The Indie was strong with PAX East 2012, with several companies pitching in on one large booth section to show off around 20 games in space usually reserved for the huge AAA publishers and developers, plus the Boston Indie Showcase taking part in the PAX East Indie scene as well. We had a blast checking out and demoing these titles! Here's part one of our rundown of the Indie exhibitors we saw at this year's convention:
Described as an "RPG brawler hybrid inspired in equal parts by coin-op beat 'em ups and dungeon crawlers," Charlie Murder features lots of gore sprinkled throughout various bar brawls, high-speed chases, destruction, and of course, jam sessions!
You play as Charlie Murder, fallen punk rock idols facing against a rival death metal band. Their portion of the megabooth was constantly surrounded by PAX-goers eager to get their hands on the demo.
Currently in Alpha, AirMech is a RTS-action game in which players control a massive robot general. Coming free to play on several platforms, with the Alpha playable through Chrome.
At PAX, the developers handed out some fancy exclusive in-game PAX AirMech Pilots along with instant Closed Beta access.
A platforming game which takes place in the fourth dimension, players perform amazing feats to solve each puzzle.
Currently in development, there is no final planned release date or platform as of yet. An early build demo was playable at the booth, showing off the positively mindblowing mechanics of 4D.
In a world reminiscent of MC Escher, Antichamber takes you through a series of mind-blowing puzzle illusions that strive to make your head explode. The look of confusion on the faces of players at PAX East was pretty much priceless to behold.
The graphics style is quite fresh and clean, and complements the intended confusion extremely well. The game is set for a 2012 release on PC/Mac.
An atmospheric 3D exploration and puzzle solving game, Kairo features minimalist and abstract architecture which players traverse to bring ancient machinery back to life.
The game is set for a 2012 release for PC/Mac, and is available for pre-order as well, which will allow instant access to alpha builds.
The developer describes this has a top-down, stealth 2d game. From what we could see, it's kind of like if PacMan was a whole lot more awesome with a ton of stealth features and better graphics.
Playable at PAX East, players were able to co-op with friends at the booth, which featured IKEA furniture they gave away at the end of the show, and of course free pins.
Go Home Dinosaurs - Fire Hose Games
This one is a bit of a RTS/Tower Defense hybrid. In a twist from normal tower defense games, players scoot around to damage enemies or grab coconuts, the game's currency, right in the middle of all the action. Towers are pieced together Tetris-style, making you have to pick and choose your defenses and placement carefully.
We had a blast playing the demo, and very strongly considered buying an adorable plush Compy!
Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery EP - Superbrothers + CAPY + Jim Guthrie
A stunning "meandering mythopoetic adventure", we could barely tear our eyes away from this point and click work of art. The emphasis on audiovisual style makes this a truly unique and beautiful experience.
The project is already released on iPhone, iPod Touch & Ipad, but is to be shortly released for PC as well.
This was another of the mind-bending titles at PAX, mostly because time runs backwards (and sometimes forwards?). Being careful to protect the space-time continuum, players rewind/re-forward/re-reverse? time to undo mistakes or keep from causing a time paradox, all to a smooth rhythm.
Beyond the demo, the development team also had a bunch of cool swag to give away, and a high score contest!
Jack hates trees. So much that he's willing to use his time-stopping abilities to achieve revenge on as many as possible for killing his grandma. This game playes a bit like Fruit Ninja, if you were able to stop time, and also had to conform to a bunch of increasingly challenging new rules on the fly.
Drunken Robot Pornography/F=ma/Ugly Baby - Dejobaan Games
With a winning trio, Dejobaan Games made a big splash. Drunken Robot Pornography is one of their newest in-progress titles - check out the trailer below to see what they showed off at PAX! We got to demo the game on the floor, and yes - it is as fun and hectic as it looks.
This extremely clean and innovative game uses snapshots of the environment to solve puzzles and defeat baddies. Take photos of your surroundings and use them elsewhere, bringing captured objects back to life to overcome obstacles.
After trying it out for a bit, it's clear that the potential of this awesome mechanic is endless!
BIT.TRIP brings us another fun rhythm-platforming game in which players use skills such as jump, kick, slide, float, and dance to reach the finish line.
The demo played much like the other famous BIT.TRIP games, with catchy beats and smooth graphics, and gorgeous environments.
That's all we have for you today, but be sure to check back later for the rest of our PAX East Indie experience rundown! Also don't miss Curse's full PAX East 2012 coverage at our YouTube channel, where you can subscribe for brand new, unique content every day!
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