Welcome to Disk Cleanup, a recurring series here at Digital Tech Explorer where we dive deep into the digital lives and personal rigs of the industry’s most influential creators. Each week, your host TechTalesLeo explores the hardware and PC games that define the people behind our favorite software. Today, we’re joined by Dan Marshall, the director of Size Five Games.
Dan Marshall first fell in love with PC gaming at the age of eight. It was a visit to a friend’s house that introduced him to Wolfenstein 3D, a moment that fundamentally shifted his perspective on technology. “It was just such a generational leap,” he recalls. “My brain just did not comprehend what it was saying. It was violent, it was 3D, and it looked exactly like real life.”
Marshall has since become a staple of the British indie scene, steering Size Five Games through celebrated releases like the retro-inspired Time Gentlemen, Please!, the stealthy heist sim The Swindle, and the innovative genre-mashup Lair of the Clockwork God. The studio’s latest venture, Earth Must Die, is a dark comedy adventure that channels modern frustrations into the role of an alien dictator. “I think comedy is better when there’s a serious heart to it,” Marshall explains.
I sat down with Marshall to tour his Steam library and discuss the gaming habits of a veteran developer.
What game are you currently playing?
Quite unusually for me, I’m playing Atomfall despite having just completed it. Normally, when I finish a game, that’s it—I put it down and I don’t really go back for the mopping-up stuff. I initially dismissed Atomfall as just ‘British Fallout,’ but I grabbed it in a sale and fell in love hard. It’s a quaint British village paired with some of the most satisfying first-person shooter mechanics I’ve played in a long time.
The game is a constant string of lovely little mysteries. It’s not all side quests and leveling up; it’s a lot smarter than that. Every room and every building contains clues for your larger objectives, organized in an investigations tab. It’s focused, tense, creepy, and funny in all the right ways. Genuinely, it takes a lot for me to really love a thing these days—I’m 46, so I usually won’t even wear a t-shirt with a logo on it—but I’d probably buy an Atomfall shirt. I loved it that much.
What was the previous game you played, and is it still installed?
That would be Into the Restless Ruins. It’s still installed because I’m actually interested in some of the mechanics it used for my next project. It’s a bit like Tetris in how you build dungeons using cards representing dungeon pieces. You build the layout and then explore it.
It has that amazing Tetris-like feedback loop where you realize, “Shit, my dungeon is a mess and that’s all my fault.” I love that sense of personal accountability for your choices—it’s something we touched on in The Swindle, and I really respect that design philosophy.
What is the oldest game currently installed on your PC?
I still have the original Fallout installed, which dates back to the late ’90s. I actually skipped it back then because I wasn’t into turn-based games as a kid. I finally installed it because of its reputation, but I only lasted about twenty minutes—just long enough to leave the Vault and die in the desert. It’s one of those classics where I’d be all over a modern remake, but the original is tough to go back to.
I also have X-Wing from 1993. That game was astonishing. I remember buying a joystick for Wing Commander and then moving into X-Wing. What’s interesting is the difficulty curve; it’s not linear. You might have a grueling mission followed by a simple escort job. It makes you feel like a jobbing pilot rather than just a player progressing through a video game. It makes the world feel much more grounded.
What is the highest number of hours you have in any given game?
According to Steam, it’s XCOM 2 at 218.9 hours. It’s the only thing on my hard drive that comes even close to that number. It’s an incredibly satisfying game because of that ‘one more turn’ hook.
You finish a mission and tell yourself you’ll just handle the base management and research. Then a new mission pops up involving Chrysalids, and you figure you’ll just check it out. Before you know it, four hours have vanished. It’s deeply rewarding.
What game will you never, ever uninstall?
The answer is still XCOM 2. It’s staying on my drive for emergencies. It’s the perfect fallback.
What’s a piece of non-gaming software you couldn’t live without?
The Snipping Tool. I use it every single day for work and social media. It’s a simple pair of digital scissors for grabbing screenshots or video, but it’s essential. I’m honestly baffled when I meet people who don’t use it. How do you live without Snipping Tool?
How tidy is your desktop screen?
Impeccable. I can’t stand clutter.
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