Pax06 2This weekend’s big video game/webcomic event was a convention thrown by a couple of webcomickers, PAX namelyPenny Arcade gang, Tycho and Gabe. Both Kotaku and Joystiq, the main vidgame blogs have extensive coverage. The big news is a new video game from Hothead Games based on PENNY ARCADE (pr in the jump.) Since PENNY ARCADE is a webcomic based on video game humor, you see the Moebius nature of the strip.

Attendance was pegged at 17,000, and based on photos posted at the Penny Arcade site (one of which we’ve ganked), if you are a boy geek looking for a place to geek out with other boy geeks, this is the place for you!

Kotaku summarizes the weekend:

It was three days of bouncing blue balls, moms, concerts and game play. Three days of gamers getting a chance to connect and play.

That’s what makes PAX so unique, I think. It’s not just for gamers, it’s about them. They’re the show, Tycho and Gabe are just along for the ride.

If I had 17,000 friends and the money, patience and wherewithal to throw a party, I’d like to think it would be a little bit like this.

Joystiq touches on the widespread feeling that PAX will become the new E3:

E3 was a hot topic of debate — even Major Nelson called it a mystery for Microsoft — and all the panelists were unsure about the methods of coverage that will be available to them next year. An audience member mentioned that the Consumer Electronics Association (producers of that little Vegas show known as CES) are considering filling the gap, as we mentioned earlier this month, but it was still clear that future gaming shows are quite the mystery other than this weekend’s obvious hit: PAX.

Pax Gh Omegathon

Joystiq also has coverage of a music competition of some sort, that resulted in a guitar destroying episode by Jerry “Tycho” Holkins.

Tycho and Penny Arcade’s biz dude Robert Khoo started round four of the Omegathon correct with an intense round of STP’s “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart” in Guitar Hero II … on Expert … twice (it crashed half way through the first time). Then, ’cause he can, Tycho smashed his guitar. I wanted to yell out, say something about how starving kids in Africa don’t even have guitar controllers at all, but the spirit of the evening washed over me, and my outrage morphed into delight.


That sound you hear is webcomickers crossing over into rock star/diva territory, but considering the success of their strip, this behavior is both earned and timely.

More pictures here.


Video Game pr:

The creators of online ultracomic Penny Arcade have joined forces with Hothead Games, an independent and experienced video game developer, to collaboratively create video games based on the Penny Arcade comic.

“We’re really excited to be working with Hothead Games on our first electronic adventure,” said writer Jerry Holkins, his clawed feet resting atop a huge slab of granite. “From the moment we laid eyes on them, it was clear they had the technical and creative chops to execute our grim vision. Now that we have pooled our strengths, our dark work may truly begin.” Holkins then paused to eat a rat whole.

The first game, entitled Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, will be a comic adventure game initially available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, followed by a version for next-generation consoles. The game will be available by digital download, delivered in episodic format with new installments of the adventure coming out several times a year.

Vlad Ceraldi, President of Hothead Games, says this new venture feels very comfortable for the team Hothead has assembled for the project: “All our developers are industry veterans with years of experience translating characters from other media into video games, having been involved with such hits as The Simpsons Hit & Run and The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. So working with Penny Arcade to create their first game is a natural fit, and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with them.” Ceraldi added, “I’ve promised this with past games, and I stand by it: if the game sucks, I’ll eat my shirt.”

A release date for the first episode of Penny Arcade Adventures is to be announced.

5 COMMENTS

  1. Actually, regarding the boy aspect, I counted no less than ten girls in the bottom half of that picture–better than I expected!

    Three or four of the ten (I think it was ten) randomly-selected Omegathon (Pax’s crazy-ass win-an-SUV with XBox built in gaming contest) participants were girls/women, too.

    This is probably the place to note I’m underwhelmed by Microsoft’s one female blogger (of a team of four) wearing a bumpersticker on her ass and “insisting” it be photographed. Sheesh.

  2. Back at SDCC, when a panel ostenslibly about “Webcomics: How to Find Your Audience” got swamped by PA fans wanting to geek out over Gabe and Tycho, my brother remarked that these guys have become “rock stars” now.

    How true, how true.

  3. I was at PAX demoing Guitar Hero II in the Exhibitor’s Hall. Did anyone here get a chance to stop by and check out the game?

  4. I have since discovered the Omegathon contestants numbered twenty.

    (And anyone who licks on my name will be able to hear a two-part interview I did with Tycho/Jerry.)

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