BOSTON — It’s time once again for Penny Arcade Expo. Each spring, nerds from all over New England (and everywhere else) swamp the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center for a three-day weekend of all things dorky. While videogames are the starring attraction, PAX East is also a haven for fans of board games, tabletop games, geeky concerts from the likes of Jonathan Coulton and MC Frontalot, and much more.
PAX is such a whirlwind of distractions that we’re trying something new at Game|Life — we’re liveblogging each day of the show. So in this very blog post, I’ll be adding everything I see and do on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. See what I see! Smell what I smell! Et cetera. When a live streaming broadcast of Game|Life’s video show is about to start, that’ll appear here as well for your convenience. As the show continues on into the weekend, you’ll be able to access more liveblog posts via the handy menu bar above.
4:48 PM EDT #
Indie game dev Trevor Stricker has a cool upcoming tablet game called Jungle Rumble. It’s a rhythm game where you tap trees to make monkeys jump and throw bananas. It’s better than I just made it sound! Company’s name is Disco Pixel, just started up. Kinda like a Rhythm Heaven minivans but more complex. Requires you to think a few moves ahead while keeping rhythm.
4:14 PM EDT #
Amazing. “Dive Kick,” a fighting game where all you can do is jump and dive-kick. Attracting a huge crowd.
3:54 PM EDT #
With apparently no games to show, PopCap has just built a carnival with a strength meter, a Kiss the Zombie booth, etc.
3:47 PM EDT #
Looooooong 2-hour line to play Transistor, the next game from the maker of Bastion. As you might imagine.
2:19 PM EDT #
So we go to lunch and Steve Lin just takes this out of his bag and puts it on the table. I guess if you own it, might as well have fun with it. I imagine this will make an appearance at Retrogame Roadshow tomorrow night.
1:59 PM EDT #
“Lady Eve” from PMS Clan. When you look this much like Jennifer Lawrence, cosplaying as Katniss makes sense.
1:49 PM EDT #
So I guess Capcom waited until I was live on the air to announce a new DuckTales game?! Wow.
12:57 PM EDT #
Yes.
12:30 PM EDT #
Game|Life Live is about to go on the air! Starting at 1 PM Eastern, we’ll be talking to Greg Rice at Double Fine about the developer’s upcoming projects, then be joined by Sean Baptiste of Firehose Games to see Dinosaurs Go Home and Slam Bolt Scrappers. Live! No safety net! I might accidentally use swear words! Tune in and see! If you miss the live stream (above), we’ll have a permanent video link later.
12:12 PM EDT #
It’s Penny Arcade’s Ben Kuchera! Penny Arcade is doing a Disney-style “pin trading” business now, with special pins you can only get by trading with staff members. Great idea.
11:51 AM EDT #
We saw a couple who brought their 6-week old baby to PAX. I am pretty sure you shouldn’t actually do that.
11:42 AM EDT #
Man, how is all this time passing so quickly? Almost time to head to the Twitch booth for my live show! If all goes according to plan, the video embed will be here in the live blog.
10:48 AM EDT #
I bought R-Type for Game Boy! I think this was a pretty good deal considering it’s complete. Tough to find many black and white Game Boy games in the box.
10:10 AM EDT #
The Entertainment Consumers Association is having people beat each other up American Gladiators style while Hip-Hop Gamer does the play by play. I am not sure how to feel.
10:06 AM EDT #
Blizzard just announced a free to play strategy game called Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Online card-based game. I am watching the live stream on a PAX enforcer’s phone.
9:55 AM EDT #
PAX has begun. First thing to do – obviously! – is buy video games. Sudden Impact is a local Boston-area store with great stuff. I imagine they’ll move a lot of these boxed N64 games during the show.
7:28 AM EDT #
OH GOD I AM AWAKE. It is a beautiful Boston morning but my biological clock says it’s 4:30 am. But I will ignore this. Updates once we get to the convention center.
