Here’s what you can look forward to this September
It’s hard to believe, but PAX West is only a few weeks away. One of the most interesting parts of PAX each year is the Indie Megabooth, an area of the show floor highlighting upcoming releases from smaller developers that might otherwise slip through the cracks.
This will be the fifth consecutive year for the Megabooth at PAX West, and they broke down what will be available at the show this year. It’s quite a list!
- 2064: Read Only Memories – MidBoss
- 20XX – Batterystaple Games
- Antihero – Tim Conkling
- Asura – Ogre Head Studio
- Astroneer – System Era Softworks
- Battle Chef Brigade – Trinket Studios
- Basement – Halfbus
- Blade Ballet – Dreamsail Games
- Blasters of the Universe – Secret Location
- Bleed 2 – Ian Campbell
- Burly Men at Sea – Brain&Brain
- Celeste – Matt Makes Games
- Chasm – Bit Kid
- Death Squared – SMG Studio
- Eco – Global Survival Game – Strange Loop Games
- ECHO – ULTRA ULTRA
- Flinthook – Tribute Games
- GoNNER – Raw Fury
- Just Shapes & Beats – Berzerk Studio
- Karma: Incarnation 1 – AuraLab
- Korix – StellarVR
- Luna – Funomena
- Mages of Mystralia – Borealys Games
- Monsters & Monocles – Retro Dreamer
- Obduction – Cyan
- Open Sorcery – Abigail Corfman
- Overload – Revival Productions
- Project Highrise – SomaSim
- Redout – 34BigThings
- RIVE – Two Tribes
- Secret Legend – ISOMETRICORP Games
- Shoot Shoot Mega Pack – Actual Humans
- Sometimes Always Monsters – Vagabond Dog
- Skytorn – Matt Makes Games
- StarCrawlers – Juggernaut Games
- Thimbleweed Park – Terrible Toybox
- Through the Woods – Antagonist
- VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action – Sukeban Games
- Viking Squad – Slick Entertainment
- Wandersong – Matt Makes Games
- YIIK: A Postmodern RPG – Ackk Studios
There are more games being released now than at any time in history, and the Megabooth will be making a change this year to reflect that. 41 games will be showing for all four days of the convention, but 32 games will share space in the Minibooth, rotating so that 16 are available each day. The Minibooth is the first thing most people see as they enter the Megabooth’s space, but each game in that area gets just a single demo station. Here are the games you’ll be able to check out in the Minibooth:
On Friday and Saturday:
- Astronaut: The Best – Universal Happymaker
- Crest – Eat Create Sleep
- DEADBOLT – Hopoo Games
- Den vänstra handens stig – Newmark Software
- Empathy – Pixel Night
- For The King – IronOak Games
- Forts – EarthWork Games
- Frog Climbers – TeamCrew
- Lightspeed Frontier – Crowdwork Studios
- Mainlining – Rebelephant
- Replica – Somi
- Semispheres – Vivid Helix
- Shio – Coconut Island Studio
- The Church in the Darkness – Paranoid Productions
- The Fall Part 2: Unbound – Over The Moon Games
- TumbleSeed – aeiowu
On Sunday and Monday:
- a•part•ment: a separated place – The Elsewhere Company
- Children of Morta – Dead Mage
- Dog Sled Saga – Trichotomy
- Elsinore – Golden Glitch Studios
- Fitz the Fox – Bread Vision Studios
- Fort Triumph – Fort Triumph
- Graceful Explosion Machine – Vertex Pop
- Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander – Massive Damage
- Masquerada: Songs and Shadows – Witching Hour Studios
- Pixel: ru² – C63 Industries
- Political Animals – Positech Games
- Ruby & Majesty: Treasure Team – TheWzzard
- She Remembered Caterpillars – Jumpsuit Entertainment
- Solitairica – Righteous Hammer Games
- We Are Chicago – Culture Shock Games
- West of Loathing – Asymmetric
In addition to the video games, ten new tabletop games will also be showcased in the Megabooth’s floor space. These will be displayed during the entire show, but demonstrations with the creators will share space with Cards Against Humanity in the ACT theater, and these demos will rotate days as well. Here’s what you can find in the tabletop area:
On Friday-Saturday at IMB & Sunday-Monday at ACT Theater with CAH:
- Breaker Blocks – Spriteborne
- Complicated Board Game the Card Game – Offcut Games
- Flapjack Flipout – Mind the Gap Studios
- H.E.A.D. Hunters – Gut Shot Games
- JunKing – Junk Spirit Games
On Sunday-Monday at IMB & Friday-Saturday at ACT Theater with CAH:
- Phoenix Covenant – Hikari Games
- Spiredice – Mikeware
- Spirit Realms: The Throne Wars – The Raven & The Widow
- Thanks For Coming In! – Palm Court
- True Messiah – Sinister Design
You can check out the map of their floor space here. With over 70 games at the show this year, it’d probably be easy to spend all of PAX in the Megabooth and still not see everything, but I’m gonna try. I’ll be interested to check out Overload, which looks a lot like Descent, and intend to try out the Maniac Mansion spiritual successor Thimbleweed Park. If there’s anything on the list that you’d like me to check out, let me know in the comments.
Indie Megabooth PAX West 2016 line-up! [Indie Megabooth]