Got up had a shower made coffee spilled it all over the desk ran around franticly cleaning that up. Then headed out for the keynote which was Story time with Kim Swift of Portal, Left4Dead, and Quantum Conundrum fame. She's now working for amazon games studios on a hush hush pc title. She started off explaining she wasn't making portal 3 or half life 3 and that she doesn't own that IP so couldn't make those games even if she wanted to.
After that she gave a nice overview of the insides of game development what sorts of jobs there were what they did for the games and also debunked some common misconceptions about things. She also listed this (http://www.wikihow.com/Become-a-Video-Game-Programmer) wonderful 8 step how to be a game programmer in which we get to step 5 before “learn to program” comes up.
She also showed some of the “feedback” she had received both good and bad. The bad was mostly blacked out expletives the good stuff was constructive criticism.
In all it was a fun and informative talk on the subject.
After that it rolled straight into Mike and Jerry Q&A #1 it was using the new submitted question format which mostly ruled out the crazys and or people who wanted their final 200 page erotic fantasy fanfic rated. There was a weird beginning message about some crazy conspiracy about a fictional PAX Europe which I don't think is a thing but they had a sparkly dunces hat for Jerry to wear.
The rest of the questions were more normal things like how the strip had changed as the two have grown up. Would they pay for college degrees for their kids or suggest they do what they did live in a rundown flat eating nothing but ramen noodles for a few years. There were some interesting questions of future kickstarters would they do something like a thorn watch animated series or something from the Nightlight storyline. They were open to that but since they've just done the Automata kickstarter it's too soon. They also talked about moving PAX prime and the answer Robert Khoo had given them was NO. So that's that.
They also talked about the HTC VIVE vr system and Jerry described the prototype as a “digital colostomy bag” that you strap to yourself. Then he also talked about his favorite demo of the oculus being a simulation of sitting at a desk and how he would be sitting at his desk in real life looking at virtual desk and then smacking his head into the real world keyboard or biting his desk as he tried to look closer. They also described how the Vive warns you off obstacles in it's holoroom style system with a gentle blue mesh and how it made you feel quite safe where as other systems you don't want to move for fear of walking into a wall. Jerry also sang a sea shanty and it was established Mike can't sing except perhaps Micheal Jackson songs.
Once that was over I headed to the shops to pick up some vittles I went back to the hotel and ate a sandwich then dashed down to the Westin where I joined the queue to the Mike and Jerry make a game panel with Mike Selinker and his team helping. The game they came up with was eventually called “Meat Your Maker” set in a world of intelligent sandwiches with four races (subs, wraps, panini, and biscuit) you had to get three cards with three recipes for sandwiches then in under some time limit you rolled a dice to collect parts then you made your sandwiches from those parts and then battled you sandwiches more dice for more parts completed. The did story, art, cards and dice and tested and started playing it in under an hour. The only down side with this panel is the guy next to me kept dozing off leaning on my shoulder.
I grabbed a swag bag then headed back to the hotel for some rest and relaxation. There is a Gearbox panel at 4 that I might go to or I could just stream it not sure. Later tonight there is Acquisitions incorporated which I want to see.
I watched the Gearbox panel they talked about Tales of the borderlands from telltale ep4 which sounded pretty good I've got behind on that series but what I've played I really enjoyed. Telltale are the best at this sort of thing they basically lead that market.
Then they mentioned that there is going to be a Borderlands movie from Lionsgate and the producers behind the spiderman films and ironman films they were the ones who figured out how to do superhero movies and Gearbox are gambling they will be the ones to figure out how to make a good video game film. Early days yet and no details but interesting.
Next they talked about their new IP Battleborn (all Gearbox original ip has to begin with a B) it's planned for early next year. They showed some footage it looked interesting 25 different playable characters solo coop and competitive. The story was interesting it's based on the idea that all the stars have burnt out but one and all the remaining races are gathered around it.
They went through some of the characters with the borderlands characters they had different abilities but moved and fought somewhat the same ways. With Battleborn they mentioned they were trying to make them all play differently in motion and attack. I wonder how they will manage to balance that.
Next they had a butload of cosplayers and then a marriage of two borderlands fans with a selection of officiates including Kris Straub who was eventually relegated to ring bearer. They had borderland themed vows and a claptrap ring cushion. Finally an epic group hug.
Randy Pitchford started doing a magic trick but then the twitch feed went down and I didn't get to see the rest.
I had a nice burger for dinner the guy delivering it mentioned he moved from San Francisco before the earthquake then he said something about selling 100k dollars of small jams and jellies which seemed like a complete non sequitur unless I misunderstood. Anyway it was good burger with some nice fries.
Later it was time for the live D&D and it was pretty good they had an awesome set with a little lake and a purple worm converted to a little house they also had a mechanical beholder mech model. They also had Statler and Waldorf style heckling gargoyles. It was pretty awesome with some great randomness I expect they will put it online for people.
And so ended day one.
Hits: 577