by Omar (@siegarettes)

This story was made possible by support by our patrons. You can find our Patreon page here.

In only its second year, Bit Bash is a Chicago based games and art festival. It focuses on smaller, independent games and unlike big conventions it remains relatively accessible. I headed over there to check it out, and bring you back my impressions.

The first game I tried out was THUMPER , fittingly described by the devs as a “Rhythm-Violence” game. It was situated in a metal trailer outside the rest of the venue, with the windows blacked out and a serious sound system housed inside. It operates along a single rail, with you controlling a beetle in a call and response format. The track sends out cues beforehand, then you press, hold, or lean into a curve as it approaches to send attacks out to a gruesome boss in the background. The game communicates pure aggression, and each action is met with a thundering bass response. 

The rest of the games were primarily housed inside the Threadless T-Shirt company warehouse, with various monitors and projectors connected to laptops, large PCs and PS4s. (The pictures here are actually a lot brighter than the actual venue was). There often also unique hardware set ups for a lot of the games there.

Among those was Downwell, which had a three arcade button set up and large vertical monitor to fit the game’s format. It attracted quite the attention. Its combination of three color art, rogue-like elements and simple controls made it immediately easy to understand and it just felt good to play, especially on the set up provided. I can see it belonging in the company of compulsive games like Spelunky. 

After my time with Oh Deer! I was happy to get my hands on Gunsport, the next game by developers Necrosoft Games. The art was the definite stand out, though its detail meant the animations were limited. The busy venue meant that getting together the four players required was no trouble, and the after a bit of fiddling within a match it proved easy enough to play. It’s basically a combination of volleyball and soccer, but with guns. You literally shoot the ball to try to score or defend yourself. 

The opening space was also adorned with art prints, many of which were for sale, such as this gorgeous art from Samurai Gunn. There was also prints from games like FOTONICA , which were generally concept and key art that you may have seen already, though seeing it frame on high quality material definitely made it more flattering. (FOTONICA was also at the show, and its competitive multiplayer proved popular).

One of the first surprises of the festival was Kerfuffle, a small multiplayer brawler. It was still in an unstable stage, but what was there was very charming. It gives you the chance to pick from a few animals with their own movesets. Its one hit knock outs also mean that spacing becomes very important and reading your opponent is key. I returned to it a few times just for some casual matches.

Alongside that was Particle Mace, which I didn’t get to play (a running theme in a space packed with games). Like a lot of games in the space it had a strong multiplayer component. It involves moving your ship to drag around the titular particle mace and smash objects. Someone described it as a “reverse Asteroids” which feels accurate.

Speaking of Asteroids, one of the standout games of the show ended up being Astro Duel, a game very obviously inspired by Asteroids and the Bomberman games. It’s designed to be played on a screen set flat against a table (it originally existed as an iPad game) and has the simple objective of having you shoot down the other players for points. 

Where it gets really good is in finessing the physics and the game variants. The ships controls with the standard turning and thrusting, with a short boost to dodge out of the way. It’s not as fussy as its inspiration controls wise, giving you just enough momentum to make lining up shots and escaping bullets have enough push and pull so that it becomes about outsmarting an opponent. 

Add a bunch of special weapons, changing stage hazards and the Pilot Execution mode (which requires you to kill the pilot the ejects from player ships or otherwise have them regenerate) to a four player match and there’s enough chaos to make it unpredictable and tense. Anyone who’s played 0Space before should be familiar with the general feeling.

When you get into the South Hall it gets a bit overwhelming, with the biggest crowds congregating here and games like Videoball (it’s pretty darn good), Aerobat and Yojimbrawl providing spectacle alongside first person narrative games such as Shape of the World or Gardenarium. This is also the space that leads to the 18+ space where games like Stick Shift or Ute were being shown. The venue is open to all ages (the crowds comprised mostly of 20 year olds, but there were a bunch of children and parents), so it was cool that there were spaces set aside to explore those kinds of games. 

Even with the density of the event, there remained a large open space leading outside and letting in light, so it felt much less intimidating than comparable indoor convention spaces. 

Another nice touch was the designation of a quieter zone where games like Campfire (where you do nothing but jam around a campfire) and Little Party were being shown away from the noise of the larger spaces. It’s also where a bunch of table top games were being demoed. 

Even with everything I made an effort to check out, it was a bit impossible for one person to cover everything, and there’s definitely a ton I missed, or that looked interesting but I didn’t have time for. It’s likely worthwhile just to check out the list of games to get an idea of what was there.

Probably the best takeaway is the feeling of the space. Unlike conventions and industry events which can sometimes feel alienating or sterile, Bit Bash put a lot into it to make it feel inviting. 

The choice of venue, with its open spaces and sunlight, definitely helped a lot. Importantly there was also a clear anti-harassment policy in place, communicated in the information handed out, as well as instructions and hotlines to crisis lines, taxis etc.

There was a definitely focus on the games themselves, both as gallery like art and as social events. The games all trended towards beautiful and interesting art direction. And while a lot of different genres and approaches were represented, there was a definite focus on a social, competitive and cooperative games, which was towards its benefit. A lot of games took advantage of this as well, whether it was simply to get enough players together, or in novel control methods that couldn’t be replicated at home. (There was a game that was controlled by rolling a large tennis ball trackball style, and a machine where you controlled the game by moving a cardio machine). 

It was an honest, passionate and refreshing space just to hang out and enjoy videogames. I’m already excited for next year.