Play Expo 2014 will see a much expanded indie zone and we are now able to share details of the first 14 studios and games that will be on display, all fully playable…
We are proud to support Independent developments teams through our shows by offering discounted exhibition space and other incentives.
If you are an indie developer looking to promote your game to a huge audience then get in touch exhibit@playexpo.net.
Bopscotch – Leda Entertainment (@ledaentertain)
Leda Entertainment are Ben Pritchard and Paul Harmon, friends who both started their adventures with video games at school in the 1980s on BBC Microcomputers and have been writing games ever since. Their latest offering is the wonderful Bopscotch for PC and Xbox 360, which will launch later this year.
Set in a vibrant, colourful world, Bopscotch is a variation on the classic ‘runner’ style of platform game. Race across each stage as fast as you can, grabbing as many sweets as possible along the way to maximise your score in Adventure Mode – or challenge a friend and go head-to-head in Race Mode!
The Replay Team gained the honour of competing in the very first Bopscotch tournament earlier this year and Leda hope to run a much larger tournament at Play Expo.
Creature Battle Lab – Dojo Arcade (@DojoArcade)
Dojo Arcade is a new and exciting independent games development company and the winners of the Young Entrepreneur Award 2011. The team’s previous games include Soulfinity and Immune. At Play Expo they will present Creature Battle Lab, giving you the opportunity to mix and match hundreds of powerful skills and creature body parts to build
the funniest, weirdest and most terrifying team of creatures fit for battle.
As an intern at the famed “Creature Battle Lab,” start your career by creating powerful fighting creatures under the guidance of Professor Helix, the authority on creature genetics. Enter your creatures into tournaments and win battles to upgrade their unique skills. As your creatures grow stronger, qualify for exclusive competitions and rise in the ranks to become the Creature Battle Lab Champion.
A Pixel Story - Lamplight Studios (@LamplightGames)
Lamplight Studios are a BAFTA nominated development studio based in Manchester and are currently working towards the release of their first title ‘A Pixel Story’.
A Pixel Story is a 2D puzzle platformer where the player embarks on an epic quest through a giant fantastical computer system. Throughout the game, as the player progresses, and gets closer to the core of The System, they will find themselves exploring increasingly detailed worlds, mimicking and observing the developments in video games over time.
Using the primary mechanic of the player’s special hat – that allows them to save a location and teleport back to it – A Pixel Story provides an opportunity to explore a colourful and diverse world, as they use this and mechanics that develop on top of it to overcome obstacles, explore 6 large free-form levels, interact with a diverse range of NPCs and, of course, save the world.
Kaiju Panic – Mechabit (@mechabit)
Kaiju Panic is a hybrid strategy – tower defence – squad control game with a bright and unique art style. Take control of a field operative in an international disaster response organisation, build, fight and rescue your way through a wide variety of colourful locations around the world. From Mechabit, the UK indie game developers who made Chicken Walk (Oculus VR Jam finalists).
Kaiju (怪獣 – a Japanese word meaning “monster”) will be available on Windows and Mac, (with Linux support added later) towards the end of the year.
Why not support the team’s Steam Greenlight campaign by giving them a big fat YES PLEASE!
Wulverblade – Fully Illustrated (@michaelheald)
Michael Heald (Fully Illustrated) has been involved with a vast number of successful titles on iOS, such as Trenches, Trenches 2, Haypi Kingdom, Haypi Dragon and Super Turbo Action Pig. He has also worked with many of the key players in the AAA, Indie and Mobile Gaming industries, such as EA, Microsoft Games Studios, Klei Entertainment, Chillingo and Ironhide Studios.
Wulverblade is a HD cinematic side scrolling hack’n’slasher/beatem-up that will rejuvenate this lost and beloved arcade genre, bringing back the glory days of the side scroller (Golden Axe, Final Fight etc). A deep and robust classically inspired combat system will empower the player as they hack and slash their way through 8 expansive and varied levels.
Ghost Control Inc. – Application Systems (@AppSysLondon)
Application Systems, the developers of GhostControl Inc. are big fans of classic games such as GhostBusters, the original XCOM, Theme Hospital and FTL.
In it’s classic pixel art retro style, GhostControl Inc. comes with outstanding original graphics and a funny story line. Manage a team of ghosthunters and free London from paranormal terror in turn-based battles. Develop your own strategy and build your business well.
Starters Orders – Strategic Designs
Developed over more than a decade by Mark Loveday for Strategic Designs, the Starters Orders series is widely accepted as the best horse racing management game there is. Pocket Lint said “Starters Orders is an extremely in-depth horse racing management and deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Football Manager“.
Starters Orders 6 is the most realistic horse racing management game you can buy! Train your own string of race horses and target all the big worldwide races such as the Grand National, Gold Cup, Derby and World Cup. Also take the reins and become the Jockey and ride your own horse in an adrenaline pumping 3D race sequence around over 100 in-game racecourses. Oculus Rift VR support (coming soon) enables you to put yourself right into the action with a level of immersion never seen in a horse racing game before. Starters Orders 6 is a download game available for the PC (A Mac version and mobile variations are planned). The full game is currently in BETA and there is a free demo available for download.
Chompy Chomp Chomp Party - Utopian World of Sandwiches (@UtopianSandwich)
Utopian World of Sandwiches make games with a purpose. The purpose of Chompy Chomp Chomp is to bring people together. They focused on creating an environment in front of the TV where people of all ages, tastes and skills could play together, and enjoy themselves on a level playing field. To lose their inhibitions, scream, shout and generally have an awesome time and bond over the experience. It’s fun, but it’s having fun together that is the important part.
Chompy Chomp Chomp is a maze-based multiplayer romp in which participants chase each other around trying to eat the correctly coloured opponent. At points in the round, the target colours change, turning hunters into hunted and vice versa. It’s a frantic eat ‘em up. Chomp your way through rich and varied arena environments and battle each other using frenzied power-ups. Out now for Xbox 360 and PC, Chompy Chomp Chomp will soon hit the Wii U for it’s definitive ‘Party’ edition.
Shoot’Em Up Kit – Tall Studios (@tallstudios)
Tall Studios is a British independent game studio founded by John and Karen Reynolds to develop the Shoot ‘Em Up Kit; the first in a series of game development kits which enable creativity without the need for programming.
The Shoot ‘Em Up Kit from Tall Studios enables anyone to create a professional looking 2D or 3D shoot ‘em up game using a simple drag-and-drop interface – no programming or scripting required. Create a simple game in minutes or customise lighting, camera views, behaviours, physics settings, shaders, particle effects and AI to fine-tune a complex game. Import your own 3D models, sounds and textures or use the ones provided. Create a HUD display, front-end pages, high score tables and much more.
TerraTech - Payload Studios (@TerraTechGame)
Payload Studios is a British independent game studio founded by Russ Clarke to develop the ultimate exploration and combat game, TerraTech.
TerraTech by Payload Studios is a Kickstarted indie space adventure, coming to Steam Early Access in October 2014. Design, construct and organise a fleet of unique vehicles as you battle across the lawless frontiers of new alien worlds in a quest for glory and profit. In the distant future, Earth’s natural resources have finally been depleted, and as an off-world prospector it’s your job to travel to alien planets, gather up all the good stuff and blast it back home to get paid. Build crazy vehicles out of modular blocks, craft or scavenge new blocks and explore strange planets.
Dungeon Crawler – ProjectorGames (@projectorgames)
ProjectorGames will be showing off it’s latest crop of Oculus Rift-enabled games on several brand-new, unreleased, version-2 devkits.
The Oculus Dungeon crawler is a gold-standard Virtual Reality experience. Taking you through a detailed and beautiful (yet dank and depressing) dungeon, this experience will convince you both of the power of the Oculus Rift and the future of Virtual Reality in gaming. Forget the Virtual Boy and leave your nausea at home and come and explore our dungeon!
Fortress Craft: Evolved – ProjectorGames (@projectorgames)
Another Oculus Rift powered virtual reality extravaganza from ProjectorGames. The original FortressCraft game was one of the best selling Indie titles of all time.
FortressCraft : Evolved leaves you stranded on a strange, cube-based landscape, with only your wits, a high-tech hazmat suit and an array of futuristic technology to survive with. You’re then tasked with building and maintaining a vast underground mining operation, exploring the planets near-infinite depths, and eventually reconstructing your orbital spacestation. With some of the largest drawdistances in gaming today, this game showcases the power of modern PCs and the Oculus Rift like nothing else!
Mutiny! – Hidden Armada (@HiddenArmada)
Mutiny! is Hidden Armada‘s debut title, an action-packed multiplayer pirate game for 1-4 players, where you battle enemy pirates intent on stealing your treasures and sinking your ship before you can reach your island paradise.
You must work with your crewmates to defend your ship and keep it afloat under the enemy barrage, repairing damage and collecting loot from enemies as you go.
Captain or not, the pirate with the biggest pile of gold wins at the end of the voyage!
Wings: Remastered Edition – Cinemaware (@Cinemaware)
Cinemaware is bringing their unique, emotion-charged, action-packed gaming experience back to life – in full, glorious HD graphics & sound!
Relive the action, glory and seat of the pants daring of a WWI Allied fighter pilot! You’ll strafe Hun armies, bomb enemy aerodromes and match wits against deadly Aces in heart-stopping dogfights, the loser going down in flames…without a parachute! More than just a simulator, Wings features genuine arcade action and an emotion packed role-playing experience. Wings is the easy to play air combat simulation you’ve been waiting for… no complicated keyboard commands. Just fly and shoot!
Gang Beasts – Bone Loaf (@boneloaf)
Boneloaf is a small independant game studio formed by three brothers (James, Jonathan and Michael), currently making a series of experimental multiplayer party games.
Gang Beasts is a silly local multiplayer party game with doughy ragdoll physics and horrific environmental hazards. It is influenced by classic mêlée fighting games such as Capcom’s Final Fight games, Sega’s Streets of Rage and Golden Axe series, Konami’s Crime Fighters, and Taito’s Double Dragon and Renegade games.
Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet – Application Systems (@AppSysLondon)
Application Systems announces the development of Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet for Mac/PC/Linux, an adventure game created by Alasdair Beckett-King. The company has joined forces with the award-winning comedian and filmmaker to bring this swashbuckling adventure to life in stunning High-Definition.
Join Nelly Cootalot in this indie adventure game, and rescue birds hypnotised by the villainous Baron Widebeard. Explore a charming, hand-drawn world created by award-winning comedian and filmmaker Alasdair Beckett-King.
Ahoy! The team’s Steam Greenlight campaign has recently launched and needs support from all the adventure gamers on the high seas: