PAX AUS Indie Showcase 2025 – Trivia Deal

October 8, 2025

PAX AUS Indie Showcase 2025 - Trivia Deal

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.

Brett Jenkins has spent the past three years expanding his creative horizons in game development, resulting in his first major release winning a PAX AUS Indie Showcase spot in 2025. Trivia Deal is an intriguing blend of roguelike deck building and trivia, revitalising the format in the process. We spoke to Brett about the development of Trivia Deal and what PAX AUS attendees should look forward to at the booth.

Player2: Hi Brett, thanks so much for talking to Player2! Firstly, what’s your history in game design – when did you know it was something you wanted to pursue?

Brett Jenkins: I have a background in graphic and web design, and I’ve always wanted to have a creative project on the go. In around 2022 I started experimenting with various game engines and eventually put some things up on itch.io It was the positive feedback, and a love for the craft that kept me going and inspired me to take things more seriously.

P2: Where did the name Fluent Pixel come from?

Brett: I’ve had that name since about 2008 when I started my original graphic design career, the name is just a reference to how good visual communication is fluent, and relevant to people of any background. I felt the name translated well to game development too.

P2: Trivia Deal is a game that when I first saw it, I couldn’t believe it hadn’t already been done, because of course that would be a great idea – how did it come about and what inspired the design?

Brett: I’ve always enjoyed trivia, but felt that most trivia games are too arcade-y/party style games. As I’ve been really into a range of Roguelike Deckbuilders like Monster Train, Slay the Spire and Balatro, I felt I could bring something more tense and replayable to trivia. Also, something that plays well both in single player, or with friends in local coop or in a live stream with an audience.

P2: What was your reaction when finding out you’d won a spot in the Indie Showcase?

Brett: Blown away. I worked really hard to have my game in good shape at the time of the application, so it felt like a great reward for effort. Ultimately, it’s very humbling to be sharing the stage with some very impressive indie developers.

P2: What have been the most challenging and rewarding experiences in bringing Trivia Deal to life?

Brett: Most challenging was starting from scratch halfway through as I changed the coding language to build the game. It meant a massive crunch to rebuild what I had already completed, and stalling the delivery to my audience for about 6 months. It was also the most rewarding, as it has allowed me to build and scale to whatever I need moving forward.

P2: Something that fascinates me about developing titles like Trivia Deal is how do you balance the types of questions you ask players and avoid repetition given that’s a huge element of roguelikes?

Brett: So far, I’ve got over 2,000 questions, and by the full release I’m aiming for around 3-5,000 so there will be a good pool and plenty of play time. At the start of each run, I have an algorithm that pulls out questions ensuring a good mix of categories, and as questions are answered correctly I mark them to not be shown again – unless the player manages to get through the entire database.

P2: If you had to give any piece of advice to aspiring indie designers, what would it be?

Brett: Not to take the popular advice on YouTube too literally. I think there’s a lot of great advice out there, but there’s also different ways to go down your own game development journey. You need to find what works for you.

P2: What categories aren’t yet in the game that you’d love to add?

Brett: There’s a lot of niche categories people have asked for previously – things like knitting and crocheting which I know very little about. I also need to spend a lot more to the video games sub-cateogires. I think that’s a real key to making it fun on Steam – as gamers will want gamer questions!

P2: Were you at any point worried Trivia Deal might get ‘cloned’ and rushed to market?

Brett: Not overly worried, but it’s always been in the back of my head. Knowing how much time and effort goes into a proper trivia database, I don’t think anyone would be able to do that very well – but it’s definitely possible as I’ve seen a few disaster stories, mainly going to iOS/Google app stores.

P2: What platforms are you considering outside of PC – would you like to see Trivia Deal on the Switch?

Brett: If it does well on Steam release, definitely. I’ve already been getting some testing done with Steam Deck (touch screen) which performs really well, so introducing controller/handheld support will be the next step. Not easy for some of the interactions in the game, but possible!

P2: Brett, thanks again so much for talking to Player2, we hope you have an amazing PAX AUS with Trivia Deal!

PAX AUS Attendees can find the Trivia Deal booth in the Indie Showcase section of PAX AUS from October 10-12. Trivia Deal has a playable demo and can be Wishlisted on Steam right now.

Stephen del Prado

While toiling away in the bowels of the now mythical Australian Gamer forums, Stephen's attempts at writing were recognised by then up-and-coming Matt 'Hewso' Hewson as "not terrible". Since then he has contributed to such sites as The Age's now defunct Screen Play, the long-since retired Black Panel and currently serves under Editor-in-Chief Hewso for Player2.net.au, at least until the pattern of decline obvious in his previous engagements is picked up on by Hewso and he is exiled from games journalism forever. Writes on Yugambeh land.

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