At the opening of the first Australian Penny Arcade Expo in July this year, scores of people filled the Melbourne Showgrounds in a hall that usually holds showbag stands, most arriving from a short train ride from Flinders Street Station. Hundreds of Melburnians are dressed in the colourful costumes of their favorite game characters. I’d only ever seen it filled with temporary walls, making the size of the room impossible to estimate from the inside. Today, it is completely open, and a rough guess places it a little over one hundred meters long. It is completely filled with people. The queues aren’t rowdy or upset that they have to wait. Everyone seems enthusiastic to be surrounded by so many people that share they passion for games, and excited to be the first of many to be entering the PAX Aus expo hall.
Over the course of the three day event, the Australian video gaming community were united, both developers and the general public, to celebrate the dynamic and constantly evolving medium. Traditional games could be played in the table top area, with a massive library of board games and roleplaying games available to rent out. The PC area allowed visitors to bring their own computer to compete over the weekend in a number of tournaments. The major tournament was the ‘Omegathon’, a multi-stage competition, culminating in a giant Jenga face-off.
Ron Gilbert at PAX Aus
Other highlights included the keynote speech by gaming luminary Ron Gilbert. Creator of classic point and click adventure games like The Secret of Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion, Ron Gilbert offered incredible insights into his development history including stories of helping Stephen Spielberg beat his games, and insights to his craft of writing stories for games.
Data gathered by Reedpop, the organisers of the event, have reported that of the 35,000 visitors to PAX Aus 2013 over the three-day event, 97% of attendee’s had fun. Of this, the vast majority were male, and 80% of the total attendees were between the ages of 18 and 35. Students made up a third of all attendees, with IT professionals making up a further 27%.
Just over half of all attendees came from outside Victoria to attend PAX Aus, solidifying it as an event that reaches a national audience.
PAX Aus BYOPC
The PAX Aus mobile app, which allowed visitors to engage in an augmented reality scavenger hunt, was downloaded over 20,000 times by attendees. Facebook and Twitter likes and fans peaked at 15,000 and 7,800 respectively for PAX Aus social media accounts.
Both the mainstream press and enthusiast outlets did not overlook the scale of event. Over 350 media pass holders were in attendance. Reports appeared on widely read publications like the Herald Sun, The Age and The Guardian, while gaming specific outlets like Polygon, Kotaku, and IGN covered the event heavily.
‘A lot of people have come to PAX. They stood in lines, took photos, discovered new games, made new friends. They helped to make PAX just as much as its Enforcers and creators. These people, from all corners of the country, from all corners of the globe, might have come to Melbourne as geographical outsiders, but PAX has made them insiders. Brought together by gaming, and leaving united by gaming’ said Darren Wells from CVG.
Independent developers featured heavily at the event, and crowds flocked to the dozens of games made by small teams on display.
PAX Aus featured the world first preview of Australian based developer Halfbrick Studio’s anticipated new game Colossatron: Massive World Threat, reaching the front pages of many gaming news outlets.
PAX Aus opening hall
Halfbrick Studios was only one of the many exhibitors at PAX Aus. The response from the 100 plus companies on show was universally positive, in particular from independent developers.
‘Ninja Pizza Girl’ developer Disparity Games, based out of Noosa, were extremely pleased with the coverage they recvived.
‘Even though Disparity Games is a tiny family team and we had the smallest booth space available, the PAX Aus team always made us feel valued and took great care of us. Exhibiting at PAX Aus was a wonderful experience and directly led to international press coverage of “Ninja Pizza Girl”‘ said Jason Stark from Disparity Games.
Although perhaps the most telling factor of how popular PAX Aus 2013 was is the rate at which tickets for 2014 have been selling, the 3-day passes are gone long in advance suggesting another immensely successful show next year.
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Author: Callum Glennan
Journalism student at La Trobe University + Tuba Hero + Grumpy Barista + Journalist in training
Twitter: @CallumGlennan
Filed under: Interactive Games, PAX Aus Tagged: Australia, classic video games, developers, Disparity Games, Halfbrick, indie, indie games, PAX, PAX Aus, PAX Australia, PAXAUS, PAXAus 2013, penny arcade expo, reedpop, Victoria
