Ben Droste

This is an incredible effort, I'm sure I speak for other dev's at the show when I say thank you both (and all the other journalists who covered the show) so much for your hard work and dedication to covering the local indie scene!

The regular attendees don't know how good they've got it 😄

As exhausting as it is I get a lot of enjoyment out of exhibiting at PAX!

Taking a break next year though, I'm going to enjoy the show as a regular attendee for a change and actually play some other people's games 😄

It's definitely the kind of thing that would have been discovered with more play testing, but unfortunately I didn't get as many sessions in prior to PAX as would have liked.

It also allowed me to drop the time limit to a more reasonable 15 minutes (down from 20, which I was never comfortable with), and players have still made the same amount of progress by the time it times out.

The demo changes worked out really well. I was able to fix a few sticking points and allow people to get through the tutorial section and into the meat of the demo quicker, while requiring less intervention from me.

Unexpected outdoor time 😆

I welcome the short break and chance for a bit of sunlight, maybe we should do this every year 😜

#paxaus #paxaus2025

Convention centre evacuation is a new experience at PAX

It has been a long time since I felt compelled to make changes to my demo mid-show but here I am at 7am doing just that.

It's 9:25am, the floor has been open to media for 25 minutes, and there are some indies still not here.

Some of these are really on point!

I am VERY impressed with the effort indies have gone to this year decorating their booths!
It's so much fun walking around and seeing them all.

Here's just a small selection.

This was super fun to be a part of! Have a listen to us talk about gaming news, what we've been playing, and of course our games we're showing at PAX this weekend!

The booth is actually in a really good spot pointing at the main entrance. I don't think I'll have any trouble attracting attention, I'm actually more concerned I might be too busy at times as the demo is a big longer than normal, but I'll have my Steam Deck as a backup third playable station.

In retrospect I should have designed that background art to not obscure the titie so terribly... Though I didn't think I would be fitting three TVs on there at the time.

Where I will be frantically trying to redirect the attention of people headed towards the Nintendo booth this weekend.

Note to self: you have a booth of your own to run and the game comes out in December anyway.

...But I wanna play it! 😭

"This is still an Xbox" is not as reassuring as you think it is.

Trecking back into the convention centre carrying a pair of small metal side tables and a foldout mini picnic table for game dev reasons that I assure you make total and complete sense.

The Oatmeal did a comic on “AI art”. It’s good.

Some really great advice I once read (I don't remember where, it might have even been on Derek's blog) was "sell the fantasy, not the feature list".

As a dev I often get caught up talking about the mechanics and design of my games, it took some time to learn that isn't what sell games to players.

Day 1 of No-CAP spent sleeping in after the opening night party, a half day of work, then meandering over to Boatbuilders in time for everyone to begin making their way out of GCAP.

I could get used to this kind of gamesweek.

Welcome to The Game Club It's like a book club, but for games.

JUST LAUNCHED!

TheGameClub.com - like a book club but for games!

Join or host group gatherings all over the world to discuss our your shared experience. The game is just the icebreaker, the goal is to forge friendships.

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I am a professional game developer

Due to the unique way Super Mario Bros. stores its maps, its level designers were at the mercy of the decorative hills and bushes when placing bottomless pits. While the pits can be placed freely, the decorations are non-negotiable and dictate the level design.

I think the blue is more eye catching, both suit the tone of your game, and you should still hire a capsule artist 😉

Smashing together several trailers and a bunch of new demo footage to create a looping sizzle reel for PAX. Hoping there is enough variety in the 7-minute loop that it doesn't drive me insane by the end of the show 😅
#indiegames #pax #paxaus #paxaus2025

🎷THE DUNGEON EXPERIENCE DEMO IS OUT NOW!🎷

A screenshot of google photo edit mode showing an intrusive AI edit interface obscuring a large portion of the image while the user is trying to make adjustments to the lighting.

Google exec 1: "This new AI tool in the Photo editor that automatically pops up and every time the user changes tabs, it's not too intrusive is it?"

Exec 2: "Nah people are practically begging for this stuff."

Exec 1: "OK great, ship it!"