PAX AUS Indie Showcase 2025 - Coffee Up!
The PAX AUS Indie Showcase is a chance to see some of the best new and upcoming titles from the ANZ digital and tabletop development scene, with past winners including such celebrated games as Hollow Knight, Unpacking, Copycat, Yum Cha, Kingless and many more. The 2025 Indie Showcase is shaping up to be another highlight of the event and Player2 encourages visitors to PAX AUS to make their way to the PAX Rising area and check out the following title, as well as the many other excellent indies on display.
Jason Tam is an Australian indie tabletop designer who dove into the hobby in the past decade, launching a number of successful Kickstarters . His third design, Coffee Up! secured him a place in the PAX AUS 2025 Indie Showcase, while his latest design, Cat Spotting, is available on KickStarter as a Late Pledge.
Player 2: Thanks for talking to us and congrats on the Indie Showcase win! First up, how did you get started in boardgame design and what’s your history with the hobby?
Jason Tam: I’ve always dabbled in designing and making games of all sorts ever since I was a teenager. However, it wasn’t until I played Codenames in a park about 8 years ago that I got into the tabletop game hobby. For the past 5 years, I’ve been working in the tabletop games industry, mostly doing graphic design work. I worked on a bunch of Kickstarter projects, worked at a tabletop game manufacturing startup and am currently working in the marketing team at Good Games. Just under 2 years ago, I figured I had learned a thing or two about bringing games to life and decided to have a crack at Kickstarting a game. So I like to think this all started after making my first Kickstarter Fire Noodle Eating Champs: the Dice Game! collaborating with video game maker Sara Teh, aka Wombok Games.
P2: Coffee Up! was inspired by your time as a barista – how much have your experiences fuelled your design work so far?
JT: I guess my experience has informed me about the type of games I can design and want to make at the moment, with the limitations I have, bringing games to life on a bootstrapped budget. I like to think that my experience has helped me understand holistically the process of bringing not just a game but a product to life and self-publishing. Each project, I learn a little bit more about print, the business side, logistics and marketing. All of this influences the design process, mechanics and themes I can explore.
P2: What was your reaction when finding out you’d won a spot in the Indie Showcase?
JT: I was stoked! I’ve been attending PAX AUS for years, inspired by previous creators who have won, and it’s been a goal to be part of the PAX AUS Indie Showcase. Especially with Coffee Up!, as last year I brought it to PAX Collaboratory as a prototype and got great feedback that helped launch a successful Kickstarter, and now it is an award-winning game about to be showcased on the main stage!
P2: Who are some of your game design heroes and how have they inspired you?
JT: There are so many… I’ll name 3 in no particular order.
JT: For this project, I was fortunate to collaborate with Liezl Ronquillo, aka VinvinkArt (who is currently making a video game called Ailuri), who drew over 120 cats for the game! The design process for this was different to Coffee Up! as this is more of a sequel to another game I Kickstartered called Peep Spotting. It was a micro game about finding people in a crowd. Liezl saw my game online and wanted to draw something with cats. That led to Cat Spotting, where I was able to make the game bigger and better with 7 game modes, more components and led to my biggest Kickstarter to date!
P2: What’s a game you played and instantly wish you’d designed?
JT: I already said The Mind, so I’ll pick something else… Century Series by Emerson Matsuuchi, each game in the series has an elegant take on engine building, but then being able to combine the games together with all the different systems blew my mind when I played it.
P2: Thanks so much for giving us some of your time Jason, to finish up – what can PAX AUS attendees look forward to at the Coffee Up! booth?
JT: Last year I brought the prototype, and this year I have the released game! I will be running game demos, where playing the game will get you some freebies. I will be selling copies of the game, merch and pins, and maybe a few extra goodies at the booth…
PAX AUS Attendees can find the Coffee Up! booth in the Indie Showcase section of PAX AUS from October 10-12. Coffee Up! can be purchased on the publishers page here and further info can be found on BoardGameGeek.
