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Meatball. That’s the name given to a stuffed Koala bear that soldiered through my husband’s surgery with him nearly 23 years ago. A radiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital gave it to him during his stay and at some point, Mike says, he dropped a meatball on the bear – thus the name.
Every year PAX East opens its doors in Boston to anyone linking arms with the gaming industry. More than 60,000 swarm into our city: many are costumed, though many are not. Amidst the fanfare, the games, the controls, the booths, and the buzz there's one thing that holds the three-day extravaganza together: passion. Often you'll overhear people staring at each other (mouth slightly drooling from over-stimulation from all the lights) and saying, "What do you wanna check out??"
But there's a lot more there than just gamers looking at games. Though the primary focus is on games, there's also massive networking action as well. It's an opportunity to connect with fans, publishers can find potential clients, prominent people in the industry walk around in the wild. It's a convention that's by gamers for gamers. Several FableVisionaries joined the masses. Here's their report.
Out of all the attractions at PAX, even though the big-name game companies had the largest, flashiest and loudest booths, I found the growing Indie Megabooth the most inspiring. I kept being drawn back there for fear that I had missed some hidden treasure. And I think I still managed to miss some. They are small, intimate, the developers are right there to talk to, and though they don't make much money, the games themselves are much more innovative and unafraid to explore what's possible, both functionally and artistically. I was very happy to see a lot of 2D art and design.
Some indie games that stood out: Tengami, Guacamelee, Apotheon, Don't Starve
The smaller studios and indie games definitely had the most variety of gameplay and artistic styles, which was really refreshing to see when most of the bigger studios are focused on subtle variations of the same tried and true theme. The Indie Megabooth had the most excitement and the most innovation, a creative bubble in the midst of the larger booths. Having the smaller companies mixed in with the larger ones gave them a leg up in a competitive industry, and made their games viewable to the fans who were drawn there for more well-known games.
Another great aspect of PAX was the tabletop game room. It's a place where people can play games together just for the love of games and have fun.
John | Creative IT & QA Specialist:
There was a lot to see, and even more to learn from at PAX. I saw a lot of people pouring their hearts and souls into their passions solely for the sake of chasing those passions. Meeting indie developers is always a breath of fresh air in the industry. The way they explain their games is often so full of passion, because they live for that game.
Jordan | Production Assistant:
I'd have to say that my favorite part of PAX (aside from seeing a friend wear 30 free 2XL-sized T-shirts at once) was the misleadingly-titled "I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours" panel. In it, a group of experienced game developers showed videos and told stories of their very first bug-filled attempts at games. Even for someone who doesn't make games, it was a great reminder that failure is a natural part of the creative process.
The best part of my experience at PAX East was meeting Tim Schafer from Double Fine. He's one of the co-creators of my most favorite games of all time, Day of the Tentacle (circa 1993!) He signed my floppy disk. So awesome.
My take away from PAX East was inspiration. I was lucky to witness a panel on how Games Designers are Defining the Next 50 Years of Education. It was a discussion by Steve Swink who worked with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on a game for schools called "Doctor's Cure." Besides the interesting take he had on using games to educate kids and get them involved in their own education, he said something to think about: the importance of everyone learning programming language. He made the point that as we progress with our technology it's becoming more and more important to know and understand programing. He argued that it's something we should be teaching our kids (and ourselves) because not knowing programming language is leading to it's own sort of illiteracy of the tech driven world around us.
Some of the big take aways from PAX this year for me were (these aren't exclusive to the Indie Megabooth):
Media Molecule's new PS Vita game called "Tear Away." The player controls a paper hero running in a paper world, but utilizes some of the unique features of the Vita -- tapping on the device, blowing air, etc. The style is BEAUTIFUL, and worth checking out, especially if you're a fan of paper craft.
Capy's new game called "Super Time Force" -- a throwback side scrolling shooter in the same vein as Contra. One of the unique aspects of this game is the ability to go back in time and correct your mistakes. Piggybacking on that mechanic, you can choose characters with unique abilities to strategically play through, then time warp back and play through simultaneously with your previous self. It's a trip for sure and really fun to play.
Carbine Studios' new MMO "WildStar" -- I've been following artist "Cory Loftis" for a long while and has been a big inspiration to me and my work. When he announced he had been working on a game a while back, I was thrilled. I'm happy to say that his art style translated over REALLY well into the 3D space and the world Carbine has created is amazing. It's a perfect blend of next gen -- while still keeping it stylized, colorful, and cartoony. I got a chance to talk to some of the team members working on it -- they're a great team making a great game.
DoubleFine (founded by Tim Schafer) was sharing a booth with Capy, they were talking about their Kickstarter adventure game called "Broken Age." Last year they announced that they would be creating a new Adventure Game, much like the good old days (Day of the Tentacle, Secret of Monkey Island. They set their goal at $400,000 -- and ended up shattering that goal at almost $3.5 million. I also got to meet Tim Schafer which was pretty awesome.
Check out our new Dinosaur Train app "Classic in the Jurassic, Jr." featured this week in the App Store! The app welcomes kids to an adventure with Gilbert the conductor, helping him get Troodon Town ready for a big event! The app includes three math games and a sticker book with one more game update on its way. We were so proud to see Classic in the Jurrassic, Jr. claim #1 in popularity in iPad/Education, #5 in iPad/Overall, and #1 grossing in iPad/Education.
In addition to the app, there are seven online games that make up the Classic in the Jurassic suite featuring the stars of Dinosaur Train show (hilariously) competing in athletic events--including diving, gliding and football. Through these games, we introduce preschoolers to math concepts like weight, distance and volume. The app and games transmedia suite were funded through a grant from the Ready to Learn Initiative. Buy and download the app here.
Bridge Builder: Help the dinosaurs get around Troodon Town! Measure the distance by dragging your finger across, and choose the right length of logs to finish the bridge.
Chow Time: The dinos are ready for snack time! Add or take away food from the scale and when it’s balanced watch them eat their fill!
All-Star Sorting: Get the dinosaurs in order from shortest to tallest! Once they’re lined up correctly, drag them to their appropriate homes.
HISTORY
Lure of the Labyrinth will always have a special place in FableVision Studios history. At the time we won the project in 2005, it was the largest project we had ever undertaken. It was a perfect balance of an exciting technical challenge--games, back end, teacher tools--and an incredible opportunity to explore a myriad of design possibilities--comics, game interfaces, monsters. And it was the beginning of an exciting and longlasting partnership and friendship with Maryland Public Television and the MIT Education Arcade that yielded the award-winning, online middle-school math game.
WHAT IS LURE OF THE LABYRINTH?
Lure of the Labyrinth was designed to encourage students to use mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills to progress through a graphic-novel story and to give all students a chance to learn and succeed. A safe, educator-moderated game-embedded communication device allows players on the same team to exchange ideas and game strategies, and encourages collaborative game play.
Lure of the Labyrinth continues to be used as a math and literacy teaching tool in classrooms all around the world. From now through June 15, FableVision Studios, Maryland Public Television and the MIT Education Arcade have teamed up to launch the Lure of the Labyrinth Challenge, a chance for students to play the game and win prizes. Students can play at home or at school, in the classroom, computer lab, library, or after-school program. The goal of the challenge is to help examine the role of gaming in the classroom.
THE MAKING OF LURE OF THE LABYRINTH
While more students around the world are participating in the Labyrinth Challenge every day (and more pets are being saved!), we wanted to give our readers a little behind-the-scenes look at the making-of this incredible game and education tool:
One of the things that made this project so amazing is that we had a lot of time up front to hammer out the look and feel. We were able to spend a good month or two just drawing and experimenting. Now, this may not sound like a lot but we normally have to hit the ground running at FableVision- so this was refreshing! In the beginning, we knew the game would be full of monsters, so that's where our artists started. To give you a little idea of how the game came to life, our Director of Art and Animation Bob Flynn shared some of his earlier artistic concoctions:
Here are some of the weirder monsters Bob came up with in the beginning stages of the project. In the end, Labyrinth is not a cartoony landscape. Keith Zulawnik, our Lead Artist took over the design and the story became more of a dark fantasy dreamscape, which fits the story perfectly. Still, there were a lot of monsters in the beginning and everyone fed off each other's ideas.
In another instance, we needed a group of monsters of varying types and sizes for the Cafeteria game. Original concept art for the monsters in the Cafeteria and Iris (below) came from MIT graduate student Kristina Drzaic. Here's one line-up that Bob created:
And here's where Keith landed for the final game design:
When we started getting more specific, character design was the next big thing to tackle. Iris is a mysterious fairy companion who you meet early in the game. She's someone you're not sure you can trust, but you don't have much of a choice.
Here's the entrance pipe to the monster world that Bob doodled with a brush pen on paper in the beginning of the process. It stuck, and made it into the comic!
Some of the comics we drew never made it into the final game. But here are some that did:
From the original sketch, to the final game appearances, artists bounced around designs and concepts like these characters all the time. It was a great example of the type of collaboration we do best.
NOW GO PLAY!
We hope you've enjoyed this little trip down memory lane about the creation of Lure of the Labyrinth. But really, the best way to experience it is to go play yourself! It's fun, it's cool, it's free, it has monsters and you may even learn something:)
Special thanks again to our partners Maryland Public Television and the MIT Education Arcade in bringing the Labyrinth Challenge to classrooms around the world. We couldn't ask for better partners in this monstrous world of gaming in the classroom!
To take part in the Labyrinth Challenge, go here!
To play Lure of the Labyrinth after June 15th, go here!
9-year-old Caine Monroy of Los Angeles spent his summer vacation building a cardboard arcade inside his father’s auto parts store, spending months preparing, designing his games, and making creative displays. One day, director Nirvan Mullick happened upon the auto parts store looking for a spare part, and walked away with an inspiring idea instead. After playing in Caine’s Arcade, Mullick created a ten-minute short film and due to the virility of the Internet and a bit of luck, Caine is now the recipient of a $70,000 scholarship fund for his college education.
