2012 - 10 - 15 / 3:15 pm / events
Pax 2012: Day 4
Oops! I totally meant to post this way earlier, but I got side tracked by some other things and totally lost track of time. Anyway, it's a little late, but here's the last post about PAX2012!
I scheduled my flight out of Seattle for 8:20pm since I didn’t want to feel rushed to get to the airport in the morning or afternoon. At least, I thought I wouldn’t feel rushed to get to the airport.
We had closed the windows the night before since the sounds of dentist drill birds, hell hounds, and yelling people usually has been waking us up at 6:30 in the morning. This tactic seemed to work, except for the fact that the room we were sleeping in was now pretty warm and that can sometimes cause additional sleep to happen… or standing around for 10 hours a day talking to people and demoing games can also do that.
I woke up at noon and I think I could barely hear the hell hounds barking outside of the closed windows. I was amazed at how tired I still felt for it being noon o’clock, and I looked around the room and nobody else was up yet. I ended up laying back down and falling back asleep for what I thought was maybe only a half hour or so. I ended up waking back up at 3:30pm, and nobody else in the apartment was awake still.
When I got up out of bed, Dave also rose from his slumber. I didn’t really think I’d be the first person awake at 3:30pm. I went to sleep at around 1:30am the night before, so I got a solid 14 hours of sleep which I think made up for all of the sleep I missed in the past couple of days, as well as all the energy spent just being at PAX.
Matt didn’t end up coming to until an hour later, and we didn’t actually leave the apartment until 5pm. We wandered around downtown for a little while looking for something to eat while Matt had to deal with some phone bullshit that happened to him during PAX. I really wanted to find some sushi before I had to leave town because I love eating as much sushi as possible when I’m visiting a coastal city. Unfortunately it was Labor Day, and the one sushi place that was close enough to go to before having to get to the airport was closed. I ended up going to a Jimmy John’s which was… alright I guess. It was food, at least.
We headed back to the apartment and I packed up the rest of my stuff after almost forgetting my phone charger and some clothes. We left for the airport and Matt said we might have enough gas to barely make it to the airport, so we stopped to get gas on the way there. After filling up Matt said “Yeah there’s no way we would’ve made it to the airport.” So it’s a good thing that we stopped to get gas.
The rest of the day went smooth. I didn’t have to go through the stupid super naked x-ray scanners at both Phoenix and Seattle airports (I always opt out anyway) and the flights themselves weren’t too bad either. I spotted some of the Evil Geniuses Starcraft 2 team on my flights as well, but I didn’t say anything to them because I didn’t really have anything specific in mind to say. I haven’t been paying enough attention to Starcraft 2, and I haven’t played it in like a year.
All in all, PAX was an amazing trip and by far my favorite conference experience to date. I felt immensely proud to be in the PAX10 with Offspring Fling, and also be a part of Snapshot which was finally released right before PAX. Releasing a game can feel like a huge weight being lifted off of your shoulders, and Snapshot was heavier than most. We still have a long ways to go with the game now that we’re also putting it on the PS3 and PSVita, but for now I can relax a little bit knowing that the 3 years of work we put into the game was finally realized.
It’s always awesome getting to travel to events like this and seeing all of my awesome game developer friends in person for a few days. I wish that we could all live in the same place somehow, in some sort of perfect city somewhere in the world with amazing weather and low enough cost of living.
The entire weekend also felt surreal to me in a way. For a while Snapshot really felt like a game that would just never see the light of day. I remember playing through the game at some points and thinking that there was no way that the game would ever be completed, but somehow it happened, and I’m not even sure how. It seemed like the game went from being a big mess to a completed project in the three months before releasing it, and I’m not totally sure what happened. I think releasing Offspring Fling to the world as a solo project restored some amount of confidence in myself that I had lost during the development of Snapshot… but once again that seems like a story for another blog post if I ever make it.
I highly recommend anyone go to PAX, either as just an attendee or a developer that wants to exhibit your game. I connected with so many awesome people that just totally understood what I’m trying to do through my games, and that feeling is immensely inspiring. Unfortunately in the near future, PAX East is scheduled right up next to GDC 2013, so it looks like I probably won't be making it to PAX East because of that, but if you have the opportunity to attend PAX then I highly recommend it!
about
Hi there, my name is Kyle, and I'm a 27 year old kid with adult powers. I'm making video games and living the indie game developer life in Tempe, Arizona. Here you will find my thoughts, games, websites, doodles, and other stuff like that. I worked on Snapshot, Offspring Fling, and a whole bunch of other games. If you want to get a hold of me use the form on the bottom of the page, leave a comment, or just tweet at me. I try to post three times a week. Thanks for stoppin' by!
spotlight
blog stuff
categories
tags
- actionscript
- air
- alec holowka
- art
- artxgame
- as3
- bill pullman
- blog
- csharp
- depict1
- design
- dev log
- devlog
- diet
- doodles
- flash
- flashdevelop
- flashpunk
- food
- game jam
- gamedev
- gdc
- good times
- haxe
- haxepunk
- id4
- igh
- internet
- ios
- jottobots
- namiko
- ninja slash
- nme
- offspring fling
- paleo
- pax
- pax10
- php
- pipa
- podcast
- programming
- promotion
- python
- sfml
- snapshot
- sopa
- space sushi
- speedrun
- steam
- sushi
- tools
- uat
- verge
- webdev
- winnitron
- yay!
archives
- may 2013 (10)
- april 2013 (15)
- march 2013 (13)
- february 2013 (15)
- january 2013 (3)
- december 2012 (1)
- november 2012 (2)
- october 2012 (1)
- september 2012 (4)
- august 2012 (1)
- july 2012 (1)
- may 2012 (1)
- april 2012 (1)
- march 2012 (1)
- february 2012 (1)
- january 2012 (1)
- november 2011 (2)
- september 2011 (1)
- july 2011 (1)
- june 2011 (1)
- may 2011 (1)
- april 2011 (2)
- march 2011 (4)
- february 2011 (4)
old sites
Post your comment!