ECGx 2025
Earlier this month I went to ECGx, a yearly showcase for the Edinburgh College Games course, with space for local devs to show their work as well.
It was great to see regulars of the Edinburgh indie scene again; though the event was on for just an hour and a half, so it was a struggle to catch up and play some games and talk to new people! I got compliments on my Neon Genesis Evangelion t-shirt (courtesy of UNIQLO, grab it while stocks last), and shunned when I admitted I hadn't actually seen it yet. It's on my list! I'll get to it! I want to finish Cowboy Bebop first...
Here are pictures of some of the games I played:
Give up the Ghost by Either/Or Collective
Give up the Ghost is a black-and-white RPG that is inspired by Disco Elysium, with really lovely art (look at that character design in the second image!).
I really liked how it approaches the character setup. You start by picking a "way of seeing", I chose Hindsight: "history reveals itself to you (...) but regret will haunt you." The narrative tone is clear from the very first explanatory text!
I played just a bit before deciding I liked it and wanted to check out the demo at home instead to properly enjoy it.
Upfall and CRT7 by Amicable Animal
Both Upfall and CRT7 have focused gameplay and polished glowy graphics-- it's a signature style! Upfall is free to play, while CRT7 is still in development, with a demo available. Excited to see where it takes things...
The Three Mushketeers by Georgia Cairns
This is a charming game about three mushrooms with different powers, and Georgia made all of the art! This reminded me of the "games for girls" of the 90s-- specifically the DCA exhibition on Theresa Duncan I went to in 2016. I really liked Chop Suey-- here's a longplay. I'd recommend even skimming through it, it's a great reset if you get stuck in thinking that games need to be a certain way. I've been feeling the same perspective reset when checking out Season 2 PlayDate games.
Psychosis by Aaron Gilbert
This horror game has some gnarly monster designs and lovely low-res textures. I enjoyed watching someone else fight off abominations while trying to find a key (I don't think they were successful). An early version is available to play!
Exon by Rao Dao Zao
Exon is a narrative mech action-cRPG and I love how the graphics are unapologetically Of An Era and very cohesive. There's an older demo to try, and I also want to mention Rao Dao Zao's long-running blog. It is the year of the blog, after all! What you're reading right now-- it is, indeed, also a blog!
Scandimania
This is a student project that's not online yet and I didn't catch the team name. While the gameplay was clunky, the graphics and textures were effective at setting a Dark Souls-y mood.
The character is made up of light, and instead of a healthbar, your character's brightness decreases as you get hurt. That's a cool idea. It was also cool to see what students without formal compsci training and who hadn't coded before can achieve over the course of a year. You can learn a lot in a short span of time! It is easy to forget, especially as you get older and have less free time, that learning new things is still very much possible and it might not even take that long to get somewhere!
Bonus: Cosmic
Just as the event was wrapping up and we were ushered to leave, I noticed this placard-sign-thing with what might be the most enticing invitation to play-slash-controls guide ever. I'm not sure if it's available online, as it's a student game and "Cosmic" is a very broad search term. Perhaps this game will forever remain a mystery to me...
Thanks for reading! If you're interested in getting involved with the Edinburgh indie scene, I'd recommend checking out the various links on the edindies website, and joining the Discord!