GAMING: My pick of PAX Australia’s best indies

What started off as a nice idea for an easy column each year is getting progressively harder.

As I covered recently, there were over 100 games on display at PAX Australia -every genre was just about covered, and most were impressive in their own right. It makes singling any of them out an agonising decision. So, before we get into it, let me take a second here to explain my thinking with my picks.

More often than not, what it boiled down to for me was the feel of the game. Very precise and empirical, I know.

While nothing is final in an expo floor demo, playing it should give you a good sense of its direction and core mechanics. Some games just felt better to play than others? Perhaps they were more responsive or intuitive? Had a tighter, more thought-out gameplay loop. Others were just unique and interesting, they stuck in my brain well after the expo.

As primarily a console gamer, I tended to gravitate to titles that were geared towards controller gameplay over mouse and keyboard. But that’s not a total deterrent.

Some games that I also featured last year such as Fox and Shadow, Memory’s Reach, Bearers and The Last Werewolf were also on display again too. They are all still excellent. But, in fairness, and for the sake of showcasing more games, I omitted them from my consideration this time around.

Anyway, let’s dig into it.

My Arms Are Longer Now – Toot Games

What a strange game. You play as a disembodied, extendable arm bent on creating mayhem and stealing as much as you can from unwitting bystanders. A crafty take on a puzzle game that has Untitled Goose vibes. I was actually incredibly torn about including it in this wrap. I had a heap of fun playing it, but its strong thrust towards Australian humour will be polarising. But it could also be the game’s greatest asset? I couldn’t stop thinking about it after the expo. I’m keen to see more as it gets closer to release.

Middle Management – Headplug Games

Using nationalised humour as a means of cut-through appeared to be a bit of a common approach this year. New Zealand game Middle Management, a management sim focused on psychologically manipulating workers to get the most out of them, is taking a similar route. It’s dripping with tongue-in-cheek references to office culture, overwork and capitalism, all through the lens of the Kiwis’ wry sense of comedy. But there’s more than just witty writing here. It’s all underpinned by some tight and interconnected mechanics that lend a strange layer of strategy to decorating your office. Oh, and there’s a giant tentacled blob that mind-controls workers.

Doggy Don’t Care – Rotub Games

It’s a simple premise: you play as a dog that destroys things while its owners are out. It’s cute and full of fun destructible environments and set pieces. This game got a lot of attention during the Frosty Games Fest earlier this year, but it was one that I kind of glossed over until I played it. What makes it stand out is how the game feels to play. Platformers are notoriously tricky to make in this regard. Much like shooters, the norms here of what makes a good 3D platformer tend to shift quite quickly, which is what makes the Doggy Don’t Care demo as impressive as it is. Bonus: It should be out next year.

Enfant – Zedbra PTY LTD

Graphics tend to separate most indie titles from their upmarket counterparts. Many tend to focus on nailing a striking look over being a high-fidelity game. Enfant stood out from the crowd in this regard. It’s a 3D metroidvania game focused on a sole anthropomorphic elephant looking for the rest of his herd. It looks and plays like a very ambitious game, and for what it’s worth, its demo was quite smooth. It’s still early days, but one to keep an eye on.

Others well worth a wishlist:

RITA  — A platformer that draws you in with its charm and keeps you there with its puzzles. One for those who love crosswords and word searches.

Adaptory — A base-building game that feels like a more customisable form of Fallout Shelter. If you couldn’t get enough of The Alters, this may scratch that itch.

Lone Pine — A cosy point-and-click adventure with a twist, with some neat Pokémon Snap photo mechanics thrown in for good measure.

Blood Vow: Survive the Night — A Diablo-like tower defence game that could become a very addictive co-op experience.

Lament of the Lost — Think Portal, but you’re Death’s Assistant. Some very cool environmental design combined with gravity-defying puzzles.

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