Last weekend I went with my team at Multivarious to Boston for the annual PAX East gaming conference. This was my first major expo I’ve been to, outside of GDEX of course (cough, cough Shameless Plug cough), and it brought about a lot of revelations about being in the game industry, how to run a better expo, and plenty of other interesting ways to utilize time at an industry.
Patience is a Virtue
The number one thing I learned quickly about PAX East is that it is huge! And pretty much impossible to see everything. In fact, while talking to Chris Floyd, the founder of the indie mega booth (see below), he estimated that you would have four minutes a booth to see everything the show floor has to offer. That doesn’t even count the lines that you’ll have to wait through to get to those booths.
Friday was by far the best day to be on the show floor. Saturday and Sunday however, I guess you really misunderstand just how many people 70,000 is. So be ready to wait, A LOT. However, there is a plus side to this waiting. I got plenty of extra Pokémon time into these stretches, and you’ll meet plenty of people who are just as excited about the next installment of your favorite — pretty much anything — as you are.
Check out the Mega Booth!
One of my personal favorite spots of the show floor was by far the Indie Mega Booth. Essentially the mega booth is what you get when you take one of the massive booths that PlayStation or Xbox usually get, and you rent it out to a ton of indie studios who wouldn’t be able to showcase otherwise. The best part, however, are that the waits are practically non-existent. While people are queueing in line to play the latest and greatest from Sony or Gearbox, you can play some of the most interesting and creative games on the whole show floor in a fraction of the time. Some of the highlights from the Mega Booth from me included; Dragon Fin Soup, Below, 20XX, and Moonshot (which included local developers!)
With that being said, the Indie Mega Booth isn’t the only place that you can play some awesome indie games at PAX. I got to meet some of the artists of We Happy Few, saw the antics of Soda Drinker Pro, and even got to catch up with Waldo’s own Skookum Arts and their project, The Pedestrian. So explore the show floor a little. You’ll be surprised at some of the great games you can find from the smaller teams!
There’s Always Something More…
Throughout our adventures at PAX, we ran non-stop. From the time we woke up, until the time we retired back to our hotel rooms, there was always something going on. We went to a free concert featuring The Protomen — a Mega Man themed Rock-Band. We went to a few parties hosted by IGN and Gearbox to support the new release Battleborn, where our Programmer Tom had this amazing picture taken:
We also started a new tradition for anytime Multivarious goes to an Expo. When the night is over, and we head back to our hotel, instead of immediately retreating back to our rooms and getting much needed sleep, we would hang out in the lobby and chat. This was by far the most effective means of networking we had all week. We met Twitch Streamers, Professional Developers, and Cosplayers, all while just sitting at the wall between the elevators. Oddly enough, when 70,000 people all come to a city for a conference, you’ll run into quite a few people at your hotel who will want to talk about games just as much as you do.
Network, Network, Network!
The main reason we went to PAX was to meet new developers and personalities, and you can do that without trying. If you are wanting to get into the game industry, I cannot explain just how important it is to not only attend events like PAX, but to come prepared and ready to talk. Hand out business cards, fliers, gold coins with your Twitch information on it (yes that was a thing, yes it was awesome, and no I couldn’t get one).
You should also be hitting up every indie booth you can. It’s not unheard of for some of the bigger companies to hire people to work the booths for them, and while that is fine for attendees who just want to play the newest Gears of War game, you want to meet new friends. Smaller booths are almost guaranteed to have the people who made the game right there next to you, telling you about every little detail of their games, and that’s just awesome.
Be Ready to Create
Finally, before you go to PAX you need to be ready to create. PAX is an incredibly inspiring event for game developers. Nothing will get you in the mood to finally hash out that design document, or get started on those concept pieces like being surrounded by what is essentially a giant party for video games. Much like game development itself, PAX is exhausting, incredibly busy, and will probably get you sick more than a few times (I still can’t talk…), but is worth every second and every penny.