On Friday 15th April 2011, an announcement was made by Penny Arcade regarding an addition to the ever successful Penny Arcade Expo (AKA PAX). They have now appended to it ‘PAX Dev’.
This is a forum for game developers, be they video or tabletop, to meet and discuss the concept of making games in an enclosed environment away from any media of any kind. This is being done to facilitate the development of games as Penny Arcade are hoping to create an environment that is free from distraction and press, thus allowing the developers to speak freely to one another without having to curtail themselves for fear of being miss-quoted.
Robert Khoo, the President of Operations and Business Development for Penny Arcade and organiser for the PAX Expo has made this statement concerning the creation of PAX Dev:
“The idea started with friends in the game dev community asking us to host an event where they could really focus on exchanging ideas without any distractions. There are events that are great for signing your next deal or promoting your current project, but that’s not PAX Dev. We’re 100 percent focused on the craft of game development.”
He also raised the issue of having all kinds of game developers, regardless of the form they take, being part of the forum. To quote:
“There is this odd distinction where some shows are just for video games or just table top and collectable cards or just board game. But we’ve all seen how ideas in one segment can feed and influence innovation in another part of the game industry. Having representatives from all of the extended game development family can only make PAX Dev stronger.”
This is a very important development for PAX, for over the years more and more developers and soon to be developers have attended PAX to the point where many of the panels at PAX East 2011 were focused on game development in some form or another.
So, for Penny Arcade to offer a closed forum to them, separate from the distractions of the show floor and media spotlight, gives them breathing space to discuss the ever so complex and difficult task of making games, what ever form they take.
What’s most interesting about this development is that it addresses the concerns people have with the Games Development Conference that runs in March of every year. These concerns being distractions of a show floor and media presence. Let us hope this PAX Dev conference goes some way in addressing these issues and thus give birth to better games, which is what we all want, right?
Developers wanting to take part in PAX Dev can by popping along to this site: http://dev.paxsite.com/registration.php . Note that entry to the PAX Dev forum is set at $250 per person for early registration and students at $130 (although spaces are limited for them). Tickets will be on sale at $330 at the door as well. Total number of spaces available for the event is set at 750.
If you want to offer up a panel presentation then you can by making a submission via this site: devpanels.paxsite.com.
This is a forum for game developers, be they video or tabletop, to meet and discuss the concept of making games in an enclosed environment away from any media of any kind. This is being done to facilitate the development of games as Penny Arcade are hoping to create an environment that is free from distraction and press, thus allowing the developers to speak freely to one another without having to curtail themselves for fear of being miss-quoted.
Robert Khoo, the President of Operations and Business Development for Penny Arcade and organiser for the PAX Expo has made this statement concerning the creation of PAX Dev:
“The idea started with friends in the game dev community asking us to host an event where they could really focus on exchanging ideas without any distractions. There are events that are great for signing your next deal or promoting your current project, but that’s not PAX Dev. We’re 100 percent focused on the craft of game development.”
He also raised the issue of having all kinds of game developers, regardless of the form they take, being part of the forum. To quote:
“There is this odd distinction where some shows are just for video games or just table top and collectable cards or just board game. But we’ve all seen how ideas in one segment can feed and influence innovation in another part of the game industry. Having representatives from all of the extended game development family can only make PAX Dev stronger.”
This is a very important development for PAX, for over the years more and more developers and soon to be developers have attended PAX to the point where many of the panels at PAX East 2011 were focused on game development in some form or another.
So, for Penny Arcade to offer a closed forum to them, separate from the distractions of the show floor and media spotlight, gives them breathing space to discuss the ever so complex and difficult task of making games, what ever form they take.
What’s most interesting about this development is that it addresses the concerns people have with the Games Development Conference that runs in March of every year. These concerns being distractions of a show floor and media presence. Let us hope this PAX Dev conference goes some way in addressing these issues and thus give birth to better games, which is what we all want, right?
Developers wanting to take part in PAX Dev can by popping along to this site: http://dev.paxsite.com/registration.php . Note that entry to the PAX Dev forum is set at $250 per person for early registration and students at $130 (although spaces are limited for them). Tickets will be on sale at $330 at the door as well. Total number of spaces available for the event is set at 750.
If you want to offer up a panel presentation then you can by making a submission via this site: devpanels.paxsite.com.