The New Zealand Centre of Digital Excellence, an organisation devoted to supporting independent game development, has confirmed it will bring 18 New Zealand-made games to PAX Aus 2024. Each game will be playable on the showfloor, with some even being shown publicly for the first time.
Over the last few years, CODE has worked tirelessly to elevate game creation in Dunedin and beyond, and this showcase should be a chance to see how their efforts have support creative, innovative new projects across New Zealand.
As announced, there will be some familiar names present in this PAX Aus 2024 showcase. Balancing Monkey Games will be around to show off Beyond These Stars, spiritual sequel to Before We Leave. The newly-announced burger-flipping sim Burger Bois will also be on show, as will Guardian Maia, which fuses sci-fi action with traditional Indigenous Māori culture.
Read: New Zealand’s CODE is forging a new future for local game developers
Here’s the full list of games appearing at PAX Aus 2024:
- Beyond These Stars (Balancing Monkey Games – “A city building game set on the back of a giant Space Whale.”
- Guardian Maia (Metia Interactive) – “Save your people from a mutant tyrant as you journey across the unforgiving post-apocalyptic landscape of New Zealand’s South Island in a game where your choices matter.”
- Adaptory (Stormcloak Games) – “A 2D base-building/simulation game where your crew of four have crash landed on a mysterious planetoid deep in uncharted space.”
- Burger Bois (Mischief Makers Studio) – “A food truck simulator game about flavor, not labour.”
- ChronoMoth (COAF Research) – “A time and colour manipulation-based voxel bullet hell. You are a time travelling moth.”
- Corporeal (Cold Out) – “A paranormal-mystery narrative puzzle game where you piece together a haunted family photo album.”
- Doomtide (Death Limited) – “A turn-based RPG with city-builder elements set in a flooded world of monsters and ancient horrors.”
- Denari (Astronaut Diaries) – “A narrative action game about a boy with telekinetic powers who must fight to save his people from the invasion of an empire.”
- Design & Conjure (Tiny Kiwi Games) – “Join Dalia, a young witch, in her cozy adventure to bring beauty back to town as you clean, decorate, solve light puzzles, and help magical creatures affected by a mysterious corruption.”
- Dream Team Supreme (Big Adventure) – “A 2D roguelike deckbuilder where you pilot the giant robot Super Supreme against a horde of monsters of the week.”
- Match & Mastery (FourFox Interactive) – “A roguelike, turn-based tactics game with a
match-three twist.” - Project Storm (Transformative Games) – In this solo/co-op action-adventure sim, you must conquer nature’s most dangerous and exhilarating displays, including tornadoes, hurricanes, and electrical storms.”
- Red Echo (Pacen Life Games) – “This far-from-home story-driven third-person shooter blends combat, stealth, survival, and deep meaningful dialogue choices, allowing you to shape a thrilling narrative that determines the fate of humanity on the brink of extinction.”
- Rose and Locket (Whistling Wizard) – “Rose, a former outlaw, travels through the spirit realm of the Underwest. Take up the once-forgotten skills of the gunslinger in this action platformer adventure, and journey along the breathtaking landscapes on a quest to rescue your daughter’s spirit.”
- Shaper Sender Deluxe (Dead Teapot Game) – “Solve physics puzzles with magnets, springs, fans, and more while your new best friend Sendy helps you along the way!”
- Shelflife: Art School Detective (Fnife Games) – “A mystery adventure game featuring a cast of loveable weirdos!”
- Tunnel Tactics (Wildboy Studios) – TBC
- Ten Thousand Coins: The Golden Merchant (Thousand Tonic) – “A story-rich merchant strategy trading game where a forsaken fox merchant must trade goods, earn coins, and unravel a riveting tale spanning two timelines as she searches for her lost mentor.”
You’ll be able to play all of these games at PAX Aus 2024, and meet the teams behind them.
PAX Aus 2024 takes place in Melbourne, Australia from 11-13 October 2024.
