PAX Aus 2023 - The Panels
As I’ve previously mentioned, PAX Panels are the lifeblood of the beloved consumer show. While it’s literally impossible to get to all the panels, or even a majority of them, I attended a handful of stellar ones.
Indie Showcase (Friday)
Friday’s Indie Showcase panel highlighted multiple tabletop games as well as two standouts from the show - The Drifter and The Dungeon Experience. While I had the chance to sit down with The Drifter, The Dungeon Experience - a genuinely funny looking first person comedy game - was too packed for the entire show for me to get near.
The panel each took turns in answering many high level questions about their games, their road to PAX and their experience in the industry. One tidbit I found interesting was that The Drifter idea came from small game jam, where the devs were just experimenting - seeing fan theories and intense discussions online helped push the decision to do thriller instead of comedy game.
Fireside Chat - Bethesda’s John Johanas (Hi-Fi Rush) and Rich Lambert (Elder Scrolls Online)
I can’t believe Elder Scrolls Online first began development way way back in 2007. To put that in context, Oblivion released in 2006 with Skyrim hitting in 2011. To think this MMO has not only been live for nearly 10 years, it’s conception was 16 years ago. Wild.
Hyper-Masculinity in Gaming and the Trans Masc Experience
This solo panel was headed by James - a trans man since the age of 3, who grew up in a fairly gender neutral household. Games had a big impact on his journey of self-discovery, with early FPS classics Doom, Wolfenstein and Duke Nukem 3D being pivotal. Wholly interesting panel more about exploring identity, and societies progression of understanding masculinity and its effect on people. Interesting look at how we really are only just learning to unpack positive and negative masculinity, and while we’ve made great strides, there’s a long way to go.
Indie Showcase (Saturday)
This panel was easily one of the best of the entire show on a personal level. Similar to Friday’s Indie Showcase, this one featured Samantha Cable (Copycat), Billy Moutafis (Hollow Hero), Chantal Ryan (Darkweb Streamer) and Vee Hendro (Saltfish and Almanacs). Every panelist was engaging and insightful, with excellent answers backed by very different approaches to game design and entry points into the industry. The panel was so compelling that I had to go and check out Saltfish and Almanacs - a cosy tabletop card based game for 1-4 players - for myself. I walked away with a purchased copy of the game.
From writing about games to writing for games: what’s the journey?
This one was a bit more self indulgent, as it was all about moving from games crit to being a writer of games themselves. Not that I think I will ever be able to make that jump - particularly as it would need to become an actual career move rather than a side gig - but to fantasize about that idea is nice. The panelists were all engaging and knowledgeable, with a wealth of experience to share.
Fireside Chat with Endo Takuma
Being a massive Octopath Traveller 2 fan drew me to this panel, and it did not disappoint. Endo talked frankly about a range of topics, including a really interesting look at his studio Acquire’s history and immediate future. One of the most exciting things for those in the audience was some surprise video footage of an unreleased prototype that Endo himself had built over a few months - effectively a pitch video for a new stealth ninja game in the famed Tenchu vein. I don’t think this is clip is going to be shown to anyone outside that room other than for potential publisher pitches, so that was a really neat moment to share with an intimate audience.
Casting back the veil: making the Age of Darkness: final stand campaign
Age of Darkness: Final Stand is a great Aussie success story, with an RTS that’s been in early access for a while now with a 1.0 launch planned very soon. While I haven’t had a chance to play the game at all, it was cool to hear a group of senior members of the team talk through their process with how they have created this game. It was revealed that the final mission of the game is going to be a big boss fight, which for an RTS I’m very curious to see how they pull that off.