PAX and Stuff
PAX has come and gone like a cool breeze on a mid-summer's day (not an Arizona mid-summer day, though.) It was as crazy as I expected it to be and a little bit more. Everyone was prepared for the madness to last four days this time, so every Indie Megabooth member had ample supplies of hand sanitizer, vitamin c powder, and various types of medicine in stock.
I was just at PAX floating around which was pretty fun. I filled in at the Aztez booth from time to time, and also helped out a little bit at TowerFall in the PAX10. My awesome laptop was used to demo Scale, but beyond that I had no real responsibilities, yay!
I stopped in for the Spelunky Video Armageddon challenge which turned out to be pretty awesome. Colin Northway destroyed all his competitors with a complete Hell run of Spelunky that actually went quite late since the Video Armageddon lived up to its name and started late after 30 minutes of struggling with laptop video out.
During the first two days of PAX, Matt Thorson put out a sign up sheet next to TowerFall to hold a tournament, so for two days people played a game or two and signed up to enter the first world championships of bow and arrow deathmatch.
The first round of the tournament was played as just a normal 4 player Headhunters game. Autobalance on, and first to ten kills on a random map. I was pretty worried about autobalance, but fortunately the people in my group weren't able to take advantage of it and I won my match, advancing into the next round.
The next round was another 4 player headhunters game but with autobalance turned off, and first person to 20 kills. I started off a little shaky in this match, but once I found my groove I ended up taking off into the lead pretty quickly. I think I ended up getting 20 kills before any of my foes got to 10. Plus we ended up playing on Mirage which is prone to laser arrow suicides for newer players.
My next match was a 1v1 against the one and only Greg Lobanov. He won the first game on Mirage, so I chose Flight next. It was a two out of three set where the loser picks the map. It was also first to five last man standing, with autobalance off and symmetrical treasure on.
On Flight I won a convincing game 5 to 0, but Greg turned it around on Twilight Spire and knocked me out of the tournament. He ended up going on to win the whole thing in the next round, and also defeated Matt himself in an insane three out of five set where the final match came down to the final round. There was a huge crowd watching the entire tournament and they shouted and screamed and gasped at every single play. It was an amazing experience to watch, and to play in the tournament and get those cheers on a clutch arrow grab or close shot.
Since I wasn't exhibiting I also got a chance to check out the Three Decades of Video Game Music panel hosted by MANvsGAME. It featured such personalities as DannyB, C418, Big Giant Circles, and Grant Kirkhope. The panel was a little crazy and it ended up not digging as deeply into the minds of musicians as I'd hoped, but it was still a good time all around. Honestly I don't think PAX is a venue for super in depth panels, but more about just having fun with a crowd for an hour.
I also got a chance to sit in on the PAX10 panel featuring TowerFall, Rogue Legacy, Badland, Super Avalanche, and Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time. The PAX10 panels are always a lot of fun and being a part of the panel last year was super awesome and made me feel mega famous for an hour. There's always a lot of questions about getting into game development, and game jams seem to come up the most for answers about that (which I agree with!)
After the PAX madness was over I had to pack up all my stuff and hop on a bus with a bunch of Vancouver indies to get to Indie House Vancouver -- the rivals of Indie Game House AZ. They're kidnapping me for a week and forcing me to work on games, and that's where I'm currently posting from.
I've been getting some cool stuff done since PAX has ended. It feels like PAX has really charged me up creatively and I want to ride that wave for as long as I can. Last time I had GDC charge me up but I crashed and burned right after it ended and got into a slump -- this time I have to keep the momentum alive!
I was just at PAX floating around which was pretty fun. I filled in at the Aztez booth from time to time, and also helped out a little bit at TowerFall in the PAX10. My awesome laptop was used to demo Scale, but beyond that I had no real responsibilities, yay!
I stopped in for the Spelunky Video Armageddon challenge which turned out to be pretty awesome. Colin Northway destroyed all his competitors with a complete Hell run of Spelunky that actually went quite late since the Video Armageddon lived up to its name and started late after 30 minutes of struggling with laptop video out.
During the first two days of PAX, Matt Thorson put out a sign up sheet next to TowerFall to hold a tournament, so for two days people played a game or two and signed up to enter the first world championships of bow and arrow deathmatch.
The first round of the tournament was played as just a normal 4 player Headhunters game. Autobalance on, and first to ten kills on a random map. I was pretty worried about autobalance, but fortunately the people in my group weren't able to take advantage of it and I won my match, advancing into the next round.
The next round was another 4 player headhunters game but with autobalance turned off, and first person to 20 kills. I started off a little shaky in this match, but once I found my groove I ended up taking off into the lead pretty quickly. I think I ended up getting 20 kills before any of my foes got to 10. Plus we ended up playing on Mirage which is prone to laser arrow suicides for newer players.
My next match was a 1v1 against the one and only Greg Lobanov. He won the first game on Mirage, so I chose Flight next. It was a two out of three set where the loser picks the map. It was also first to five last man standing, with autobalance off and symmetrical treasure on.
On Flight I won a convincing game 5 to 0, but Greg turned it around on Twilight Spire and knocked me out of the tournament. He ended up going on to win the whole thing in the next round, and also defeated Matt himself in an insane three out of five set where the final match came down to the final round. There was a huge crowd watching the entire tournament and they shouted and screamed and gasped at every single play. It was an amazing experience to watch, and to play in the tournament and get those cheers on a clutch arrow grab or close shot.
Since I wasn't exhibiting I also got a chance to check out the Three Decades of Video Game Music panel hosted by MANvsGAME. It featured such personalities as DannyB, C418, Big Giant Circles, and Grant Kirkhope. The panel was a little crazy and it ended up not digging as deeply into the minds of musicians as I'd hoped, but it was still a good time all around. Honestly I don't think PAX is a venue for super in depth panels, but more about just having fun with a crowd for an hour.
I also got a chance to sit in on the PAX10 panel featuring TowerFall, Rogue Legacy, Badland, Super Avalanche, and Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time. The PAX10 panels are always a lot of fun and being a part of the panel last year was super awesome and made me feel mega famous for an hour. There's always a lot of questions about getting into game development, and game jams seem to come up the most for answers about that (which I agree with!)
After the PAX madness was over I had to pack up all my stuff and hop on a bus with a bunch of Vancouver indies to get to Indie House Vancouver -- the rivals of Indie Game House AZ. They're kidnapping me for a week and forcing me to work on games, and that's where I'm currently posting from.
I've been getting some cool stuff done since PAX has ended. It feels like PAX has really charged me up creatively and I want to ride that wave for as long as I can. Last time I had GDC charge me up but I crashed and burned right after it ended and got into a slump -- this time I have to keep the momentum alive!
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