PAX AUS Indie Showcase 2025 – Potion Society
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.
Az Valastro is an artist and game designer with an impressive resume working as The Murmuring Mystic in the tabletop game space. Potion Society is a co-design with s_parklestea that successfully crowdfunded on KickStarter. We spoke to Az about securing a place in the Indie Showcase for 2025, their list of credits and what has inspired them as an artist and designer.
Player2: Firstly Az, thanks for carving out some time for Player2 – we know the lead-up to PAX AUS is a hectiuc time for creators! What was your reaction to finding out Potion Society had been selected as an Indie Showcase winner for 2025?
Az Valastro: SHOOKETH! We were going to be at Pax this year anyway, but the fact that someone saw our game and though it was worthy of being one of the winners of the Aus Indie Showcase? Absolutely unreal. We are just so excited to spread some chaos and potion making to as many people as possible.
P2: What’s the elevator pitch for Potion Society?
AV: Potion Society is a 2-4 player competitive potion crafting card game where everyone is vying for the top spot as the best potion apprentice. In this game everyone is making the same potion recipe, and you make potions by stacking ingredient cards depending on their personalities and elements, cooking those stacks and repeating that process three times to fill your potion bottle.
P2: Potion Society isn’t your first design, with the Tiny Games series and Nabstones bearing the work of The Murmuring Mystic. How did you get started in tabletop and what about the work keeps drawing you back?
AV: So for me personally, I’ve always had an interest in board games, and my brother and I dreamed of making them and so we started in our teens putting together games with what we had! I’ve always been interested in tech and then later illustration and so games in all forms, digital and physical were something I wanted to pursue!
In terms of our first serious endeavours, that would be when we started doing markets and conventions and starting our business. Nabstones was definitely such a learning curve and even still, three years on, I’m still iterating on the design and production of it. It’s such a great little game and seeing what we’ve done with Potion Society I just want to go back and upgrade it again!
P2: The successful KickStarter campaign for Potion Society recently completed fulfilment, what were some of the highs and lows of that experience, and what advice would you give other indie creators looking to launch their first campaign?
AV: Line up the KickStarter launch with an event if you can! For us we lined the launch up with Pax Aus 2024, and it meant that we could spread the word about the product and people could play and build a connection with us and what we do! It can be hard to back something when you don’t know if the product is real or if fulfilment will happen unless you’ve met the people behind it. We aren’t a trusted brand as we are so small and just getting started so building up some trust and rapport with the community is so important.
Also give yourself three to four times longer than you think you will need. People will normally say double however long you think something will take, but if you are us and have no concept of the passage of time, give yourself the extra grace. Because it did end up being about four times as long. We are glad we didn’t rush it, we are so proud of the product!
P2: Many projects from The Murmuring Mystic are collaborations between yourself and others – Ahmad Salahuddin, Ithing Prayitno, your brother Frank – do you prefer to co-design or focus primarily on the art aspects when creating a game?
AV: I love both! Games have always been something I do with other people – I very rarely make games on my own. Games are also a humongous undertaking that is often difficult to do with just one person.
P2: What are some of your favourite tabletop games and how have they inspired your own output?
AV: Ooo this is such a tough question – I absolutely love Lords of Waterdeep, s_parklestea and I love Forbidden Desert as well. Some of the biggest inspirations for us were Cookie Box, Tarot and general witchy themes and aesthetics! Outside of board games, we are also inspired by potion crafting games in general. We love a small town tavern on itch; that’s always been a huge inspiration for us. As well as Potion Craft and other similar titles.
P2: What can PAX AUS attendees look forward to at the Potion Society booth?
AV: Playing the game! We will have copies available to purchase and we will have stickers and pins and other potion related things aside from the game that you can pick up if you feel so inclined! Also come chat to us about the game, we are always so excited to chat and talk about anything game design related.
P2: Can you share any information about upcoming projects that will feature your work?
AV: At the moment I haven’t started working on anything new, just been working on my art and trying to spread the Potion Making agenda far and wide! But feel free to keep an eye on TheMurmuringMystic on Instagram and TikTok for all updates!
PAX AUS Attendees can find the Potion Society booth in the Indie Showcase section of PAX AUS from October 10-12. It can be purchased right now on the Murmuring Mystic website.
