I went to PAX WEST 2024
First, let me say that, man, it has been a minute since I posted here. It’s been a year since my last post was for PAX WEST 2023. After this post, it might go dark again for a little while, but I plan to post to this more frequently starting in 2025.
I wanted to ensure I shared my experience before PAX was so far in the rearview window that it didn’t make sense to write.
I hadn’t planned on going this year, not because I was not working on my game, but because I wasn’t sure there would be any value in going. However, after seeing one of the games I am following on YouTube announce that they will be attending, I decided why the heck not, given that I am within driving distance anyway.
This year, we went on Friday instead of Saturday, which was a great decision because there were significantly fewer people to navigate around, particularly in the indie section. Given where I am in my game development this year, I was looking at PAX a bit differently. I wanted to get advice from other developers on where not to go wrong and generally see some other indie games for inspiration.
Two games in the indie section stood out: Tether Geist, which I followed on YouTube, and Spirit of Midnight.
Tether Geist was cool to see up close and personal and play the demo. Since I had been following along, I knew a lot about the game, and it was nice to see it in action. I also talked to the artists behind the game about art-based things, like what programs we draw in. They were also willing to watch the clip of my game that I had on my phone. The best takeaway from that was when watching the clip, they picked up the narrative I was going for, and that was the first time I had an opportunity to hear that feedback.
Spirit of Midnight's art style and adorable cat grabbed my attention. They also had a cute plushie, which I bought before even demoing. The demo was fascinating to play; I analyzed some of their design choices and spoke about them with one of the developers. They confirmed a few things I had guessed based on what I saw. For my second game, I am hoping to incorporate some 2.5D elements, and this game has a version of that, which was really well implemented.
I stopped at a third game that was Robin Hood esq, but I didn’t get the name of the game; I only got the name of the person I spoke with. He was a technical architect for the project and his full-time gig. He gave me some advice that I think is important to anyone making a game:
During gray boxing, put placeholders for every element in the game, as this will help determine whether it is scalable at run time.
Graybox the whole game end to end before adding art
Playtest playtest playtest
While there, I also attended a panel discussion on IP with some gaming lawyers. I got to ask a question about using the public domain and how to avoid getting into trouble with any of the big movie companies. They provided some very valuable insight about sticking strictly to what is written or what your own mind creates from that text directly, and it should be fine. So long as no elements are pulled from any movies, all should be clear. Again, critical information for my second game ;)
Overall, the event was worth it. However, it was hard to tell if there were fewer booths this year or if they just rearranged the layout so that it was less clustered, but I didn’t feel like there were a ton of places to stop and see. Some of that may also be that I was very good at keeping up with gaming news this year, and I was already very much aware of a majority of what was around.
To round out this adventure, I stopped by the tabletop game section and picked up a new game called Flamecraft—I highly recommend it. I also picked up a box of Lorcana cards (which might have been overdoing it). I wanted to play a round of Lorcana, but they didn’t have any. Lastly, I tried to stop at the Nintendo booth to play the demo of the new Zelda game, but they were at peak capacity, and I never bothered to go back. Last but not least, when I got home, I discovered that my Disney pins had been stolen right off my backpack. Note to self for next time: keep them in the front or not at all.
Here is the only pic I have from the day: the loot I brought back.
*Please excuse the desaturation on the image; substack did not want to cooperate
Talk to you all soon!