From Mixtape to Pro Jank Footy: essentially the most thrilling Australian indie video games at SXSW Sydney 2025 | Games

Tright here’s no escaping the truth that SXSW Sydney – Australia’s iteration of Austin’s tech, music and movie occasion, now in its third 12 months – is totally beset by manufacturers. In Tumbalong park on Saturday, households who had arrived for a free live performance for teenagers meandered across the garish yellow CommBank Tour zone, as a line wound its manner into the enormous L’Oréal tent. But metres away on the International Convention Centre, contained in the halls devoted to gaming, the company affect was extra muted.

With the worldwide gaming trade downturn persevering with endlessly, huge studios are persevering with to maintain a cautious distance from Australia, with its excessive price of residing – which means that even at a convention that screams synergistic brand-o-rama from each pore, indie builders took centre stage. Larger groups had been uncommon; most tasks on present had been the outcomes of solo builders or {couples}. And, very similar to Australia’s gaming scene extra broadly, lots of them had been punching above their weight.

The two Australian video games with the most important backing on the showcase nonetheless felt comparatively scrappy. SXSW’s recreation of the 12 months, Mixtape, from veteran builders Beethoven and Dinosaur (who put out the fulfilling psychedelic journey The Artful Escape in 2021) and mid-tier US writer Annapurna Interactive, is a gleeful 90s coming-of-age story that looks like an Edgar Wright-esque comedy combined with the animation model of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Set for launch later this 12 months, the sport is a nostalgic journey by means of all the most effective elements of a well-spent youth: skating downhill on a lazy afternoon as Devo blasts off a dinky cassette tape; headbanging to Silverchair on a street journey; sneaking booze into a celebration, and escaping the cops in a barely controllable procuring trolley. My 20-minute demo had me grinning ear to ear, with not less than one completely unimaginable joke involving controllable tongues that made me burst with laughter.

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Pro Jank Footy, in the meantime, is the brainchild of the Danger 5 co-creator David Ashby and collaborator Tyler Roach, backed by movie distributor Umbrella, making their tentative foray into gaming. It’s a ridiculous, arcadey tackle AFL that harkens again to SNES-era sports activities video games; after every purpose, the shedding group picks certainly one of three absurd powerups (seagull assaults, large gamers, resetting the rating again to nil-all, and so on) earlier than play resumes. The stay demonstration in Tumbalong park – commentated by Broden Kelly of Aunty Donna, who additionally seems within the recreation – drew a small crowd of largely households, however the courageous few who risked humiliation on stage in return for a neat scarf gave the impression to be having a reasonably good time.

But there have been highlights to be present in video games with even less-established backers. One of my favorite experiences on the ground was the hyperkinetic shooter Hyper Primate, which casts you as an ape with an assortment of cobbled-together wood weapons, blasting different animals looking for large floating bananas. The recreation has an unashamedly novice look, however the motion mechanics felt completely chic as I slid, dashed and jumped round a jungle area at dizzying speeds.

Another gameplay triumph was solo effort Huedini, a frantic top-down recreation the place you quickly match colors to keep away from or take in enemies and different obstacles; even after a really transient session, I may sense the sport’s simple-seeming mechanics had the potential to construct to a brain-melting complexity.

The Victorian authorities’s robust assist for indie builders continues to repay, with a number of tasks (together with Huedini) funded by VicScreen; my different picks from that cohort had been Way to the Woods, a beautiful journey recreation following a deer and fawn with light-related powers in an overgrown cityscape, and the charming postie puzzle recreation Letters to Arralla, which duties you with deciphering picture-based addresses as you get extra acquainted with the light island neighborhood (additionally, everyone is a root vegetable). There was a surprisingly robust contingent from South Australia, too, from Pro Jank Footy to the intensely satisfying minimalistic cube-rolling puzzle recreation Toya, which proved a relaxing oasis within the midst of a busy present flooring.

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Even the worldwide visitors largely match the showcase’s grassroots spirit (excluding one recreation, Sony’s Ghost of Yōtei, which wasn’t playable however did have a well-attended speak). Strong tasks from small groups included A Week in the Life of Asocial Giraffe, a point-and-click social nervousness puzzler out of the US; Abyss X Zero, a 3D Zelda-style motion recreation from Brazil; and Crescent County, a pastel-coloured broom racing simulator from a UK-based developer.

A typical criticism about earlier iterations of SXSW Sydney was the value tag, with even the most cost effective week-long entry cross for video games costing greater than $100. This 12 months, entry to the video games exhibition was free on the ultimate day, which meant there have been households and children all over the place. Party video games like Cow Chess (a mission from a Sydney-based duo which concerned neither cows nor chess and felt like a cross between Worms and Super Smash Bros by means of Terry Gilliam) and Chained Beasts (a co-op Roman gladiator recreation, besides each participant is certain collectively by chains) benefited massively from the madcap power of a sea of youngsters operating gleefully for any recreation they might get their palms on.

There had been, frankly, too many indie video games to play in a day – a pleasant downside to have. Other elements of SXSW Sydney is perhaps consumed by model activations, however not less than for video video games, the indie spirit lives on.