Indie designer with a tabletop game the world should see? PAX Unplugged’s Rising Showcase is open to submissions for another two weeks

PAX Unplugged’s Rising Showcase is back for another year, looking to spotlight independent tabletop games at this year’s convention - and submissions are open for another two weeks.

The Rising Showcase includes all sorts of tabletop games, with a focus on up-and-coming games that haven’t been picked up by a traditional publisher yet - as the name suggests. The showcase is also restricted to small creators, with only games made by a team of fewer than ten people being eligible. (Dicebreaker is owned by PAX Unplugged organiser ReedPop.)

Games chosen for the showcase will be given a spot in the PAX Expo Hall at this year’s PAX Unplugged, allowing attendees to demo the games in person. Rising Showcase games can be finished titles or in a prototype form. Tabletop RPGs aren’t eligible due to the difficulty in evaluating their open-ended nature.

Last year’s Rising Showcase included the likes of the Emperor’s New Clothes-inspired card game Naked Court, neighbourhood rivalry card game Turf War, the board game Life of a Chameleon - in which players become lizards looking to eat as many bugs as they can - inventive card-mirroring two-player game Tether, shape-making game Shapely and The Great Rat Wars, a skirmish game in which one players controls an army of mutated rats fighting over New York City while the other players’ humans drive to drive them off.

Submissions for PAX Unplugged 2023’s Rising Showcase will be open until September 25th. You can find details and how to apply over on the PAX Unplugged website.