PAX 2009 was a fun and successful show for Hothead. Perhaps owing to all the standing around in crowds and breathing, some Hotheads arrived back home a little under the weather (and a few of us were a LOT under the weather). We’re all recovered now and are back hard at work finishing DeathSpank.
The show was kicked off with Ron Gilbert’s keynote address. His talk was both inspiring and entertaining, as he spoke to the captivated crowd of 6000 people about his career making games. He spoke passionately about how the current indie game movement is helping game development return to its roots, where games are made because of the game creator’s passion rather than the results of a focus test from some marketing department.
The Hothead booth was where we showed off DeathSpank, giving demos every hour on the hour. We had to keep asking people to step closer because the crowd was too large and was blocking the aisles. We showed a variety of gameplay and levels in the game, including examples of the hilarious dialogue as well as the fast-paced combat replete with different attacks and abilities.
We ran a contest all weekend where PAX attendees had to collect all six buttons containing icons from the game. The rare one of the six was the coveted gold thong button. There were reports of some rigorous trading happening on the show floor as people worked to complete the set. Those that returned with a complete set of buttons were entered in a draw to win one of the 3D statues of DeathSpank, printed in 3D directly from in-game models! Contestants that had only five of the buttons could still win, receiving the limited edition “Unicorn Poop” t-shirts. Unicorn Poop being a key adventure item in DeathSpank, these shirts were one of the must-have items at the show.
Here are some pics of the booth, along with some of the contest winners:
October 12th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I know you guys ran out of Unicorn Poop shirts, but you said you would be making them available for purchase at some point on the website. Any news on that front?
December 16th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Need that T-shirt
December 19th, 2009 at 2:32 am
It’s funny that I come to check up on the site to see if there any game updates since PAX09 and I’m in one of the pictures. That’s awesome! I too was hoping to purchase a unicorn poop shirt since they ran out before I got all my pins. I did get a cool aluminum Death Spank water bottle though.