It is day two of PAX East 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts, and Boss Rush is only getting started. Cosplay, merch, and video game demos filled every corner. As the foot-traffic picked up, we did not slow down. Here are our highlights for PAX East on Friday, May 9th, 2025.
The Boss Rush Network team attendance at PAX East 2025: Ed (Vice President), Stephanie (VP Media Relations), Pat (Chief Gaming Officer), Courtney (Social Media Manager), and Block (Senior Writer). Each day, we’ll share our highlights from all the action at PAX East.
Ed (Vice President)
Day two of PAX East was another day of creative indies, amazing interviews, and meeting up with other creators. I got to catch up with Adam Gumbert from the Respawn Aim Fire podcast and had a great discussion about XCOM. I also got to play Fresh Tracks and interview the music director for the game at the Buffalo Buffalo Booth. It’s one indie not to be missed with its superb soundtrack. I also got to play PickMePickMe, Pizza Bandit, and Compensation Not Guaranteed.
I also got to catch up with Greysun from Game Rant and Abram and Tucker from Lost in Cult. I also got to speak to Jacob, host of Video Game Trivia on Saturday, which I am excited to go to. Sofi got to do his first interview for Spider Lily, which had me very interested in playing the demo (I will be playing it on day three). Last but not least, I got to chill with the hard-working Boss Rush crew in our hotel room and have great food and laughs. Speaking of which, the hotel had some bomb potatoes. I’m excited for day three, as I have some interviews I am over the moon to do.
Stephanie (VP Media Relations, Copy Editor)
Friday is the beginning of peak PAX rush. With that said, I spent my morning selfishly–splurging on PAX merch and other wonderful items for sale. I even expanded my horizons and visited non-gaming booths like Geek Therapeutics, NERDS, and Choose Your Own Adventure. It’s times like these where I can stand back and appreciate human creativity and ingenuity.
In the afternoon, I was able to play some wonderful games with friends like Dan and Pat. Notable games of the day include Sol Mates, The Fractured Shimmer, Bahamut and the WaqWaq Tree, Undusted: Letters from the Past, and Compensation Not Guaranteed.
Courtney (Social Media Manager)
Today the goal was the food. Just thinking about food the entire time, I ended up having fried dough (funnel cake) and a hot dog (note to self: do not eat the hotdogs that are on the expo hall. Eat the one on the second floor by the escalators. With only two more dollars, you get chili and cheese. Yum). I am not sure though if there was more food or less food than last year, but all I could smell in the convention center was food. On top of that, it was definitely snuggling weather–gloomy and rainy.
Pat (Chief Gaming Officer)
I played a lot of games today. I tried out Nocturne in the PAX Rising Showcase, Lighthaze World, Kejora, and Midnight Dreams from Soft Source, and Undusted: Letters from the Past and Compensation Not Guaranteed from Toge Productions. I absolutely love my appointments with Toge. We have so much fun. I purposely selected the meanest choices in Compensation Not Guaranteed, and the Toge representative was just shaking her head at me, but then she admitted, she’s never seen what happens when you make those choices until now.
Later tonight, I plan on hitting up the Nature Six’s Live D&D show. Stay tuned on my thoughts for that.
Block (Senior Writer)
After getting acclimated to the convention on the first day, today I spent almost all of my time on the exposition floor. I spoke with numerous indie developers, basking in their passion for gaming, and enjoying the creativity that they bring to this medium we hold so dear. I first met with Good Story Games, a developer in which all members have a writing background, and experienced their upcoming game Cat Secretary, which takes the often mundane work sim genre and coats it with a narrative focus. Next, I spoke with Retroware games about their catalogue of games, such as The Toxic Crusaders, AVGN 8-BIT, Neon Inferno, and The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest. I told them how I appreciated them living up to their name of taking retro properties, aesthetics, and genres and shaping them to be adaptable for today’s gaming market.
The moment that had the biggest impact on me today though came from another retro focused company: Atari. Unlike other gaming developers who may dabble in the games of old, Atari actually lived it. They are responsible for the countless classics many of us still remember and have inspired developers to make the modern day masterpieces most gamers love today. Atari has been excelling in their preservation efforts, and as a gaming historian, I was beyond thrilled to talk with them on this subject. We discussed the upcoming Bubsy in: The Purrfect Collection which they are making in partnership with Limited Run. I appreciated that they were willing to acknowledge that Bubsy did not always appear in amazing games, and he is a character that more often-than-not annoyed gamers as opposed to the coolness that Sonic delivered. For Atari, this doesn’t matter. As they say, there’s no such thing as bad press, and its infamous nature is perhaps why the Bubsy brand is still recognizable to this day. Even the bad games deserve preservation, they said. Bubsy 3-D in particular has a very notorious reputation, with countless memes and videos all highlighting just how awful of a game it was. Gamers today curious to try it for themselves have few options to play it, and that’s what this collection is intended for. Along with the original eight Bubsy games, interviews and behind the scenes footage from the developers have been assembled to provide a substantial archive for all things Bubsy.
Sofi (Writer)
My day immediately kicked off with a demo of Lofty Sky’s RPG, Sky of Tides. Talking to the dev team behind it was both entertaining and also a good insight in how daunting the gaming industry is when you’re an indie company.
Another game I took a special interest in was a debut game from a small studio called Falsework studios. Grabbing an interview from the lead director and art designer of Spider Lily, I was able to hear the passionate stories behind the project. My day wrapped up after trying a couple more demos and ended up hanging out in the media room and got a head start on my news articles covering PAX East.
Are you at PAX East? Come find us and say hi! If not, please continue to follow our adventures (and shenanigans) tomorrow!
The Boss Rush Podcast – A Podcast About Video Games
The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and The Boss Rush Network. Each week, hosts Corey Dirrig, LeRon Dawkins, Stephanie Klimov, and Pat Klein, as well as their friends, fellow content creators, developers, and industry veterans come together to discuss their week in gaming, including what they’ve been playing, a randomly chosen rotating weekly segment, the Boss Rush Banter of the week, answer community write-ins, and more. New episodes are released every Thursday. Members of The Boss Rush Network’s Patreon will receive the exclusive Pre-Show at any tier along with other perks.
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