We choose our favorite games and products from PAX East!
PAX East 2025 was a bit of a wild one this year. But stuck between travel restrictions, both video game *and* tabletop industries in a weird place and the media landscape in a freefall, there was still plenty of stuff to see and plenty of projects to enjoy. And oh, did we enjoy a lot of them!
But we deliberated, chatted over coffee and beers, and even cried a little (tears of joy, we promise) in an effort to pare them down — and we did! These are the eight amazing projects that definitely stuck out, and we’re proud to give them our TEAM CHOICE AWARDS for PAX EAST 2025!
What happens when you mix Vampire Survivors with Rusty’s Retirement? Our next indie obsession. How can you not love a game with a “hide from my boss” button?
The newest take on Missile Command is a wild departure for the series. The game is turn-based, card-based, hex-based and story-based, and has us going into terminals to manage things. It’s very different, but also very cool.
Constance brings magic and paint to the Metroidvania genre. Taylor talks about the upcoming game and how it felt just right during his play session.
A delightfully charming game that layers BMX bike tricks with a cozy postal job — and an anthropomorphic tanuki. Our demo had a sumo fight and beer juice pouring — how could we not love it?
Pencil! is a magical approach to teaching how to draw, and it may have sold us on a VR headset or two.
The team went hands-on with the awesome SWORL leverless controllers at PAX and are ready to place some orders
The Last Caretaker is a survival adventure where saving the human race is down to a grownup Wall-E and freighter
A cool upcoming platformer that has us sticking our sword in everything
Congrats to all the recipients — we’re excited to see how the projects come along!
