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Thanks from a dev
Doctor Ewy
Registered User new member
Registered User new member
I just wanted to thank all the PAX attendees for being courteous and all around awesome on the exhibition floor. I've done demos at shows before, and it was incredibly refreshing to be demoing the game for real fans, not just the disinterested press. Half the people who came up to my game seemed to already know about it, and almost everyone enjoyed playing it - so much so that my main duty became keeping the line moving rather than showing off the game.
A lot of the people who are manning booths at the show are marketing or PR people who aren't as invested in the game as the actual developers. But from someone who worked on a game for the last few years, it's amazing to be given the opportunity to show it off to the people who have been looking forward to playing it for just as long. The response was truly overwhelming.
A special thanks to the guys at PA for giving us all this amazing opportunity to connect directly with the fans.
A lot of the people who are manning booths at the show are marketing or PR people who aren't as invested in the game as the actual developers. But from someone who worked on a game for the last few years, it's amazing to be given the opportunity to show it off to the people who have been looking forward to playing it for just as long. The response was truly overwhelming.
A special thanks to the guys at PA for giving us all this amazing opportunity to connect directly with the fans.
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Thank You for taking time out of your busy schedule to interact with the fanatical gamers we are.
Organizer of the Post-PAX Party. You should come!
Satellite Theater for life!
And while we're on the subject, I really liked the fact that PAX offered the opportunity to independent game developers via the PAX 10 program. I learned about some really cool games that might not have otherwise been covered through the mainstream press.
Just one more reason to go again next year!
When I saw the advertisement for "X-Blades" in the book, I scoffed because it looked horrible. The mini, tiny screenshots looked like ass, and the giant picture of the girl (also, mostly ass, but in the feminine way) just kind of made me sigh in disbelief, but to actually go to the booth and check out the game was INCREDIBLE - one of the devs came and talked to my wife and I about it for nearly 30 minutes, and before we walked away (after she had a chance to play it) all we could say is "When can we give you money for this?"
Enthusiasm goes a long way, and if it hadn't been for a couple of devs who wanted to show off, we probably would've ignored it as it sat on the Gamestop shelves.
Yeah, the ad for this in the convention guide looked kinda dodgy (Yes, let's go into battle in our BIKINI! that's sure to help when we're being cut up by people!), but I did see some playtesting of this on the screen, and in hindsight, it looks interesting
This was my first year demoing a game at the show, and I was overwhelmed by how wonderful all the players were. Not only were they genuinely interested to see new and different games, but they also gave extremely intelligent feedback and asked the most thoughtful questions. Every single playthrough was an absolute treat for me, and I only hope the players enjoyed playing as much as I did watching and talking with them
As far as I'm concerned, from now on I'm just going to set the milestone schedule for my games around PAX. This is the audience I want to serve, period.
- Casey
Similarly, the level of access we had to developers was amazing. I've got about an hour of solid video footage from 3 or 4 different games, where the developers (not PR or marketing) and producers are narrating as they play through various parts of the game, showing off hidden easter eggs, and trying to make it an overall pleasant experience.
Barring one exception, it was great from both the attendees and the exhibitors sides.
-edit- Casey, that'd be great, because most of the exhibitors didn't show off anything new due to timing issues with Leipzig, Blizzcon, etc.
Contributing Editor, http://www.gamepolitics.com
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
now now, I will admit, the exhibition floor was excellent and one of the greatest things ive been to, but that shit didnt have spinning tea cups or a haunted mansion.
Lets be more careful with the expressions next time.
DisneyWorld >>> DisneyLand
The opposite booths, on the other hand, are what made my first PAX so awesome, because whether they were devs or not (and I suspect most of you were, you awesome people, you) they KNEW THEIR SUBJECTS. Even if a company wants to put someone pretty in a spot for the weekend, they could at least take a few hours to say, "This is your game for these three days. This is what you need to know about it. This is how you play it, so you can help others. If you don't understand something, ASK US and we will try to clarify." In one case I was looking at one of the many MMOs, and since my only real MMO experience is with FFXI, most of my questions were in the context of, "how is this feature like the similar feature in FFIX, and how is it different?" If the guy didn't know that specific part of FFXI, I'd compare it to something and he got it, and explained exactly what I wanted to know without any further problems. Long story short, he APPLIED LOGICAL THOUGHT and did what he could to help me. As a result, if I get time away from work and school soon, I plan to download the client for the game he was discussing with me and try out a trial at minimum, because he did his job at PAX: he helped out an interested gamer, and sold her on his product through conversation alone, since I didn't have time to really try the demo at all.
Finally, I'm one of those gamers that hopes to soon be a developer. I graduate in April and will be working alongside my final few classes to get a resume, etc, together and while I'd accept any job with the culture and pay required for me to be satisfied, I would VASTLY prefer to program for games over anything else. That said, oh awesome PAX-presenter-devs, hopefully someday I'll get to hang out with you guys on a more equal level--or at least, as a continuing student even after school looking to improve games and help out other gamers the way you guys helped me last week. Thanks again, seriously.
Edit:
Fixed. This is the first non-theme park, non-Disney Cruise vacation I've gotten my husband to go on, and between PAX as a community event and Seattle as a city, I have a feeling I'll get at least a few more "real" vacations out of him now, instead of just waiting for him to get off the Hulk coaster when we go to Universal.
Thanks for coming!
A lot of companies put forth the PR/community rep marketing type folks, and talking to them makes me die a little inside.
Devs actually have interesting things to say and are usually a lot more fun to talk to, in addition a lot of us that have followed games for a long time enjoy the chance to meet some of the devs whose posts we read on forums and the like.
I personally discovered PAX because one of the games I was highly looking forward to was coming to it (Vanguard) with a small brigade of devs, and have been hooked ever since.
Thanks again. (And thanks to your company for not keeping you chained to your desk!)
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