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Home » News » HU Student Team Makes an Impression at PAX Unplugged 2024
HU Student Team Makes an Impression at PAX Unplugged 2024
January 3, 2025
HARRISBURG, PA – Since 2004, PAX Unplugged has become an essential annual event for tabletop gaming enthusiasts: a mega convention packed with board games, card games, and dice-rolling adventures, all focused on celebrating gaming culture and inclusivity. PAX Unplugged is 100% dedicated to tabletop games, offering opportunities for students to immerse themselves in the culture of the industry and receive direct feedback from peers, major publishers, creators, and innovators.
PAX Unplugged 2024 was held December 6–8 in Philadelphia, with a wide set of opportunities for gamers and creators alike.
UnPub
UnPub is the unpublished game-testing area at PAX. The UnPub organization connects game designers with playtesters, offering an opportunity for students to have their games playtested several times by gamers, indie designers, and publishers. HU students had their games playtested by high-level professionals from studios like Leder Games and Asmodee, who provided high-quality feedback on the students’ prototypes and validated their months of focus and hard work.
“The playtesters were impressed that our students came up with original themes for their games, which is a difficult thing to accomplish in the games space,” said Professor Loring-Albright. “Plus, our dedicated UnPub table was adjacent to the Philadelphia Game Makers Guild, resulting in great cross-pollination between our students and the Philadelphia designers – many of whom are published, and all of whom have a strong culture of good, thoughtful feedback.”
The HU team also had blocks of time when they were tasked with playtesting other UnPub attendees’ games, exposing them to other up-and-coming or established game designers and their in-progress designs.
“This was an excellent opportunity for students to see how other designers pitch their games, run playtests, and survey playtesters,” added Professor Ortega. “The UnPub organizers, our professional contacts from companies like Asmodee, and our contacts from other universities all fully support our efforts in this class and the fact that we bring students to this event for this purpose. We’ve been invited to speak on panels at other conventions about what we’re doing.”
Feedback Frenzy
The organizers of the UnPub space also ran a Feedback Frenzy workshop, where a small batch of designers were able to pitch their game, Shark Tank-style, to a panel of judges. One HU student, Lillian Bowerman, had a chance to pitch the game she was making in class, for which she received very positive feedback.
Pro AM Game Jam
This workshop saw attendees break into teams to work with professional game developers and develop a game concept in 30 minutes under critical time and material constraints. “There was some silliness, which you might expect from an event focused on making the most of limited resources,” said Professor Loring-Albright. “But having our students brainstorm, ideate, and pitch alongside professionals provided valuable insight into how this industry thinks through creative problems and where to focus their brainstorming.”
PAX Unplugged: A Celebration of Gaming for All
“There are so many benefits for our students when they attend an event like this,” said Professor Ortega. “UnPub and Feedback Frenzy directly challenged students’ planning, time management, and communication skills. Over the course of a two-hour block, each student experienced three playtests. Each playtest has the student pitching their game to a new audience every 45 minutes. This is a tremendous opportunity for students to see the value in presentations, while challenging them to be active listeners and participants in a conversation with strangers.”
Even outside of their scheduled playtest sessions, the students were excited to connect with other game designers. “We often observed them playtesting, brainstorming, and giving feedback to other designers,” said Professor Loring-Albright. “Lillian’s pitch during Feedback Frenzy was lauded by the professional panelists for having a close-to-publishable game at such a young age, speaking to the strengths of her education as a game designer thanks to the Game Design and Interactive Media programs.”
Kyle Schroding, an Interactive Media major at HU, noted: “Even though it can be intimidating to show off something you made and go to an event like this, it’s very much worth it. The people you meet and the games you play all open opportunities to grow yourself and explore new possibilities you didn’t have before – for your game and your career. It’s worth it to make the effort and show off what you can do.”
Wherever they go in the world, HU students demonstrate their inventiveness and attention to detail. Attending PAX Unplugged is one more way HU prioritizes experiential learning and broadens students’ horizons. The learning opportunities were manifold. Just as importantly, they were engaging and just plain fun.
The Tabletop Game Design Studio Course is a chance for students from across Harrisburg University to experience the process of designing a tabletop game, regardless of their chosen major. Underscoring this interdisciplinary course design, each student who attended PAX Unplugged 2024 came from a different degree program: Advanced Manufacturing (ADMA), Game Design (GAME), and Interactive Media (IMED).
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