PAX Aus has announced a massive wave of creatives from across the video game medium who will descend on PAX Aus 2024 as special guests and hold panels throughout the three-day event.
Have you ever heard of these little indie titles, Half-Life 2 and Portal 2? Well, if you’ve encountered these niche titles, you might want to sit in on the Fireside chat with developer Josh Weier, who for years worked on games for Valve, including the two bangers above. He’s a Melbournite these days, so expect him to be able to recommend a good spot for coffee, as well as share his countless stories about the games industry.
Lord of the Rings fans will want to keep their schedules clear as members of Wētā Workshop’s Game Studio will be holding two panels over PAX weekend. Bringing insights on their upcoming life sim, Tales of the Shire, Art Director Stephen Lambert will hold a one-hour Fireside panel on Friday, followed by a second panel on Saturday featuring Lead Game Producer Calliope Ryder, Game Designer Catherine Booth, and Game Studio Director Tony Lawrence.
Wētā’s Game Studio, The Custodians of Lord of the Rings are bringing Hobbit lore to @talesoftheshire!
Join Game Designer Catherine Booth, Art Director Stephen Lambert, Lead Game Producer Calliope Ryder (@callioperyder), and host, Game Studio Director Tony Lawrence, as they… pic.twitter.com/867T7Uhg6o
— PAX Australia (@PAXAus) August 27, 2024
Multifaceted creative Abubakar Salim will also appear during PAX Aus this year. As an actor, Salim has appeared as Alyn in House of the Dragon, and as a voice actor, he can be heard playing Bayek in Assassin’s Creed Origins. To add to his impressive resume, he’s also the founder and CEO of Surgent Studios, a new team whose debut title, Tales of Kenzera: Zau, was released earlier this year (we gave it an 8). We had the opportunity to sit and chat with Salim late last year and gained many excellent insights about his history with gaming, his passion for the medium and his drive to honour his late father through making art. So, with that said, you should absolutely make time to hear what this talented man has to say.
Welcome Abubakar Salim, renowned actor, voice actor and Creative Director of Surgent Studios to #PAXAUS.@Abzybabzy is well known to many as Alyn of Hull from the second season of House of the Dragon. As the CEO and Creative Director of Surgent Studios, he led the release of… pic.twitter.com/Q5cWCEGzSd
— PAX Australia (@PAXAus) August 27, 2024
This year, PAX will be getting a triple dose of MMO expertise. Rich Lambert, Game Director on The Elder Scrolls Online, will be bringing his years of experience working on Bethesda titles, while Natsuka Ishikawa, Senior Story designer for Final Fantasy XIV, and Saki Takayanagi, Teams Quest and NPC Designer for Final Fantasy XIV, will be able to share their thoughts and insights about the insanely popular MMO’s long and storied history.
Shifting to the audio side of gaming, Senior Music Designer Sonia Coronado will be about to discuss her involvement at PlayStation Studios Creative Arts, where she has worked on little games like God of War Ragnarök, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Ghost of Tsushima and The Last of Us Part II. Sticking with the musical theme, video game composer and DJ James Landino, who has worked on No Straight Roads, Fortnite, Tower Of God and Roblox, will also be heading our way.
On the cosplay front, Sameer Bundela, better known as Sameer Tikka Masala, will be attending, so make sure your costumes are looking good (I’ll be cosplaying as a journalist, so keep an eye out for me). Lastly, the FlyQuest esports team will be about for meet and greets, including members dexter, INS, Vesite, aliStair and Liazz.
Of course, this is all in addition to this year’s Storytime Speaker, Julian Wilton, Creative Director for Massive Monster and acclaimed voice actor Mark Meer, the man behind Mass Effect’s Commander Shepard. In fact, we had a chance to sit with Mark Meer ahead of his trip down under, discussing everything from voicing a morally confused space cop, to his love of tabletop role-playing games.
Have you booked your tickets for PAX Aus yet? There are still a few Saturday badges left, so if you plan on heading along, you can grab your tickets HERE.
Which guests are you looking forward to the most? Let us know in the comments or on our social media.
Adam's undying love for all things PlayStation can only be rivalled by his obsession with vacuuming. Whether it's a Dyson or a DualShock in hand you can guarantee he has a passion for it. PSN: TheVacuumVandal XBL: VacuumVandal Steam: TheVacuumVandal
