PAX - Kevin's perspective
TelltaleGames
Former Telltale Staff
Last weekend, I was invited to speak at the "What's wrong with the games industry" panel at PAX, and you don't really need to twist my arm too hard to get me to rant about the industry. So I was all full of my cynical, jaded and generally curmudgeon views of the industry I love so much as I walked into PAX. Let me tell you, PAX has renewed my faith that gaming is not entirely in the control the big publishers. I was also there to show the almost finished Sam & Max Episode 1 to a few people from the press and anyone else who was interested.
The panel was awesome. Besides myself, there was Steve Bocska who's making the new Penny Arcade Episodic game at his new studio, Hothead, and John Baez from the Behemoth (creators of "Alien Hominid"). Coincidentally, Steve also was a designer on the previous CSI games that were made before Telltale's CSI games. Small world, eh? In general it was agreed that the one of the biggest problem with the industry is the broken retail model, and how online is reshaping all of this, though the Q&A with the audience was probably the best part. It was great to share the spotlight with other independent game studios. Safety in numbers, you know. (To see more about the panel, check out the write-up at Gamasutra.)
To demo Sam & Max, I grabbed a bit of table space at the HUGE gamer lounge on the fourth floor. This was the biggest LAN party I've ever seen (not that I get out that much). Everyone who saw Sam & Max really seemed to "get it". They laughed at all the good jokes, cringed at the lame jokes, solved the easy puzzles quickly and got really jazzed about the hard puzzles. But the coolest part were the people who'd see us playing and say "Dude! Where'd you get that, is that out yet?!" I tried to give everyone who came by a free copy of "The Great Cow Race", but I quickly ran out.
But by far the coolest part of PAX was the crowd. These people love games. They are not producers, distributors, publishers, marketers or the myriad other people who fill the industry without actually ever playing a game. They are gamers. And believe it or not, when you're in the games industry, you don't see enough actual gamers. So, from an official panelist on "what's wrong with the games industry," I can tell you one thing for sure -- PAX is one thing that is definitely right.
 Image borrowed from Gamasutra. |
To demo Sam & Max, I grabbed a bit of table space at the HUGE gamer lounge on the fourth floor. This was the biggest LAN party I've ever seen (not that I get out that much). Everyone who saw Sam & Max really seemed to "get it". They laughed at all the good jokes, cringed at the lame jokes, solved the easy puzzles quickly and got really jazzed about the hard puzzles. But the coolest part were the people who'd see us playing and say "Dude! Where'd you get that, is that out yet?!" I tried to give everyone who came by a free copy of "The Great Cow Race", but I quickly ran out.
But by far the coolest part of PAX was the crowd. These people love games. They are not producers, distributors, publishers, marketers or the myriad other people who fill the industry without actually ever playing a game. They are gamers. And believe it or not, when you're in the games industry, you don't see enough actual gamers. So, from an official panelist on "what's wrong with the games industry," I can tell you one thing for sure -- PAX is one thing that is definitely right.
This discussion has been closed.