PAX Australia 2023: The Rise of The Indies

It is with a tired body but a full heart that I write this article about the 10^th PAX Australia. A time where gamers from all over the country and some even from across the pond. Bring their love of gaming, be it video or board, to my hometown of Melbourne to celebrate all things gaming.

As the gaming community ascended on Jeff’s shed, the excitement to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of PAX Australia was electric. As I walked in with my coffee, I could already see that the horde of people waiting in the waiting area and more and more people just filed in. The amazing enforcers kept the waiting crowd going, hyping them up. And it is weird amongst all the chaos and mayhem; It felt like home.

As the clock struck 9 on Friday, media hour began and we were see our first glimpses of PAX Australia 2023.

As I walked around PAX during media hour. I notice it had a very different feel to the last two years. The last two years was very tech heavy, don’t get me wrong, I love tech as we all know. But it felt more about the technology fair than the actual gaming event. This year seemed different, as gaming was back on the agenda!

The Rise of The Indies

And the Agenda for PAX Australia 2023 seemed to be Indies.

And to be fair, other than Nintendo and Sega, there was very few big brand companies there that were showing their games Which is surprised me a little bit, being that Ubisoft has just released Assassin’s Creed, so I expected them to be there in force.

But for some reason, they were not, so it was the Indy’s time to shine. And shine they did.

There were so many amazing games. There was a plethora of different styles, different types, different genres; so there was something for everyone. It really was beautiful to see.

I’ve never seen a better of bunch of Indies and that is why this article is called The Rise of the Indies because it really did feel like PAX was paying homage to those homegrown games. And by homegrown I am including New Zealand and our Southeast Asian designers that made the trip down.

This honestly must be the first PAX that I’ve spent almost a day and a half in Indies and could have spent another week in there. There were just so many great games from right across this Australasian region. It shows that the game design industry is only growing from strength to strength.

The future of gaming looks bright; and it’s going to be led by small studios and I’m loving that.

Best of the Indies

I feel like this is probably going to be the hardest part of the article to write. Because I wanted to give a top five of my favourite Indies. You know, I feel like it is going to be impossible just to stick to just five.

So here we go with just five in hand. I’m going to try to do this, so my top five of the Indies for packs were:

Number 5 – On Point by Actuator Digital

On point felt like. I think the best way to describe it is a VR version of Point Blank, a game that I was obsessed with in the early 90s in early 2000s. One that I sucked at, but when I love nonetheless. My only issue with this game, and the reason why it is not higher because I had so much fun playing it, is that it is VR. And my stomach & VR for some reason don’t mix.

But if you if you have a VR set, I highly recommend this game. It has a bunch of mini games that are wacky & ridiculous. And if you’re fan like me of Point Blank, this game is a must have.

Number 4 – Broken Roads by Drop Bear Bytes

Other than having the coolest studio name, this game that for some reason felt so familiar to me and I couldn’t figure out why, and it wasn’t until the second time I came around that the devs told me that it was at PAX Online 2020.

This X-COM style game set is set in a post-apocalyptic Australian Outback. That kind of looks a lot like just the Australia Outback. But the thick Australian accents & X-COM gameplay. Just had me wanting more. I think I actually played it twice or three times.

Number 3 – Ailuri by Vivink Studios

This beautiful hand drawn platformer allows us to become probably one of the cutest animals alive, The endangered red panda. As you explore, swing, grapple and climb your way through the beautiful landscape you encounter fun little puzzles & find secret areas, all while weirdly, learning about endangered species.

This game is educational but fun and beautiful. And I don’t know what it is about this game or if it’s just the adorable red panda, but for some reason, this one just really struck a chord with me. And the hood is a single player. I think I’m going to have to gift one my friends Ailuri because I really want it play the Co-op version.

 

 

Number 2 – Copycat by Spoonful of Wonder

I really hope Kelly doesn’t read this article because she’s going to be pretty mad at me for putting this is number 2 and not number 1 because I know this is one of her favourite games at PAX Australia. If you’ve read her article, you can see how excited she was.But on the Sunday, I kept my promise. Was it a promise or more that I could not deal with the bullying any longer, so I had to go play Copycat.

This two-person dev team truly have made an amazing game. The animation of how the cats run and walk with their feet position & how they jump and their ears go back. It just felt so real and that you were the cat.

Not to mention adding into some of these cheeky little things like scraping the toilet paper off the roll or pawing the plate closer to you so you could stealing chicken off a plate or knocking stuff off benches. I don’t know what it was about this game, but it really does just make you feel like a cat, which feels weird to say. Massa. If I could have an equal number one, this would probably be on there.

Number 1 – Box Knight by We Made a Thing Studios

As somebody that loves RPG, roguelike dungeon crawlers. This may not have been the best game at PAX, but this really just; I don’t know how to explain it, but made me so happy.  It was silly. It was fun. It had so many elements of games that I just loved over the years, that I had to just put it at #1.

And I think their steam page sums it up perfectly. “A mix of the Office and Lord of the Rings with a comic like aesthetic.”

The clock strikes 5:00 PM on Friday and suddenly you take the role of this heroic, Box Knight, which is pretty much just your everyday office worker with a box on his head and what looks like 2 rulers tired together. You battle your way through the different office levels trying to get to the big boss. It is so silly and I feel like after a hard day’s work I could see myself coming home and playing several hours of this.

Final thoughts on PAX Australia 2023

The end of PAX is always a hard thing because for three days it’s been coming together & celebration of our shared passion and love for gaming.

And this year really celebrated that. It felt like it was a giving back to the community. From big tech brands like MSI, ROG & intel, to the computer building giants of Aftershock & the up-and-coming brands like Bluemouth and Power A offering us a customised and colourful way to enjoy our games.

And as always PAX Australia offered us a celebration friendship in coming together, no matter what your creed, race, gender, sexuality, or religion. All that mattered was our shared love for gaming and that is what this PAX Australia meant to me.