From the Indie Showcase to PAX Rising to NZ Code, there were a lot of demos to play on the PAX Australia show floor this year – well over one hundred by my count – so you’d be forgiven for missing a few on your travels. Luckily, many of the demos available during the three-day event can be accessed at home with the magic of Steam and itch.io.
If you’re struggling with post-PAX withdrawal, or you couldn’t make it this year, consider booting up your PC to dig into some of the games made by this year’s talented indie developers. For a little extra fun, I’ve narrowed this list down by focusing on cute and cosy games, as I’m still enjoying the Cozy Games trend and seemingly, so is the community.
Design & Conjure
Design & Conjure is a cosy, decorating-themed narrative puzzler from Tiny Kiwi Games, featured as part of NZ Code at PAX Aus 2025. The game follows Dalia, a young witch who has just returned home from university, as she sets about restoring her hometown and building her coven.
The demo gives you access to the first level, which introduces you to Dalia and her feline friend Cosmo, and allows you to unpack Dalia’s belongings neatly into her bedroom. Everything about this demo screams Cozy Game – the art, the music, the meditative decorating – and I can confirm that it has that characteristic feeling that fans of the genre will be hunting for. Check it out on Steam.
Letters to Arralla
In Letters to Arralla, you play as a turnip with juicy butt cheeks who needs to deliver mail to an island full of other fruits and vegetables who, you guessed it, have cake too. This game gives off major Animal Crossing energy from the moment you start the demo on a boat headed to a remote island and it follows through with the music, Animalese-sounding voices and laidback island-life vibes.
The demo lets you start from the beginning as you carry out your first day as a postie. This involves deciphering whose mail is whose – not by the name on the envelope, but by a series of cryptic drawings on the front. Apparently vegetables don’t know how to address letters. Who would’ve thought?
Exploring the beautiful island inspired by the Australian landscape while delivering mail to the sound of cicadas and native Australian birdsong is incredibly relaxing. You can download the demo from Steam and there’s no need to wait for a release date if you enjoy it because the full game was released last month.
If that doesn’t convice you, then maybe our Letters to Arralla review will.
Bits & Bops
Bits & Bops is a collection of over 20 adorable, 2D hand-drawn rhythm mini-games. In the demo, you can play through 4 levels, including one where you need to snap photos of a seal at the exact moment it bounces a beach ball off its nose and another where you’re a bird that needs to time its tweets correctly to communicate with another bird.
It sounds simple enough, but Bits & Bops’ snappy gameplay loop is trickier than you might expect. The rhythm is based on sound rather than visuals – indeed, there are no visual cues at times. Combine that with the extremely precise controls that developers Tempo Lab Games attribute to their custom game engine and you’ve got a charming yet challenging experience on your hands.
It’s currently planned for a Q4 2025 release and you can try it right now on Steam.
Silk Soar
Silk Soar is a family-friendly, Foddian rage platformer. Those two concepts might not appear to go together, but the ex-Mighty Kingdom developers at Stout Heart Games have designed this game specifically with accessibility – and age-appropriateness – in mind.
You play as Tumbles, a sweet little caterpillar who needs to shoot silk to fling themself from the forest floor all the way up to the canopy. You collect rambutans and leaves to munch on along the way, which unlock new skins and greater heights to climb. It’s that simple – or not. This selection fits more into the cute category than cosy, so proceed with caution if you’re easily frustrated. But the devs have included an assist mode with webs that prevent you from falling too far back down the map. It’s a gentle introduction to the genre with an adorable protagonist. Find it on Steam.
TOYA
TOYA – previously titled Cube – is a minimalist puzzle game by South Australian developers The RnD Department where you play as an unassuming purple cube. This cube is a puzzle master, or rather you are, as you control it to navigate through an abstract environment. You need only to think about your next move – a quick roll left, right, forward or back – as you traverse the map, collecting red cubes to unlock new areas.
Maintaining your focus and working with precision is key, but if you fall off the edge of a platform the only consequence you’ll face is an aesthetic plop animation as you fall into the water. The zen-like, continuous progression of TOYA’s puzzle journey quickly becomes addictive. You can find the demo on itch.io.
Let us know in the comments or on social media if any games at PAX caught your interest.
Christie McQualter is a Melbourne-based journalist, specialising in games. She has a particular interest in playing indie games in hopes of finding a hidden gem – though she has endured many strange adventures in the pursuit of doing so. You can find her sharing her love for The Witcher 3, 2000s nostalgia and any game with a dog in it. Follow her at @auralynxian on socials.
