I had such a good experience when I last attended Penny Arcade Expo out in Seattle, I figured it was a no-brainer to head down to Boston for the East version of the event. And so, I jumped into my car and zipped down the 89.

Compared to GDC just two weeks ago, I had a fairly light schedule of a few meetings, a lecture in the conference program and a few parties/social activities. So, was nice to take a more leisurely approach to things. That said, the event was jammed packed. The official numbers have yet to come out, but early estimates put it at about 20,000 visitors per day!

Of note, it was really nice to see the mix of big publishers and indies. For example, one booth is the big Xbox stand, and then right next to it is The Behemoth’s booth, selling Castle Crasher t-shirts. Also, there were a couple European studios showing off games and someone noted how a bunch of Europeans came over for this PAX (which is much quicker to get to than trekking all the away across the continent for the Seattle version).

Overall, I enjoyed the event, but didn’t get quite the same mixed sense of euphoria and sadness from the one back in Seattle. Not sure if that was an issue of the packed venue or the East Coast vibe, or maybe it was just a one-time PAX-virgin effect…

Also, while I was in town, I took the opportunity to visit MIT. Specifically, the GAMBIT game lab and a tour of the famed Media Lab. Impressive.

Anyway, some quick PAX pics:


The Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab.

 


GAMBIT director Philip Tan.

 


Column art in GAMBIT.

 


One of the Media Lab workspaces.

 


Another Media Lab workspace, with inflated elephant thing. No clue what that was for, or does…

 


The funky Gehry designed Stata Center.

 


Darius Kazemi welcomes everyone to the “Made in MA” industry party.

 


Nearly 1000 industry folks mingling.

 


Best t-shirt of the night! Classic!

 


The registration line on the first day of PAX.

 


Similarly packed expo floor, trying to get to the Splinter Cell Conviction booth.

 


Oh my, you know you are in hardcore gamer land when you can buy performance eyewear!

 


Oooooh, Crackdown 2!!!!!!

 


Fellow Scotts, Realtime Worlds’ APB on display.

 


Indie fav, Joe Danger.

 


The Boston Indie Showcase.

 


Alex Rigopulos (Harmonix) and Jane Pinckard (Foundation 9) discussing the finer points of wine…

 


…while Nathan Vella (Capybara Games), Stephanie Bouchard (UQAM), Kris Piotrowski (Capybara Games) and others deploy their Irish car bombs.

 


Despite the fact that my session blurb in the program was screwed up (no name attached, and copy/pasted from my original brainstorm email on what I could cover), my room was jam packed.

 


That Handsome Devil performing at the Harmonix charity concert.