SXSW Sydney 2025’s Games Festival felt different this year. It felt more important. After several years of economic circumstances depleting faith in the games industry and its financial stability, a showcase of great strength, innovation, and creativity was needed.
With a new Games Showcase location in the ICC Sydney, and a very well-curated lot of game demos and talks within this track, the SXSW Sydney team well-delivered on that need, building on the lessons of past years.
SXSW Sydney 2025: Event roundup
A variety of insightful talks defined SXSW Sydney 2025’s Games Festival
The array of talks this year was particularly well-designed, with topics charting an array of disciplines, experience levels, and tones.
There were some balanced, negative talks in the lot – with a focus on survival methods in economic downturn, and the need to build community when support from other avenues is lost. Research and advocacy group State of Play NSW delivered a measured talk about the issues with game developer exodus from NSW, as other, more robust state funding and support drives movement in the industry. This talk highlighted the need to have better advocacy overall for local game developers, as well as the need to help politicians get hands-on to discover the benefits of games.
There were also plenty of bright, hopeful talks about the future, highlighting the continued importance of games and the nature of play, and the persistence needed to continue creation. Researcher Rachel Kowert delivered a particularly intriguing, insightful talk breaking down the stereotypes of games and gamers, and ‘why video games may save us all’ from a social and health perspective.
There was also ample representation for tabletop games this year, with Critical Role‘s Brennan Lee Mulligan delivering a major keynote about the power of tabletop gaming, and the creativity inherent in social play.
In amongst these serious, educational, and occasionally critical talks, there was also room for celebration. Australian film distribution company Umbrella popped in for a talk on their recent foray into the world of video games publishing, and the excitement around silly sports game, Pro Jank Footy. Rob Davis, Campaign Director at Sucker Punch Productions also delivered an in-depth talk about the release of blockbuster Ghost of Yōtei, outlining its greatest successes, and his pride in development.
Smaller developers like Ghoulish were also given time on stage to share more about their development processes, and discuss the nature of indie development to an enraptured audience. With most talks being centralised in the ICC Sydney’s Parkside Ballroom, there was a chance for everyone to sit down, take a break, and learn more about game development in a darkly lit, cosy space.
Within this space, there was also a rotating array of video games (and tabletop games in the next room) players could dive into, with a well-curated selection of Australian-made and international games available to demo – at first, only to SXSW Sydney badge and pass holders, then to the public.
A well-curated selection of games included Mixtape, Noibs, Goodnight Universe, and more
The real ‘main event’ of this year’s SXSW Sydney Games Festival was the curated Games Showcase, where you could sit down to play dozens of in-development (or newly-released) games from around the world. Some booths had developers babysitting builds, while others had representatives hosting demos from overseas – but no matter where you sat, there was a real pride and excitement about getting to show off what was next for each studio.
Playing through Mixtape (Beethoven & Dinosaur), you could discover a magical, nostalgia-infused world of teenage experimentation and friendship. From the ScreenHub preview: ‘Like most coming-of-age stories, this one is about endings, and how to crystallise friendship. The end of your crew is inevitable, but in Mixtape, you begin with an understanding that it’s all about maximising the time left together, using music as a medium to solidify memories and good times.’
Another entirely compelling, transportive game I played in the SXSW Sydney 2025 Games Showcase was Goodnight Universe (Nice Dream). This game stars Thunderbolts*‘s Lewis Pullman as a baby discovering he’s more mature than his body, and he also has psychic abilities.
In the game’s early demo, Pullman carefully narrates the journey of this baby, as he learns to grasp these abilities – even as they lead him down a strange, surreal path. It’s a weird experience, and one that’s entirely wonderful. It’s not often that a baby is a game protagonist, and this perspective provides such a unique space to play in.
I also greatly enjoyed my time making a blobby little monster in the creature-making game Noibs (Oddlark), which allows for a freedom in each limb and accessory placement.
Parasensor (Ghoulish) was another highlight, with an early demo illuminating the strange horror tones of this adventure, which sees a young woman charting a dark, Resident Evil-like world where people are seemingly turning into bugs, due to a strange infection. Interacting with certain elements of this world will also cause bugs to spawn in your mind, leading to a creepy, cool Disco Elysium-style narration system where your inner bugs hiss and spit their anger.
Crescent County (Electric Saint) was a brighter salve to these horror tones, with this demo allowing you to take part in broomstick races that operate a bit like the motorbike stages of Crash Bandicoot 3, for a touch of retro arcade nostalgia. More than that, the game brims with a real warmth, thanks to its cosy, witchy story, and environments that shine with lovely purple, pink, and orange hues.
Pro Jank Footy (Powerbomb Games, Tinker Town) was yet another highlight, particularly as developers and guest commentator Broden Kelly (Aunty Donna) took to Tumbalong Park to reveal more about the game, to a public audience.
Pro Jank Footy is an arcade-style sports game inspired by NBA Jam that puts you and a friend against each other in rounds of footy. The twist is that for every win, you can select a new ‘power-up’ card that shakes up the game in some manner – for example, turning everyone large, adding giant legs for kicking strength, turning everyone into seagulls, and more. Each power-up stacks, so by the end of Pro Jank Footy, you’re essentially in a wild marathon of sports, with one team or another having a significant advantage, based on the strength of power-ups chosen.
While there is also a basic mode where players can simulate rounds of footy in approachable, moreish rounds of gameplay, the real fun is in the random nature of the main game’s power-ups, and how funny and silly it all gets.
Variety is the spice of life
As you might be able to tell from this breakdown, the array of games showcased at SXSW Sydney 2025 was eclectic. Charting so many different genres and gameplay styles, each was different from the last. All they really shared was the passions and hopes of their developers.
That’s the real magic of the SXSW Sydney Games Festival. It’s all about spotlighting developers and their creations, and giving them a stage to share with their peers, and with the public.
On the Saturday of the event, it was very nice to see the public flood into the ICC Sydney, and to see so many kids roaming the show floor, discovering the power of games. There’s nothing quite like getting hands-on with new experiences, and seeing how wild, different, and wonderful games from around the world can be. I’m sure at least one kid who visited the showcase came away with an excitement about trying new games in future.
There are still teething issues to work out for the annual SXSW Sydney, but this year’s Games Showcase was a significant step forward – in location, in curation, and the mix of games and talks present. Should it become a more public showcase, there will need to be more space allocated – it was incredibly tight on the Saturday – but minor tweaks will get it there.
On the whole, SXSW Sydney 2025 was a strong event, with plenty to learn, and the space to do so. It was a solid reminder of the power of video games, and a neat platform for the passionate people working behind the scenes to realise them.
