My six favorite demos from PAX East 2026

Spring is in bloom in the northern hemisphere, which means it’s time for game developers, tabletop enthusiasts, cosplay aficionados, and nerds in general to descend upon Boston for PAX East. I was once again lucky enough to be able to attend, with a focus on upcoming games from smaller development teams.

Sure, I could have waited in the 2-hour line to test the new Pokémon game that is fully finished and days from release. The more interesting option for me was to walk around the heart of the demo floor and chat with developers who have been pouring their time (and souls) into perfecting an indie gem.

There were hundreds of in-progress games to try out and I wasn’t able to get my hands on anywhere near all of them. Nevertheless, here are the six that are on the top of my watch list.

A classic gets complicated in Crystalmancers

After the first level of the demo, I thought, “OK, so Tetris if clearing lines slowly damaged a dragon.” One minute into the second level, I could see that there might be four or five more layers to Crystalmancers. Gaps were opening at the bottom of my stack due to enemy slash attacks, runes on upcoming pieces promised extra clearing power, and I activated a cooldown that inexplicably turned all of my upcoming pieces into the same L-shape.

The roguelike nature of this title means that you’ll get the chance to experiment with different upgrades and special abilities on each run through the block-stacking dungeon. As an old hand at Tetris I can say that this seems like a re-imagining that’s worth keeping an eye on as its development moves forward towards a 2027 release.

Throw down the prehistoric gauntlet in Dino Might

As always: I come for the gameplay, but I stay for the transmogs. Dino Might imagines the arcade classic Joust with cute cartoon dinosaurs and a few other twists. One of those twists is the ability to acutely customize the appearance of your tiny T. rex from the get-go, meaning I could equip a mohawk, bat wings, and a bow tie before combat even started.

The other twist comes in the power-ups and environmental hazards which give each match just the right amount of variety and unpredictability without straying too far from the simple premise: collide with another dino while you’re slightly higher and you win. With a planned online multiplayer mode, you can test out your skills against friends around the globe when it releases in the second quarter of 2026.

Who needs a wielder when you’re The Lone Sword 

If you’ve ever wanted to careen through a dungeon as an animate blade, then The Lone Sword might be the game for you. The “Games from Poland” booth is a must-visit at PAX East each year, and I was able to chat with the sole developer of this aerial swashbuckling title, Kamil Kozłowski.

What started as a fun bit of programming eventually snowballed into a full-fledged game over the course of several years. I had a ton of fun careening around into walls and enemies at top speed and whipping the control stick side-to-side to shred hostile robots to ribbons, but the fine-tune control available with a single trigger-hold felt super intuitive. The demo is available now on Steam, and you can jump in on April 21 to see if you can find your true purpose as a sentient sabre.

Finish eating your trash and come Do a Crime

There is a long list of things that will get me to pause at a demo booth and take a closer look, but the giant stuffed raccoon hanging out of a trash barrel at the Do a Crime booth cut through them all and stopped me in my tracks. Described by the small development team as a “goose-like“, you take the role of a mischievous trash panda intent on sowing chaos and, yes, doing crimes.

As soon as I started the demo and my raccoon avatar started waddling I knew I was sold. The matter-of-fact achievement toast for each new crime like “trespassing” and “larceny” was a nice touch. The non-hurried nature of the puzzles was nice, but it was ultimately the little things that made this one stand out — like having sunglasses on after rummaging through an unattended purse. You can try out the demo on Steam, and fill out your rap sheet sometime later this year on release.

A potential retro gem in Mina the Hollower

There’s a lot riding on the second game to come out of Yacht Club Studios. I was a huge fan of their Kickstarter-turned-megahit Shovel Knight, and twelve years later they’re finally ready to follow it up with another retro-style adventure: Mina the Hollower.

This time you take the role of a genius mouse with a lethal whip and the ability to tunnel for short distances. Shovel Knight looked like it could have been an NES cartridge, but Mina is a faithful recreation of the Game Boy Color aesthetic. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is still one of my favorite games, and Mina played like a fast-paced less-forgiving version of many small-screen favorites of that era.

Timing the ability to plunge under the dirt played a part in combat, platforming, and solving puzzles. Add in a chippy pixelated soundtrack, and I was as just as hooked as I expected to be when I picked up the controller. The upcoming Spring 2026 release will be make-or-break for the studio, but after trying out the first few minute’s I’d bet my old Game Boy that this one will be a success.

My winner for 2026, Cat Secretary

Out of all the characteristics that a video game can have, none cuts through the noise for me personally more than genuine hilarity. From a hapless Bowser in Super Mario RPG to a sassy red-feathered protagonist in Banjo-Kazooie, a game that makes me laugh is automatically going to climb to the top of my favorites list.

Even the short time I spent with Cat Secretary was chuckle-inducing enough to confirm that I’ll be playing through the whole game once it releases later this year. As the brand new titular office-assistant feline, you spend your first few minutes in-game performing mundane tasks like sorting papers and making coffee in the most accurate portrayal of cat behavior I have seen in quite a while.

Everything from the tiny, quick paw movements while reprogramming the router to the non-chalant balancing act (resulting in a tipped-over vending machine) was true-to-life for a cat that is delightfully indifferent to the chaos they are causing. Add in dedicated buttons for “meow” and “whap”, and you’ve got a recipe for my favorite demo from this year’s PAX East.