PAX - Dan's perspective
TelltaleGames
Former Telltale Staff
"By compartmentalizing the production process, Telltale optimizes its capacity and, as a result, is capable of generating a steady stream of content tailored for the emerging digital marketplace."
These are the words that were up on my computer screen at the end of the day on Thursday. I typed them, and then all I could do was stare at them, blankly. Good god, I thought to myself, what language is that? To make matters worse, during meetings that day I had said "take it offline" twice and even said "think outside the box." What was happening to me? Had the sweet succubus of commerce removed my soul and implanted a jargon-generating microchip into my head?
It was with this on my mind that I packed up and got ready to head out for PAX, the annual Penny Arcade Expo. The Penny Arcade guys had invited Telltale up to speak about what's wrong with the game industry and what's being done to fix it. Kevin is a better ranter than me, so he seemed like the right one to do the panel, but I still wanted to check out the show so I headed up on Friday to meet with some folks and show off Sam & Max. This would be my first trip to PAX, and even though I'd heard it was cool, I was feeling burned out and wasn't sure to expect.
If you're not familiar with them, Penny Arcade is a great site, with a comic any gamer or game industry person can love. Their reach keeps getting bigger and bigger -- they've donated a lot of money and toys (including games, of course) to Children's Hospital through their Child's Play charity, and this year they announced a scholarship for aspiring game designers -- but they've stayed true to their roots as gamers by continuing their webcomic and blogging about things going on in the industry that they find interesting. (Recently they wrote about Sam & Max, which was pretty exciting.) A few years ago they started PAX as a kind of counterpart to big trade shows like E3, for the fans instead of the media. To kick off this year's show, the Penny Arcade guys announced that they're going to make an episodic adventure-style game based on Tycho and Gabe from the comic. This was great news to hear and we're glad to have Penny Arcade helping to lead the charge for episodic content. [readmore]
Well, I landed in Seattle with my wife and 20-month-old son, who traveled with me to visit some friends and hang out in beautiful Washington after PAX. Up until this point things had been going pretty well, but unfortunately when the luggage carousel came to a stop our bags were nowhere to be seen. It took about an hour to deal with the lost luggage, finally exhausting the patience of our baby and sending him into a full-on meltdown. We rushed him into the rental car for a 90-mile ride to Bellingham, where I dropped off the family. Then I drove another 90 miles back to Bellevue for six consecutive hours of meetings to demo the game. (Just as a note for non-Seattle folks: the midday traffic sucks.)
So I was stuck in traffic on the way to the show, with a mix of northwest caffeine, road rage, and stress pumping through my veins. All I needed was a 16 oz Bawls Guarana drink and I would have been transformed into a modern-day Hunter S. Thompson. I was not looking forward to this show. My expectation was that I would end up in a packed convention hall surrounded by hardcore gamers with handles like spl00gehead, killr, and MonkeyPants.
Sure enough, the first person I met upon arrival was a mohawked guy in an old army jacket. "Here we go," I thought. "Is this where the expo is?" I asked him.
"Right over there," he said. "I'm about to head down." We walked over together. It turned out he was a programming student and was in town checking out the scene. We had a pleasant conversation walking to the show and he seemed to tolerate my old guy-ness. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
To my surprise the show was not a giant deathmatch orgy, but one of the coolest, most diverse celebrations of gaming as an art form that I have ever seen. I hung out in the wireless lounge and watched people playing a lot of DS and really having a great time, only interrupted by loud roars of the crowd based on whatever was tickling their fancy. It really felt like a festival, not a gaming trade show, especially in comparison to E3.
My first conversation was with Cory Banks from Gamers with Jobs. I loved the name of the site and found Cory to be really knowledgeable and thoughtful about all types of games and the state of the industry. He had fond memories of Sam & Max from the days of his youth and I was psyched when he said it felt like we've really captured the Sam & Max of old. The afternoon and evening continued this way as I jumped from meeting to meeting. I also had a few minutes to stop in on David Reid of GameTap, who was at PAX speaking about digital distribution.
As I continued to speak with people, a few things kept coming up. One, gamers at PAX love new ideas. Two, it would be awesome to play Sam & Max with a bunch of friends the same way those guys playing DS in the lounge were, hooting and hollering with your favorite beverage in hand. And three, there is a new generation of gamers who want more from their games than wanton violence, be it drama, humor, or romance. As I went through my day, I could see the passion for games that each individual had and slowly remembered what I was doing in this business in the first place. It was a really good opportunity to meet with the fans, which is something we don't get to do too often when we're closed up in the office making games. I left PAX feeling inspired and excited about the potential for games, and about how open gamers are to new ideas.
These are the words that were up on my computer screen at the end of the day on Thursday. I typed them, and then all I could do was stare at them, blankly. Good god, I thought to myself, what language is that? To make matters worse, during meetings that day I had said "take it offline" twice and even said "think outside the box." What was happening to me? Had the sweet succubus of commerce removed my soul and implanted a jargon-generating microchip into my head?
 Image borrowed from the PAX website. |
If you're not familiar with them, Penny Arcade is a great site, with a comic any gamer or game industry person can love. Their reach keeps getting bigger and bigger -- they've donated a lot of money and toys (including games, of course) to Children's Hospital through their Child's Play charity, and this year they announced a scholarship for aspiring game designers -- but they've stayed true to their roots as gamers by continuing their webcomic and blogging about things going on in the industry that they find interesting. (Recently they wrote about Sam & Max, which was pretty exciting.) A few years ago they started PAX as a kind of counterpart to big trade shows like E3, for the fans instead of the media. To kick off this year's show, the Penny Arcade guys announced that they're going to make an episodic adventure-style game based on Tycho and Gabe from the comic. This was great news to hear and we're glad to have Penny Arcade helping to lead the charge for episodic content. [readmore]
Well, I landed in Seattle with my wife and 20-month-old son, who traveled with me to visit some friends and hang out in beautiful Washington after PAX. Up until this point things had been going pretty well, but unfortunately when the luggage carousel came to a stop our bags were nowhere to be seen. It took about an hour to deal with the lost luggage, finally exhausting the patience of our baby and sending him into a full-on meltdown. We rushed him into the rental car for a 90-mile ride to Bellingham, where I dropped off the family. Then I drove another 90 miles back to Bellevue for six consecutive hours of meetings to demo the game. (Just as a note for non-Seattle folks: the midday traffic sucks.)
So I was stuck in traffic on the way to the show, with a mix of northwest caffeine, road rage, and stress pumping through my veins. All I needed was a 16 oz Bawls Guarana drink and I would have been transformed into a modern-day Hunter S. Thompson. I was not looking forward to this show. My expectation was that I would end up in a packed convention hall surrounded by hardcore gamers with handles like spl00gehead, killr, and MonkeyPants.
Sure enough, the first person I met upon arrival was a mohawked guy in an old army jacket. "Here we go," I thought. "Is this where the expo is?" I asked him.
"Right over there," he said. "I'm about to head down." We walked over together. It turned out he was a programming student and was in town checking out the scene. We had a pleasant conversation walking to the show and he seemed to tolerate my old guy-ness. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
To my surprise the show was not a giant deathmatch orgy, but one of the coolest, most diverse celebrations of gaming as an art form that I have ever seen. I hung out in the wireless lounge and watched people playing a lot of DS and really having a great time, only interrupted by loud roars of the crowd based on whatever was tickling their fancy. It really felt like a festival, not a gaming trade show, especially in comparison to E3.
My first conversation was with Cory Banks from Gamers with Jobs. I loved the name of the site and found Cory to be really knowledgeable and thoughtful about all types of games and the state of the industry. He had fond memories of Sam & Max from the days of his youth and I was psyched when he said it felt like we've really captured the Sam & Max of old. The afternoon and evening continued this way as I jumped from meeting to meeting. I also had a few minutes to stop in on David Reid of GameTap, who was at PAX speaking about digital distribution.
As I continued to speak with people, a few things kept coming up. One, gamers at PAX love new ideas. Two, it would be awesome to play Sam & Max with a bunch of friends the same way those guys playing DS in the lounge were, hooting and hollering with your favorite beverage in hand. And three, there is a new generation of gamers who want more from their games than wanton violence, be it drama, humor, or romance. As I went through my day, I could see the passion for games that each individual had and slowly remembered what I was doing in this business in the first place. It was a really good opportunity to meet with the fans, which is something we don't get to do too often when we're closed up in the office making games. I left PAX feeling inspired and excited about the potential for games, and about how open gamers are to new ideas.
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