkill opportunities to reach a broader audience. Events like the Winter Indie Game Fest Demo Event and the Xbox Indie Selects program were instrumental in getting more players to discover and engage with the game. Support like this is crucial for indie titles, and we’re grateful for their help in getting Turbo Overkill in front of more players.

How did Trigger Happy and Apogee work together on Turbo Overkill?

Jeron Moore, Executive Producer at Apogee: Apogee provided extensive support across multiple aspects of Turbo Overkill, including world-building, narrative development, music direction and production, key art direction, script collaboration, and voice casting and directing. We also helped fund development, handled publishing, marketing, QA, and oversaw porting to ensure the game performed optimally across all platforms.

What Apogee really excels at is taking a great concept and helping it reach its full potential. That meant offering creative and development consultation, refining mechanics, pacing, and ensuring Turbo Overkill launched as strong as possible.

The collaboration was a dream. Sam Prebble is an incredibly talented developer and artist, and he came to Apogee with a rock-solid concept. We stepped in where he welcomed us, ensuring the game hit the market in peak form. And this is just the beginning—the Turbo Overkill universe is just getting started. With an upcoming prequel comic, an unannounced sidequel (also led by Prebble), and an inevitable sequel in the pipeline, there’s so much more to come.

What do you want the audience to take away or experience once they play Turbo Overkill?

Jeron: Pure, unfiltered adrenaline. Turbo Overkill is designed to be an exhilarating, dopamine-fueled ride—fast, hyper-responsive, and relentless. We want players to feel the rush of movement, the satisfaction of chaining together brutal kills, and the sheer thrill of stepping into Johnny Turbo’s shoes—a cyberpunk killing machine with a chainsaw leg that isn’t just a gimmick, but a unique and devastating part of the game’s combat flow.

Beyond the action, Turbo Overkill is about Johnny’s high-stakes mission—a vendetta fueled by betrayal and the fight to stop multiple villains from unleashing destruction on Paradise. It’s the ultimate fusion of classic FPS chaos and modern mechanics, blending everything fans love about the boomer shooter subgenre with sleek, deceptively retro, neon-drenched visuals.

At its core, Turbo Overkill makes you feel like you’ve stepped into a lost sci-fi action movie from the ‘80s or ‘90s—where style, speed, and spectacle collide in the most gloriously over-the-top way possible.

Which feature or gameplay mechanic are you most proud of in Turbo Overkill?

Sam: The chainsaw leg, hands down. It started as a fun little experiment in the early prototype stages, but it quickly became the foundation for the entire game. In fact, Turbo Overkill’s cyberpunk setting, combat flow, and movement mechanics all evolved from this one idea. It’s not just a flashy gimmick—it feels completely natural in combat, keeping the action fast and fluid while allowing players to carve through enemies with brutal efficiency.

What's the biggest lesson you learned during development of Turbo Overkill?

Sam: The time you have to spend on a game is finite. When you pour hours into a feature, level or piece of art, time is  taken away from something else you can be doing. It doesn't have to be perfect for it to be great. When I started making Turbo Overkill, I expected a lot of the art I was putting into the game to be placeholder and 'would be replaced later with something cleaner and more final'. But a lot of that placeholder art is still in the game! Letting go of that 'it has to be perfect' mentality allowed me to have a lot of fun on the project, and to not get stuck on problems that were not satisfying to solve.

What was the biggest challenge you overcame during development of Turbo Overkill?

Sam: Learning to throw away work and cut features. It is easy to get attached to something. There were many times a feature or a level would just simply not work, and I would bash my head against it for days trying to make it fit the whole experience, but most of the time, I found simply tossing it and trying something completely new resulted in something far better. It is a mentality that I still have trouble shaking, even with newer projects.

What do you wish you knew going into development of Turbo Overkill?

Sam: Don't take it too seriously, just have fun making it! It took a good year and a half until I realized this, a lot of the work at the start was slow and full of self doubt. Don’t worry about trying to make something that fits the trend, just make what you want to play. That is how you find the fun. If you enjoy making it, it will show in the final product.

What advice would you offer fellow game developers working alone or on a smaller team?

Sam: Make the game you want to play. Get your friends to playtest as early as possible—watching someone else interact with your game is an eye-opener. Never be afraid to create something that might suck at first—perfectionism can be a huge roadblock. Just keep iterating.

At the same time, know when to walk away from an idea. The sunk cost fallacy is real, and getting stuck in an endless development loop isn’t productive. If something isn’t working, shelve it. That doesn’t mean it’s gone forever—you can always come back to it later when the timing is right.

Most importantly, there’s nothing stopping you from making a hit game today. All the tools you need are free, and everything you need to learn is out there on YouTube. Just start.

What’s next for Trigger Happy?

Sam: Right now, I’m working on Total Chaos, a survival horror game based on a Doom mod I originally released in 2018. This new version moves from GZDoom to Unity, bringing advanced lighting, rendering techniques, and a fully reimagined experience. While the foundation remains, this is essentially a complete rebuild, with new mechanics and an expanded narrative. Total Chaos is set for release in Q2 2025.

Beyond that, I’m also working with Apogee on an unannounced Turbo Overkill sidequel, which we’re currently making in UE5. It’s an exciting project with an insanely talented team; we’re building on the Turbo Overkill universe in new ways, and I can’t wait to share more whenever my producers Scott Miller and Jeron Moore say I can.