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Feature: The Indie MEGABOOTH at Pax Prime 2015 – A Rundown

Return of Indie MEGABOOTH

indie MEGABOOTH logo
Pax Prime 2015 will run from August 28- 31 of this year. Featuring a gargantuan 76 games from 74 devs, 2015’s Indie MEGABOOTH once again brings one of the world’s largest collections of noteworthy indie titles.

Armello

by League of Geeks

Armello, another map view
Armello: screenshot courtesy of Steam

In this card-based digital board game, the King of Armello is slowly succumbing to a disease known as Rot. Use each turn wisely! Each player seeks to seize power when the king finally breathes his last.

Read HappyWulf’s 5-star review of Armello.

Awesomenauts

by Ronimo Games

Awesomenauts: screenshot courtesy of Steam
Awesomenauts: screenshot courtesy of Steam

Drill for precious ores on a mining moon, but be wary of the other team! This co-op heavy title features smart teamwork options and a sugary-sweet 80’s Saturday morning cartoon coat of paint.

Barkley 2: Queklain no Vengeant

by Tales of Game’s

Barkley2Screen

The sequel to Barkley: Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden promises more surrealistic RPG parodies, science fiction and basketball. Plus, this time it’s an action RPG instead of taking the turn-based route, so dunking on inhabitants of a futuristic dystopian wasteland in real time may or may not be involved…

Below

by Capy

One of our Most Anticipated Games of 2015, BELOW is a top-down survival-oriented adventure with procedurally generated environments and music by Jim Guthrie, who also worked with the studio on Superbrothers: Swords and Sworcery EP.

Butt Sniffin Pugs

by Space Beagle

butt sniffing pugs

Explore Central Bark, and get a taste of life as man’s best friend. Most people in the know have this game pegged to snag coveted “Best Indie Game to Feature a Gigantic Track Ball and Dog Butt Controller” title. Seriously…this game has a dog butt controller.

Captain Forever Remix

by Pixelsaurus Games and Future Crayon

Captain Forever Remix: screenshot courtesy of Steam
Captain Forever Remix: screenshot courtesy of Steam

An official “re-imagining” of indie game favorite Captain Forever, this procedurally generated space action game will have you blasting apart random enemies for spare parts in your quest to build “the raddest spaceship.” You had us at “raddest spaceship.”

Chasm

by Discord Games, Inc.

Chasm: screenshot courtesy of official site
Chasm: screenshot courtesy of official site

Hack ‘n’ slash dungeon crawling meets Metroidvania exploration in this one, currently under development for PS4 and PC. Chasm has the side-scrolling retro graphics you’ve come to expect in this style of game, but they’re extra gorgeous this time around, all candle-lit wizard’s lairs and moss-covered ruins.

D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die Season 1

by Playism

D4: screenshot courtesy of Steam
D4: screenshot courtesy of Steam

A violent yet comedic murder mystery from the creator of Deadly Premonition, D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die looks to be over the top in every sense of the word, a tongue-in-cheek take on the cliches of contemporary noir right down to the protagonist, a psychic detective with amnesia.

Darknet

by E McNeill

Darknet is an early standout for Oculus showcase game titles – this one involving manipulating abstractions under the pretense of hacking.

Death Road To Canada

by Rocketcat Games

Death Road to Canada: screenshot courtesy of Steam
Death Road to Canada: screenshot courtesy of Steam

A darkly whimsical, randomized permadeath-threatening “road trip simulator.”

Distance

by Refract

distance_screenshot_bridge
Distance: screenshot courtesy of the official website

This survival racing game, one of our Most Anticipated Games of 2015, combines racing challenges with atmospheric exploration in a neon-lit world halfway between Tron and Akira.

Due Process

by Giant Enemy Crab

DueProcessScreenshot

A love letter to “classic” tactical shooters like Rainbow Six, Due Process is a strictly multiplayer game that focuses on cooperation tactics, and planning.

Eco: Global Survival Game

by Strange Loop Games

Beyond the self-evident title, Eco is an ambitious world-balance simulator with “thousands of inter-dependent plants and animals that grow, feed and reproduce” and where “growing civilizations risk deforestation, pollution and mass-extinction.” Fortunately the visuals use a slightly squishy, cartoony style so that you don’t fall into total despair after attempting to solve this sim’s challenges.

See also our review of Fate of the World.

Galak-Z

by 17-Bit

17-Bit Games mashes up everything great about anime from the ’70s and ’80s. The onboard Cyntient AI is wicked, and will make every galactic dogfight unique and deviously challenging.

Gang Beasts

by Boneloaf

The wonderfully zany physics of Double Fine Studios‘ gelatinous multiplayer romp n’ stomp gets ever closer to commercial release actuality.

Hyper Light Drifter

by Heart Machine

Hyper Light Drifter: screenshot courtesy of official site
Hyper Light Drifter: screenshot courtesy of official site

The hotly anticipated 2D RPG with glorious pixel art and score by Rich Vreeland, a.k.a. Disasterpiece has us still holding our breath. But how long can we hold our breath?

Infinifactory

by Zachtronics

Infinifactory: screenshot courtesy of Steam
Infinifactory: screenshot courtesy of Steam

A voxel-styled puzzler from the good people who brought you SpaceChem and Ironclad Tactics with all the polish of Portal 2.

Kathy Rain

by Clifftop Games

Kathy Rain: screenshot courtesy of Steam
Kathy Rain: screenshot courtesy of Steam

Made with Adventure Game Studio, Kathy Rain is a “sassy rocker chick with a knack for detective work.”

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

by Steel Crate Games, Inc.

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes: screenshot courtesy of official site
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes: screenshot courtesy of official site

A collaborative virtual reality game wherein one person guides another wearing a headset so as to disarm a bomb. Designed for Oculus Rift, we checked this out last year at IndieCade.

La Mulana 2

by Playism

Strange monsters have started to spring up across the land. The ruins of a lost civilization may be the source of the attacks. Explore the crumbled remnants and tackle enormous boss enemies in the sequel to the famously difficult cult Metroidvania.

Ladykiller in a Bind

by Love Conquers All Games

Ladykiller in a Bind: screenshot courtesy of official site
Ladykiller in a Bind: screenshot courtesy of official site

Christine Love, acclaimed creator of visual novels Digital: A Love Story and Analogue: A Hate Story returns with “an erotic visual novel about social manipulation, crossdressing, and girls tying up other girls.”

Mini Metro

by Dinosaur Polo Club

Mini Metro: screenshot courtesy of Steam
Mini Metro: screenshot courtesy of Steam

A very popular flat-design strategy game, Mini Metro‘s minimalist style continues to attract fans on Steam and iOS.

Moon Hunters

by Kitfox Games

Moon Hunters: screenshot courtesy of official site
Moon Hunters: screenshot courtesy of official site

In this cooperative action RPG, up to four players can join up to create a tale of legendary heroes in a procedurally generated Mesopotamian realm.

Mushroom 11

by Untame

Mushroom 11: screenshot courtesy of Steam
Mushroom 11: screenshot courtesy of Steam

Guide globs of goo across a mysterious wasteland in this platform puzzler.

Nova Blitz

by Dragon Foundry

Nova Blitz: screenshot courtesy of Steam
Nova Blitz: screenshot courtesy of Steam

A free-to-play digital card game in a science fantasy universe, Nova Blitz speeds up the card battle genre by having every player’s turn occur simultaneously; matches only take five minutes or so. It also looks heavy on lore, if that’s your thing. Come for the quick card battles, stay for the storyline and richly detailed portraits of mechs, zombies, space goblins and the like.

playsets.

by the playsets team

This one’s for the tabletop gaming crowd; turn your tablet into a tabletop for online role-playing. Its isometric tiles and sprites are a lot prettier than scribbles on graph paper; this app might render the term “pen-and-paper RPG” obsolete.

Rising Thunder

by Radiant Entertainment

Rising Thunder: screenshot courtesy of official site
Rising Thunder: screenshot courtesy of official site

Rising Thunder aims to bring classic fighting games to a wider audience by replacing complicated combo attacks with one-button special moves. It also has giant robots pummeling each other, which is pretty cool whether or not you were already any good at Mortal Kombat back in the day.

Shoot Shoot Mega Pack

by Jon Remedios Games

Shoot Shoot Mega Pack: screenshot courtesy of official site
Shoot Shoot Mega Pack: screenshot courtesy of official site

A minimalist 2D shooter and party game, Shoot Shoot Mega Pack lets you design your own mini-games, packing a lot of potential for different game styles into a deceptively simple-looking package.

Sometimes Always Monsters

by Vagabond Dog

Sometimes Always Monsters: screenshot courtesy of official site
Sometimes Always Monsters: screenshot courtesy of official site

The follow-up to bleak contemporary RPG Always Sometimes Monsters, this sequel is bound to feature more of the heartbreak and black comedy of the original.

Stonehearth

by Radiant Entertainment

Stonehearth: screenshot courtesy of Steam
Stonehearth: screenshot courtesy of Steam

Minecraft-style block-building meet strategy and city management. Not only do you have to craft your own tools, you have to keep a whole village safe and happy.

That Dragon, Cancer

by Ryan Green and Josh Larson

That Dragon, Cancer: screenshot courtesy of official Facebook page
That Dragon, Cancer: screenshot courtesy of official Facebook page

A point-and-click adventure game about the developers’ own real-life experiences as the parents of a terminally ill child, That Dragon, Cancer was a finalist at IndieCade 2013.

The Magic Circle

by Question

The Magic Circle: screenshot courtesy of Steam
The Magic Circle: screenshot courtesy of Steam

The Magic Circle is both a puzzle game and a satire of the game development process. Thrust into a fantasy game that was never quite completed, will you manage to get it ready for release…from the inside? More importantly, will you understand all of the inside jokes and video game industry references?

The Westport Independent

by Double Zero One Zero

The Westport Independent: screenshot courtesy of official site
The Westport Independent: screenshot courtesy of official site

Feeling a lot like Papers, Please, The Westport Independent is “a censorship simulator about the last weeks on an independent newspaper which is to be dismantled according to a new government bill.”

Through the Woods

by Antagonist

Through the Woods: screenshot courtesy of Steam Greenlight
Through the Woods: screenshot courtesy of Steam Greenlight

A psychological horror experience in the third person set in a forest on the western shore of Norway.

To Leave

by Freaky Creations

To Leave: screenshot courtesy of official site
To Leave: screenshot courtesy of official site

This beautifully hand-drawn platformer has been in development since 2012 from developers Freaky Creations out of Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Tumblestone

by The Quantum Astrophysicists

Tumblestone: screenshot courtesy of Steam
Tumblestone: screenshot courtesy of Steam

Don’t be fooled by its seemingly generic Match 3 style UI – Tumblestone is a brain-testing competitive multiplayer mash.

Ultimate Chicken Horse

by Clever Endeavour Games

Ultimate Chicken Horse: screenshot courtesy of Steam Greenlight
Ultimate Chicken Horse: screenshot courtesy of Steam Greenlight

In this hand-drawn platforming challenger, you masterfully build each game level to stump your foes and ensure your path to success.

Universe Sandbox 2

by Giant Army

Universe Sandbox 2: screenshot courtesy of Steam
Universe Sandbox 2: screenshot courtesy of Steam

Explore the forces of creation and destruction on an intergalactic scale with this space simulator; incorporating climate simulation, real-time gravity and other scientific effects, the sequel to the original Universe Sandbox lets you crash whole planets into each other (or you could just play around with the weather on Mars, if you’d rather go the peaceful route).

Viking Squad

by Slick Entertainment

Vikings are definitely a thing these days, and now they’re also a squad! Viking Squad is a lane-based, side-scrolling cooperative beat-’em-up with pretty delightful cartoon-inspired graphics.

Wattam

by Funomena

Between Keita Takahashi of Katamary Damacy fame and Robin Hunicke, who has worked on such games as Journey and Glitch, this game has quite the pedigree. As you might expect, Wattam is colorful, playful and whimsical.

XING: The Land Beyond

by White Lotus Interactive

XING: The Land Beyond - screenshot courtesy of Steam Greenlight
XING: The Land Beyond – screenshot courtesy of Steam Greenlight

An atmospheric puzzle game with Oculus Rift support, XING: The Land Beyond cites as influences classics like Myst as well as more recent favorites like Dear Esther. Lavish environmental designs and eerie moments of quiet seem like a safe bet with this one.

YIIK A Postmodern RPG

by AckkStudios

YIIK: A Postmodern RPG - screenshot courtesy of official site
YIIK: A Postmodern RPG – screenshot courtesy of official site

A JRPG-inspired game set in the 1990s, YIIK features “fast paced turn based 8 party-member battles, cat tossing, panda dropping, ladder throwing action.”

For more information on Indie MEGABOOTH and the games featured therein, visit the official Indie MEGABOOTH website

Check out IGR’s previous PAX 10 coverage