This past Sunday, for the first time since before the pandemic, I had the opportunity to share a panel with attendees of PAX East!

The tenth annual PAX East was held last month, and I was honored to host two panels of brilliant speakers. One, “The Art of Craft: Inspiring Game Creations”, can be seen and heard on the Polygamer podcast. The other was “The Return of Couch Play”, looking at offline multiplayer as an alternative to online games such as Fortnite, PUBG, and Tetris 99.

CRYPTARK is a 2D sci-fi roguelike twin-stick shooter in which players pilot mechs charged with salvaging alien technology from derelict spaceships. Technological defenses remain active on these procedurally generated abandoned hulks, and players must shut them down and shoot the core if they hope to escape with enough artifacts to sell and fund their continuing expeditions. CRYPTARK is available from Alientrap for PS4 and Steam (Mac, Windows & Linux).

Old Man’s Journey is a 90-minute puzzle through the hero’s memories. After receiving a letter, he sets out on a journey across rolling landscapes that the player can reshape, allowing the old man to leap from foreground to background, making his way across obstacles. At the end of each level, he reminiscences about his past, unraveling a tale of love, hope, and regret. Old Man’s Journey by Clemens Scott and Felix Bohatsch of Broken Rules is available for iOS, Android, and Steam.

Kona from Parabole is a first-person exploration game set in the cold northern reaches of Canada in the 1970s. A private investigator has been hired to investigate some petty crimes but soon stumbles into a larger mystery hidden in the supernatural cold. What secrets lie within in this chilly interactive tale?

Future Unfolding is a top-down exploration game set in a pastoral world. Without direction or tutorial and with very little written text, the game invites players to go whichever direction they wish as they discover secrets in the woods, make friends and foes of the fauna, and solve puzzles. A rustic palette, rich mythology, and soothing soundtrack complete the ensemble.

Open Sorcery is a cyberpunk hypertext adventure. You play as BEL/S, a fire elemental who has been bound by C++ code to serve as a firewall. Your job is to scan the local environment and detect any other elementals or poltergeists who could be interfering with your creators or neighbors. As you identify their material and motive, you will learn more about the world around you and gain sentience — possibly posing a threat yourself.

Circles is an abstract puzzle game for Mac and PC that uses only mouse control. Each level consists of circles that behave in different ways but all of which must be avoided to reach the level’s end. As the game uses no written or spoken language and offers no tutorial, it is up to the player to decipher each level’s mechanics to manipulate and navigate the shapes.