In my wrap-up review, I said Fall’s biggest swing was how many gaming world exhibits drop you into a world of their own. This piece slows down to showcase the ones I only touched on or skipped. I wanted to take a deeper dive into how distinct from the Endix Expo these unique worlds were and what compelled me to visit them multiple times. The devs behind these exhibits deserve noteworthy praise for the vision they brought to the Expo, leaving a deep impression.
Monkey Brain: Endorphines High
Walking up to Monkey Brain inside the Noodlecake Games area, there was a big screen that teleports you into a new environment: a swirling blue interior with pinball-like marbles with faces drifting past like stray thoughts, and a pachinko-style screen showing the game. The listing describes it as pachinko meets billiards, where thoughts ricochet off nodes worth varying amounts of points in a physics-based roguelike. The entrance also carries a warning about flashing lights and rapid visual patterns, a thoughtful touch for a game this busy.
I must have stopped by this half a dozen times during the 3-day Endix Expo; one such visit, the Butter by the Fish dev joined my fellow writer and me in the unique gaming world exhibit. It turns out, they had no idea they were coming to Endix until Noodlecake Games asked them to be there! This also wasn’t their first work with Noodlecake Games. The music was bouncy and upbeat amid the clicks and monkey noises as we watched.
Harpooner: Dive On In
Noodlecake Games’ activation had Harpooners by Mango Salad Games. Participants had to drop off the dock between the exhibit poster and the info panel, into an underwater biome of pixel-art fish, with screens playing a side-view dive game and an upgrade menu. To get back, you talk to the diver at the back of the biome, who asks, “Are you running low on oxygen?”
That question actually played its own role. The game trailer showed a bubble in the bottom left indicating how much air the diver has, and a fish icon with a number indicating how many fish the diver collected during that run. As it advanced, fish got bigger, along with boss fish, and showed perks like more oxygen, upgrading the harpoon to grab nearby exhausted fish when reeling back in; just be careful of puffer fish suddenly puffing up and shooting their quills!
REANIMAL: The Prisoner – Horror Showcase
Exploring the THQ Nordic Island, Little Nightmares creator Tarsier Studios REANIMAL: The Prisoner DLC installation caught my attention with its dilapidated shack exterior. Entering the booth lifted the participant and teleported them into its own gaming world exhibit. I was met with a dark wooden barn and a grotesque-looking sheep with extra limbs, twisted upon itself. Against the wall were masked figures near a kiosk, while a pig loomed in a marsh outside. The “Take Me Back” sign is how you leave.
The game is described as a brother and sister going through hell to rescue their missing friends and escape their island home. Inside the exhibit, this was showcased by what appeared to be characters and possible monsters behind wooden boards in the shack. At least one looked like black ooze, which helped solidify the creepy horror factor.
Gateworlds: Welcome to Outer Space
In the main exhibit hall on the 1st Floor, I spotted Gateworlds, developed by Hydrach. It featured a team of adventurers and colorful symbols that may have been enemies. The first step through, and suddenly participants are out in space, with stepping stones among floating islands, though there was no falling through the floor. The islands look distinct from one another, some icy, some forested, with burning torches whose flames flicker against a moving backdrop of stars.
The trailer showcased the game as a colony sim in a fantastical wilderness. The objective is to obtain the power of the gods somehow and survive as the player fights for their life. They must build shelters, gather resources, and tame creatures in the wild before devastation hits. Danger is present with wild beasts, dungeons to explore, and boss lairs.
Sole Salvation: We’re Not In Endix Anymore
While exploring the different booths on the 2nd Floor of Endix, Sole Salvation from Meteora Games caught my attention. The sign art showed a short-haired person wearing a red scarf, with a large beam of light with the game title, Sole Salvation, over the character’s head. The cosmic swirling and the weird triangle made me curious. Walking into the booth felt like I’d entered a brand new place entirely; the cosmicness of the game’s cover art paled in comparison to what greeted me.
Inside their booth, there were no signs of walls or ceiling, no sky, just endless space. The floor was covered in strange runes that made me think of ancient, dead languages, or alien. The gaming world exhibit stood practically empty, yet it felt enormous. Plinths with symbols stood on either side of the trailer screen, which was framed by a rocky yet smooth-looking border covered in more symbols. I couldn’t tell whether they were Egyptian or something else entirely, but the Eye of Providence on top of each plinth showed me that whatever was happening, something or someone was watching over the booth.
Among the Trolls: Portal to Darkness
When first walking into Among the Trolls on the 3rd Floor, it looked like just a room made of stone with a swirling golden vortex. Curious, I walked up to the vortex, and it turned out to be a teleport to the actual gaming world exhibit. Participants get dropped into dark ruins with creaking wooden scaffolds and a trailer waiting inside, a nearly two-minute clip that opens on a raven in flight. Ominous narration offset the picturesque scene, and an equally foreboding musical score.
Behind the trailer was a cell featuring an angry skeleton waving a hatchet, but hopping down from the scaffolds revealed a blacksmith statue and a spooky little 3-legged spider-thing with an infected sac on top. I opened the Steam page from the kiosk to see it is a first-person action-adventure about uncovering family truths and mastering survival. There seems to be something deeper than survival, as the game draws from Finnish mythology and old magic with creatures from Kalevala myths.
The 7th Shift: Nightshift Nightmares
After completing my walk around the 3rd Floor, I headed to Rooftop Hall A, where I found a game that had been in the Theatre Obscurum in Spring that made me pause. A warning at the entrance cautioned against jump scares and disturbing imagery. Walking into The 7th Shift by Dookos Games, users are transported into a grocery store set, with aisles amusingly named cereal boxes, a Backroom sign, and a grinning portrait watching from the wall.
The expo description sets up the premise: players work the overnight shift alone at Founder’s Choice Market, deciding which shipments to accept or deny and stocking shelves. It’s a game about mundane tasks that go wrong, with the hint that failing the shift might result in dire consequences. Just try not to think too much about the eerily creepy grinning Founder, keep your head down while ensuring quality merchandise, and hope nothing is lurking in the dark.
The Pattern: Gaming World Exhibits
The best booths this time did something a trailer can’t: they turned a store description into a place you can stand in. After exploring Silica’s ziggurat, the floating ship from Airship 2: Kingdoms Ablaze, and Titans Quest II, I found that Monkey Brain’s ricocheting marbled thoughts, Gateworlds’ islands, Harpooner’s fishing expedition, and Sole Salvation’s cosmic horror all work that way. They all bring something from their games to showcase it in a memorable, impactful way that sticks with users.
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