PAX East 2015: Upsilon Circuit is one of the most unique concepts for a game I have ever seen

PAX East has come and gone, and once again it did not disappoint in the indie games department. One thing that I love about the indie booths at PAX is seeing all of the creative and unique games that these incredibly talented individuals come up with. One game in particular caught my eye 

That game is Upsilon Circuit. The game is part RPG, and part gameshow. What makes Upsilon Circuit unique is how the game is played. There will only be a single server running for the game and only 8 people can be in the game at once. These players in the arena are randomly chosen from a pool of players and are sent to the arena where they have to fend off waves of enemies. Here is the catch. If you die while playing, that's it, you are done. Yes, death is permanent in this game. You will never be allowed back into the arena again. Now, I know that may seem boring, but there is another part of the game as well that is just as fun. The audience.

Upsilon Circuit will be constantly live streamed and the audience at home will be able to participate in the game as much as the players in the arena. How does this work? Well the devs had a separate tablet set up at the booth, and as the arena match went on, the person holding the tablet would earn coins. Those coins could be spent on different monsters which then spawns in the arena. I spent 10 coins on a zombie and then watch it instantly spawn in the arena as the other players with gamepads would try to kill them. You don't have to send enemies though. If you want, you can help out the players by sending health potions and other goodies to them as well. The audience also gets control of all of the XP that the players in the arena earn as well and they can decide how they want to level up players. 

I talked with the devs about the huge potential this game has. If the audience feels like being jerks, they could all spam monsters into the arena trying to kill the contestants. However, what if the players in the arena are really good? It would be amazing to watch the chat explode into all out rage when the defiant arena players keep destroying everything that was thrown at them and then all cheer when a player finally dies. This is one of the coolest ideas for a game that I have ever seen and I would absolutely love if more games incorporated audience participation like this. I will absolutely be keeping an eye on this going forward. 

You can sign up for their newsletter on their website and they will let everyone know when the show starts.