It’s almost time for PAX!  That magical weekend when the Washington State Convention and Trade Center becomes everything an arcade should be:  a friendly and inviting place to play games (from the brand new to the time-honored), meet friends and people from the gaming industry, learn about the gaming industry, and basically get your geek on.

“PAX is a three-day celebration of games and gamer culture. The festival includes an exhibition floor filled with playable builds of upcoming tabletop, console, and computer games; a conference program of game industry speakers; music concerts; freeplay areas; industry parties; game tournaments and more. Since its inception in 2004 the show has doubled in size year-over-year, growing from 4,500 attendees to 58,500 in 2008, making it the largest gaming festival in North America.”

Navigation

To help you plan your trip to this enormous event, here are the maps and schedules:

Schedule

World Map

Expo Hall

The PAX10

Personally, the PAX10 is one of the best things to check out.  We’ll be reviewing as many of the 10 as possible after the show but in the meantime, here’s more about the PAX10 and this years winners:

“Now in its second year, The PAX 10 is a games showcase open to independent developers worldwide. Winners of The PAX 10 are invited to display their efforts at the sixth annual PAX gaming festival to be held Sept. 4 – 6 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. PAX’s Exhibit Hall will feature The PAX 10 booth alongside over 70 other exhibitors – including top publishers like Microsoft, Nintendo and Ubisoft – allowing those publishers, attendees and media to view their breakout potential.”

• CarneyVale: Showtime by the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Games Lab (Xbox 360)

• Closure by Tyler Glaiel and Jon Schubbe (PC)

• Fieldrunners by Subatomic Studios (iPhone/iPod touch)

• Liight by Studio Walljump (Wii)

• Machinarium by Amanita Design (PC)

• Osmos by Hemisphere Games (PC)

• Puzzle Bloom by Team Shotgun (PC)

• Tag: The Power of Paint by Tag Team (PC)

• Trino by Trinoteam (Xbox 360)

• What is Bothering Carl? by Story Fort (PC)

Are you ready?

If this will be your first time going to PAX, what are you looking forward to?  If you’ve been to PAX before, any helplful tips for the newcomers or things you personally think are worthy enough to make time for?  For more information check out the PAX website.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 21st, 2009 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Editorial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.