Standing out in a crowded market: many of the best titles at Pax Australia in Melbourne came from New Zealand game developers. Standing out in a crowded market: many of the best titles at Pax Australia in Melbourne came from New Zealand game developers. 'Cool and quirky is part of our brand': how New Zealand became a hothouse for indie games T hose not immersed in the world of gaming might not be familiar with Pax Australia: the enormous gaming conference and exhibition that takes over the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre every October. My favourite section is always Pax Rising, a showcase of indie video games and tabletop, the majority Australian - but there has been a recent shift that was particularly notable this year: many of the standout titles had crossed the Tasman, arriving from New Zealand . At the booth run by Code - New Zealand's government-funded Centre for Digital Excellence - 18 Kiwi developers demoed their forthcoming games in a showcase of the vibrant local scene that was buzzing with crowds.

The Penny Arcade Expo (Pax) is one of the biggest gaming conventions in the world, bringing together classic consoles, the latest shooters, mobile games, PCs, Macs, tabletops – and the people who love them. For the latest event in Melbourne, Pax Australia, the biggest companies in the world – including Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony – came to show off their wares, but the most interesting stuff was relegated to one corner of the exhibition hall: Pax Rising, where independent developers let you play their latest games. Australia used to have several major international studios producing games but from 2008, several mainstays shut their doors – Sega, THQ and 2K among them – due to the global financial crisis and the rising Australian dollar. What's sprung out of this collapse is a series of small innovative Australian studios, most of them with between three and 30 employees. We've had smash hits such as Fruit Ninja, Crossy Road, Flight Control and Shooty Skies sell millions of copies around the world each year – but there are many more games that fail than succeed.