PAX Rising - The Indie Games of PAX AUS 2022
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PAX RISING: THE INDIE GAMES OF PAX AUS 2022 (CONT...)
Before We Leave – Balancing Monkey Games
With inspiration from games such as Catan, Civilization and the Anno series, it is not hard to guess what genre of game Before We Leave falls into. The game, released in 2020, is a city builder – one with no combat – which allows players to feel more relaxed about their cities. With beautiful visuals and a Hex style map, players will collect resources from their planet to help build their cities and upgrade technologies. All this must be completed whilst keeping the populace happy. Player must manage their resources, pollution and happiness in order to reach a level of technology that allows them to rocket off to the next planet. With six biomes, there is plenty of variation for players.
During PAX, the team at Balancing Monkey Games announced the sequel to the game, which has players playing on the back of a giant space whale. The mechanics will largely be the same, but there will be different resources and a different tech tree. There will also be a larger emphasis around the narrative.
You can play Before We Leave now on Steam whilst we await further details about the sequel.
Knight Crawlers – Good Morning Games
A rogue-lite action RPG that has players spawning their own set of enemies in this physics-based dungeon crawler. Players will dodge melee attacks, counter long-range magic, and avoid surprise explosions as they brawl their way through the dungeons.
But players can decide who they’ll find within those dungeons – whether they want to fight a room full of low strength minions, or just a couple of tougher to beat boss-like characters, players can choose a strategy that suits their combat style and choice of weapons. Skill classes open up as you beat bosses, and there are larger rewards for taking on tougher opponents
As well as the procedurally generated levels and the collection of skill cards available to collect, players can play through the single player campaign, team up in multiplayer or team up in PvP, so there will be endless replayability.
With low-poly visuals and a toy-like quality to the characters, the game will appeal to a range of ages.
Wishlist Knight Crawlers on Steam. A demo is currently available to download, so check it out.
Forest Grove – Miga Games
A teenage heiress has gone missing, and it is up to you to work out what has happened in this sci-fi mystery puzzler from developer Miga Games. Players must employ the latest in Biotrace nano-technology to scour a recreation of the crime scene for evidence as well as listen to audio and watch video logs for clues to the disappearance.
Once all the clues have been collected, plyers must then analyse and add clues to the evidence board, mark off people of interest, unravel the mystery, and bring those who perpetuated the crime to justice.
The dark visuals and ominous soundtrack really set the tone for this mysterious murder mystery puzzle game. With a range of different mini-games and puzzle types to solve, Forest Grove will be a wonderful game for those looking for an atmospheric experience.
Wishlist Forest Grove on Steam to keep up to date with the game’s progress.
Special mentions
Although the above games were just a small number of titles that we had the chance to test during PAX AUS 2022, there were so many others that we could have mentioned. However, there are several titles that we have seen at previous events (both physical and online) that have progressed nicely since we last saw them.
Mars First Logistics - Shape Shop
Camped Out – INCA Studios - (Available now)
Innchanted – DragonBear Studios
TopplePop: Bungee Blockbusters - ArkimA
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