If there’s one word that summarises the experience of being at SAGE: South Australian Game Exhibition 2025, it’s community. From the communal celebration of talent and craft, to the swell of support from the record-breaking number of attendees, this year’s exhibition was a masterclass in knowing your people, and creating opportunities to show their talent.
Over the course of two days, the team at the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) brought together 37 games studios and developers, some returning from successful showings last year, and some brand new not only to SAGE, but to showcasing games, period.
The exhibition housed an array of games from all genres on the Main Showcase floor, from VR and roguelikes to shooters and deckbuilders. The atmosphere in the main hall was palpable even before the public crossed the threshold, with team members from each booth excitedly showing their work, visiting their friends, and celebrating their fellow exhibitors.
In a separate wing, the Elevate Showcase (featuring just eight exhibitors) was designed to give a leg-up to new and emerging game developers. With many of these developers fresh from their studies, it’s a testament to the strength of South Australia’s game development education system that there were a number of Elevate games that could very easily have featured seamlessly in the main hall.
If the sheer scale of games on offer wasn’t enough, SAGE 2025 also played host to a series of insightful panels and talks, featuring a host of South Australian talent. From educational panels discussing the diversity of skillsets required to make games, to celebratory chats reminiscing on some of the most legendary games of South Australia’s impressive game development history (chaired by yours truly), the scope of learnings and insights on offer was sizeable.
Recognising the cream of the crop in the SAGE 2025 awards
While for many exhibitors, the opportunity to showcase their games was a reward in and of itself, it’s hard to deny the lure of an award or two – and that’s exactly what was up for grabs.
Over the course of the Friday, a panel of judges (including GamesHub!) played each and every game on the floor, across both showcases – a sizeable undertaking, given the scale and quality of the offerings. After some thrilling gameplay and a lively discussion, the judges selected winners for two prizes: the SAGE Elevate Award and the SAGE Award for Best in Exhibition.
In an article from SAFC, Jury Chair and SAFC Game Development executive James O’Connor said: “The judges were blown away by the standard and quality of games presented at SAGE this year. The creativity and innovation on display was outstanding, and represented the extraordinary breadth of talent in South Australia’s games sector, from solo indie developers right through to established studios.”
Looking outside the box with Cube
The SAGE Elevate Award is awarded to the game that best demonstrates excellence in innovation, creativity and ambition within the Elevate showcase, and carries with it a prize of $1,000 in legal services from Cam Rogers Legal – a huge and valuable help for studios and developers early in their journey.
This year, the prize was awarded to Cube, a minimalist puzzle platformer developed by The RnD Department, which captured the attention of onlookers thanks to its vivid colours, intuitive gameplay and deeply satisfying crumbling effect. You know those crumbling soap videos on TikTok? This game triggers the same brain-tinglingly satisfying effect.
You play as the eponymous Cube, rolling along an abstract environment and consuming other smaller cubes along an Escher-esque path. As you consume each of the smaller cubes, your Cube grows – sizing up with another satisfying jelly-wobble. The bigger your cube grows, the more the environment shifts – all the while seeing the crumbling evidence of your path in its wake, now minuscule in comparison.
For developers Daniel D’Cruz and Rupert (Ru) McPharlin, witnessing the overwhelmingly positive response to the game was extremely validating.
“It has been so rewarding having senior industry play something that I have worked on and am very proud of,” McPharlin told GamesHub. “I still don’t quite believe we won the Elevate Award … It has been very humbling and I keep pinching myself. Hopefully we can leverage the prestige of this award to accelerate and energise Cube’s development going forward.”
What was perhaps most impressive about Cube is how intuitive it is. Players of all ages were able to pick up a controller and make their way through sheer experimentation and logic, with only one short line of instructional text appearing roughly halfway through the demo’s runtime.
On many occasions, the booth was flocked by children between the ages of 4 and 10, all organically finding their feet in the evolving environment. Siblings were shouting hints, onlookers were commiserating with gusto whenever the Cube fell, and there was a rapt sense of wonder on the faces of each player as they made it to the final peak.
After such an incredibly successful showing – and with a goal of releasing a full game before the end of the year – it’s safe to say that Cube is going to the top of our indie watch list for 2025.
Brace yourself for a stray meat pie in Pro Jank Footy
The SAGE Award of Best in Exhibition goes to the game that not only exhibits creative excellence, innovation and originality, but also stands out among its peers as a major highlight on the show floor. This hotly contested award carries with it a $2,000 cash prize, as well as the honour of being recognised as one of South Australia’s best upcoming games.
In 2025, the honour went to the extremely popular Pro Jank Footy, an AFL game developed by Powerbomb Games in a truly incredible four-month development period. With less of a focus on the actual rules of AFL, and more of a focus on how much chaos can be wrought in a single match, Pro Jank Footy seems destined to take its rightful place as the supreme post-finals gaming experience.
At first glance, the game functions as a typical AFL game, but every time you score a goal, a selection of three deeply wacky power-up cards send more than just spanners into the works. There are 50 potential power-ups that could emerge, from a card that turns every player into a giant football, through to a card that adds an entire third team to the game, just to get in the way, and cause some havoc.
If that’s not enough to whet your whistle, there’s the added comedic bonus of Aunty Donna‘s Broden Kelly doing some cheeky commentary throughout the game.
Powerbomb Games rep David Ashby told GamesHub, “Tyler and I were absolutely surprised to receive the Best in Exhibition award … We didn’t even know there was an award, our goal was just to get Pro Jank Footy out for SAGE – just for people to see it – and the response has been completely, overwhelmingly positive.”
“It’s been a wonderful experience here at SAGE 2025, because for the most part we’re in front of our computers, or just chatting on Discord as we developed the game,” he said. “Being here side by side with the South Australian gaming community has been absolutely wonderful and encouraging. Everyone is so positive about each other’s work – everyone is excited to realise new ideas, show them, and feel immediately vindicated that you’re onto something that you think is cool.”
Read: SAGE 2024 showed off the full scope of South Australia’s game studios
Breaking records
In the three years that SAGE has been held in Adelaide, it has grown exponentially. In 2025, over 3,000 attended SAGE, managing to exceed last year’s total attendance in just a single day. With the outpouring of community support, and a growing wave of talented indie developers making their mark in the state, it’s clear to see that South Australia isn’t messing around when it comes to video games.
With many of the developers already indicating how keen they are to come back again next year with new or revamped projects, it’s clear that the event is only going to get more and more wind behind its sails. We’re truly excited to see what comes next.
Stay tuned for more coverage from SAGE 2025.
