It’s taken two days but I think the nervous energy associated with PAX has finally dissipated. Hopefully those of you that attended PAX 06 will agree that the event came off pretty damn well. Obviously there were some issues with the amount of people being crammed into that space but I think we made it work. The final count for PAX 2006 was 19,323 (almost 20,000 people!) and there is no doubt that we’ve outgrown the Meydenbauer center and thankfully this was the last year we will have to deal with that. PAX 07 will be moving to the absolutely gigantic Washington State convention center in downtown Seattle. We’ll have more than triple the space and we plan on putting it to good use. I was blown away by how understanding everyone was this year. I know we had some long lines and some big crowds but I never heard anyone complain about the situation. All I heard all weekend from people was how great the show was and what a good time they were having. You guys really are awesome.
There was a lot of media coverage this year and a lot of it is online now if you want to check it out. I’ve tried to gather some links for you. Gaming blogs Kotaku and Joystiq were both reporting from the show all weekend long. Each of them has a ton of PAX 06 content available including you tube videos, interviews and photos. 1up sent a crew of people this year and they’ve got a very slick PAX 06 site set up to collect all their reports. The latest CGW podcast even has a little PAX 06 recap. You can find three or four very good write-ups over at eToychest along with a bunch of photos. The most complete coverage I’ve seen of the show is actually available over at gamehelper.com. Adam and his friends spent the entire weekend interviewing people and shooting video. They’ve collected a ridiculous amount of content on their site. I’d imagine many of these sites will continue posting about PAX for a couple more days. I know Tycho and I did a couple interviews during the event that haven’t popped up yet.
If you were at PAX or you read the coverage you know that we made two pretty big announcements this year. Tycho mentioned the game above and I really don’t have much to add to his description. I will go ahead and post the teaser artwork we released at the show.
Obviously there are some hints in there for the observant Penny Arcade fan. Right now all I can tell you is that we’re calling the game a “comic adventure”. I’m not sure that you could drop it into one genre but think RPG/adventure game. We’re sticking with what we’re good at so you can expect the game to have a lot of PA style humor and feature many of your favorite characters. I can’t go into too much detail about the setting or the characters but I’ll leave you with three words: Tycho, Gabe, Lovecraft.
The other announcement we made was our new Penny Arcade scholarship. We’ll be posting all the details shortly along with all the paperwork you’ll need to download and fill out. Essentially if you want to go to college with the goal of eventually ending up in the game industry, well we want to help. Starting in 2007 we’ll cut one person a year a check for $10,000 in order to help them realize their dream of working in the game industry. As Penny Arcade has grown over the years we’ve always tried to remember the words of old Uncle Ben. “With great power comes great responsibility”. We have the greatest jobs in the world and we only have them because of the video game community. We feel a huge responsibility to give back as much and as often as we can.
Finally I wanted to leave you all with some awesome photos Kiko took this year. He was actually able to get up into the catwalks above the exhibition hall. Thanks again to everyone who came to PAX this year. I hope every one of you had a good time and I hope you’ll come back again in 07.
-Gabe out
We actually created yesterdays comic on stage at PAX. After I had finished I started doodling all over the first panel. The fans in the audience made me promise to upload this version as well as the regular comic. So here you go:
-Gabe out
The comic is about toes. Also, bamboo. Technically it's about the interaction between toes and bamboo.
Came back from EB yesterday with Saints Row, Enchanted Arms, and Disgaea 2, along with the DoubleJump Guide for the latter - flip through one of their books sometime if you'd like to know why. They're the closest I've ever seen those products come to full on, GameFAQS-style, near Asberger's type fixation in guide form. Typically one needs to trawl online for this type of... well, dedication is probably too mild a word.
We actually had an embarrassing amount of possible strip material, and it was so voluminous that I might have been intimidated - after essentially running from these riches for the first part of the night on a series of contested Sal Kari dunes, I took my leave from the squad and turned to a pile of fresh-picked GBA product from Pinku Gojira. I set aside Coloris and Dotstream, lo-fi game experiments from the bit Generations line, and found myself practically strangled by the quality of Rhythm Heaven - a beatmatching game from the Warioware guys. It is pure and without fault like a new baby. Then, after failing to find an active game of Saints Row online, I found myself in the single player mode, which... Yeah, this is actually pretty good. Threw in Enchanted Arms, and I played it just long enough to see a gay man attack a prom queen with a magic saxophone. I decided to return to that one by the light of day.
Coming into the office, Disgaea 2 had already worked a spell of binding on Gabe, as did its predecessor (and the many "sorta" sequels). We spent a couple hours getting a map down so perfect that every square inch of it was our dominion. At this point I would discard my life for even one more turn.
One of the only unabashedly positive things to be said for the PS3 was that they had secured Assassin's Creed exclusively - but even at the event itself, rumors were already starting to fly that it would be a limited window of exclusivity. It turns out that this window is so limited that, in fact, it only applied to the three days of the convention: the game is hitting the PC and the Xbox 360 as well. There's an interview with the producer that doesn't cover a whole lot, but I think we've all seized upon the major points.
Also, when it was announced that Dark Messiah would be built using the Valve's Source engine, I said that if a publisher of Ubisoft's scale chose to deliver a title through Steam, digital delivery would quickly cease being a novelty. Well, that's happening. One sometimes hears that PC gaming is dead, and then you see something like what Valve is doing with Episode 2 and warmth spreads throughout your entire body - even if their bet is being hedged on next-gen systems. We know how good we have it. But try to find evidence of a strong PC platform at dedicated game retailers and the main thing you will find is that they have no interest in it. The games can't be traded in, and a PC gamer probably doesn't attach guides or peripherals to their purchases at the same rate, so it exists outside the philosophical continuum of their business. I'm aware that many gamers find Steam or other ethereal delivery methods distasteful, and I wonder how long they will have that luxury.
(CW)TB out.
the power of the crab compels you
