It’s October, you know what that means! Smash Attack heads back to Melbourne for Melbourne International Games Week and PAX Aus! This time we are bringing an all new guest: Nullstar: Solus.
As always, we want to thank Screen Tas, Screen Vic and all parties involved who make GCAP, MIGW, Play Now and PAX Aus possible. Without their support, we wouldn’t be able to travel to such amazing events. So from all of us to all of you thank you! Now onto the debrief!
Only a week and a bit after Level Up Tasmania, the team hit the road once again to showcase Nullstar: Solus. This marked the second time we had shown the game publicly in Australia and was our largest showcase for the game. Arriving on the Wednesday before it all went crazy, Dean caught up with fellow developers at the PAX Aus institute that is Boatbuilders Yard and got a breakdown of all things GCAP.
Before long, it was back to the hotel to prepare for our first event: Play Now 2024. Play Now is an initiative put together by Screen Vic whose main goal is to get locally made games in front of publishers. You have to apply prior to the event and thankfully we were successful in being chosen.
Luke clearly excited for Play Now
The event was a huge blast that resulted in many friendships, amazing talks and interactions with some personal heroes. From the team at HUMANOIB and our monitor shenanigans to meeting Michael Hing and chatting games with various devs and publishers we have only interacted with online, it was truly an amazing experience that culminated in Dean losing his mind meeting long time hero Shuhei Yoshida, former President of Sony Interactive Entertainment and now head of their indie division.
Dean trying not to cry
Having the game in the hands of many industry legends and pillars helped us know we were on the right track. Feedback was super positive across the board, ideas floated around and we were going into PAX being like: “Dang, we got a pretty fun game here”. From Play Now, Dean and Luke met up with the rest of the team to help set up.
Hingers doing his best
Being Nullstar’s first major appearance, it was great to see the team eager to get it into people's hands. With a new level, new mechanic and a team ready to go, we were suddenly at the first day of PAX Aus and what a day it was! Feedback to the new level and mechanic was extraordinary. For work that was only implemented in the week after Level Up Tasmania, the team was incredibly proud of what they accomplished.
Casually bump into PAX
To breakdown all of PAX would be to write an update a gazillion lines long so we are going to cliff note it below with some photos:
Networking Night - The Friday night networking night on the showfloor at PAX is always a highlight but this year was truly special as Ron Curry, CEO of IGEA, introduced us to Tim Watts, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, who was on site checking everything out. Having him play and enjoy Nullstar was a great honour and we thank anybody who throws their support behind our industry.
The Card Vending Machine - An odd highlight but almost every night we visited a TCG vending machine that had the latest Japanese set but it was broken every night.
Hanging Out with Devs - The yearly catch up is always great from Liz and the Ailuri team to Julian and the Cult of the Lamb team and everyone inbetween it is always a pleasure to catch up, talk about life and just overall see how we are all doing in this crazy time.
MegaDave - Screw MegaDev, MegaDave is where it’s at! As always the end of PAX party is a great event and after the team dispersed it was good to relax with many faces I didn’t get to catch up with over the PAX week.
Team Bonding - The best part of PAX, for a lot of the Smash Attack team this was the first time meeting Lily, Morning and each other. Spending time with each other and just overall being a bunch of crazies enjoying each other's company was truly the highlight of the entire trip.
Link doing his best!
We have jumped back into work since we got back, changing from demo-focused to milestone-focused. We have some amazing updates coming your way about the game. But for now, feel free to keep up to date here, follow and wishlist on Steam as well as get notified when our Kickstarter goes live!
Thanks for reading!