First let me apologize for the lateness of this guys. I have been slowly writing this for a couple of weeks now but in dealing with everything else, have had to keep back burner-ing it. Thanks for the patience!
So to start this post, I’d like to begin with my first thoughts of SDCC 2012 in general. The San Diego Convention Center is 615,701 square feet of space for all of the worlds geeks to come together and enjoy being, well, geeks! I say geek with absolutely no problem because not only am I one of them, but if you didn’t know, in this day and age it’s cool to be a geek! Yep, you read that right, and if you don’t believe me, just check out my friends from The Guild Web Series for clarification. The other thing to point out is that, HOLY CRAP, I really do think they tried to cram AT LEAST 90% of the worlds geeks into that convention center! Almost standing room only at times.
SDCC 2012.. I AM IN YOU! WELL.. I WAS AT LEAST
My mission at SDCC 2012 was simple, get there alive, and spread the word of SpaceVenture! I would like to give a quick shout out to a voice actor friend of mine, Dino Andrade (Voice of Scare Crow from Arkam Asylum, Mekkatorque, Professor Putricide, Mimiron, The Death Knight Gnomes, Funglemancer Glop, Ensign Ebert, Twilight Servant from World of Warcraft, and more).
Wow, side note, it was hard for me to type his name because I kept wanting to type Dino Andromeda lol! This is what happens when you type something too many times! Anyway, back to thanking him real quick. I had a regular badge to get in to the convention, but Dino was able to get me a vender badge that allowed me to get into the convention 1 hour earlier everyday, as well as stay in the convention hall 1 hour later every night. Thanks Dino!
KEYCARDS MAKE PEOPLE CRAZY MAN
So one of the fun promotions that we did as a company while I was there was the Official SpaceVenture keycard promotion. Anyone that has played Space Quest remembers that the legendary Two Guys had this thing for keycards in their games. I don’t think they realized they had a thing for keycards until they looked back at their games, but fans sure realize it.
Spoiler alert, you’ll most like find keycards making an appearance in SpaceVenture as well. But getting back to the promotion. A few weeks back Mark, Scott, and I talked about creating business cards for ourselves and employees of Guys From Andromeda LLC. From that discussion I started thinking about Steve Wozniak and Kevin Mitnick. Okay okay so at this point you’re probably saying, “What the crap Chris?!? How does the co-founder of Apple/Father of the PC along with one of the most well known hackers in the world relate to all this?!?”. Well my answer to that is.. cool business cards!!
If you ever get the pleasure to meet Steve Wozniak in person, ask him for a business card, and you’ll be rewarded with one of these epic babies!
As for Kevin Mitnick, check out his business card below!
So after bringing this up, Mark and Scott both loved the idea and Mark started work on drawing up some concept images. Took us a bit of time to get things the way we wanted, but the business card idea ended up spawning into this…
Despite the massive begging, bribes, and death threats to us all, we really wanted this particular collectible to be something we could give out in person. Now, before you whom are reading this joins the fold and begins opening up your email to start writing me another death threat for wanting one of these, let me just say that there will be another keycard available that fans can claim without having to meet one of us in person. This keycard however as of right now will continue to be something we give out in person. So start coming to some of the conventions that we are going to be at and get one. I know for myself, I’d love to meet you! And all you got to do is ask for it, and it’s yours! 🙂
So the point of this being in SDCC is that after announcing that I’d be handing these out to those that asked, I then began being chased.. no STALKED by Space Quest/SpaceVenture fans wanting one. Including the two people standing next to me in this picture!
I’ll bet you original Sierra fans know these two right? Lori and Corey Cole(Original Creators of The Quest For Glory Series) wanted to get their SpaceVenture collectible keycard as well!
GAMING KICKSTARTER PANEL
The same day as the above picture was taken, I had to be at the “Gaming Kickstarter” panel.
The listing for the panel went as follows:
“Oded Sharon (developer for Leisure Suit Larry), Chris Jones (Tex Murphy), Chris Pope (Two Guys from Andromeda: SpaceVenture), Jordan Weisman (Shadowrun), and Chris Avellone (Wasteland 2) discuss the new development model in gaming: Kickstarter! Join them as they discuss the ins-and-outs of the process, challenges, and lessons learned in creating a new generation of games for gamers through the Kickstarter model. Strategies, fan input, and advice for other projects are all on the table-learn firsthand what you can do to get your dream project funded!”
So from that listing you can see the other people in the panel, including Oded Sharon from Adventure Mob and former developer for Al Lowe’s remake of Leisure Suit Larry 1.
I would like to back up just a little bit and say that a couple of days prior to the panel, Oded asked if we could meet up. So we eventually did and we had a long talk about some things. Even though I’m not looking to get us involved in the drama that went on with Adventure Mob and the creators of the LSL remake, I’ve got to say that Oded is one of the nicest guys I have ever met in the video game industry! Not to mention extremely knowledgeable about what he’s doing.
Fast forwarding back to the panel itself, I remember standing on a side wall near the conference room in which the panel was scheduled to be in. Chris Jones was also standing pretty close as well, and as I walked up to where he was standing I could tell he was probably thinking the same thing as I was. “I wonder if anyone is coming to this thing besides us that are on the panel?”. Little did any of us know, that there was a MASSIVE line snaking its way around the corner full of people waiting to get in. The staff at SDCC aparently are way ahead of me on this, and after thinking it over, it makes perfect sense as to why they did it this way. *facepalm*
It was really nice getting to talk with Chris Jones, Jordan Weisman, Chris Avellone, and Oded Sharon! All of those guys on the panel with me were extremely great people and I could tell they had the same passion about all this as myself. We all really really want to see adventure gaming make a major come back. And working for different companies or no, I think we could feel the comradeship that came from taking part in something that was one of the most stressful things any of us have ever done, Kickstarter fundraising! The panel itself was also a lot of fun and was very much a packed house!
Word of advice if you’re ever on a panel at a convention. Be sure to get some food in your stomach before drinking that massive amount of water they give you on the table! I apologize if any of you were some of the people after the panel that came up to say hi and had to wait on me to run to the rest room real quick…
I really did love meeting all of the people that came up to me after the panel! The only regret there was just not having enough time. After the panel we were rushed out into the back hallway to open for another panel, so fans had to seek us out to come talk to us. Which they did, but it was still a bit frustrating because we could all tell there were some that wanted to speak with us but weren’t able to get up there near fast enough. After the crowd thined out a bit we decided to get a picture together. Chris Avellone had to rush off to something else he wanted to be at, so he wasn’t in this picture.
GEEK AND SUNDRY
One of the best parts of going to these conventions is when you get to meet up with friends that you haven’t seen in awhile! Over the years I’ve had the honor of getting to know so many great people in the entertainment industry. But living in Atlanta Georiga, I don’t get to see a lot of my friends from California, except at conventions. Meeting up with friends and going to some of the parties was probably one of the more memorable things I had the pleasure of doing at SDCC. I’m not a party animal by any stretch of the words. And if you ever see me dance… well you must be from another dimension, because I don’t dance, and trust me, be thankful for that!
One of the most memorable parties was getting to go to Felicia Day‘s “Geek & Sundry” party. Shortly before going in, I met up with a friend of mine, Vince Caso(Bladezz from The Guild) and we walked in. The party had just started but was already booming with people dancing. I walked over and talked to Felicia for a bit and then away we go, every time I turned around, buddies that I haddn’t seen in a year were coming in, so not much else happened there but just trying to catch-up with everyone. Lots of chances to name drop SpaceVenture to people though, which was epic of course 😉
After that I met up with another friend, Jason Charles Miller and we jumped around to some other parties as well, including the Heavy Metal party which he introduced me to Kevin Eastman(creator of TMNT) and Grant Imahara(Myth Busters).
SpaceVenture fans should definitely look into Vince and Jason, because you could possibly hear them voice a character or two in the game! They will both be auditioning for parts.
DINNER WITH HODOR
A couple of other close friends of mine were also in town. Jake Stormoen, who is a film actor but is trying to make the transition into doing voice acting, and Kristian Nairn, who plays “Hodor” on HBOs #1 show, “Game of Thrones”. Jake is another who will be auditioning for a character in SpaceVenture. Scott and I will be doing a lot of the voice casting ourselves, and even though we’ve already listed some of the top VO talent as being a part of SpaceVenture, it is important to us that we give some new blood a chance at some of the roles as well.
Planning to meet up for dinner with Jake and Kristian was interesting because Game of Thrones is so crazy popular right now and Kristian.. well, when you’re 7ft tall and as big as he is, you can’t just throw sun glasses on and not be seen by fans lol! So everywhere we went he was getting mobbed by fans wanting autographs and pictures. He handled it very graciously and gracefully though I might add! We ended up having to have HBO send a vehicle to come pick us up so we could get to a restaurant. We had a nice meal at a chinese restaurant. He did introduce me to Michelle Fairley(Plays Catelyn Stark on Game of Thrones) which was neat, as I had never met her. She was extremely nice and came across as very sweet in person.
MEETING UP WITH FEELOW SPACE QUEST FAN AND WEBCOMIC KRIS STRAUB
SpaceVenture fans might recall during our Kickstarter that we talked with a well known webcomic by the name of Kris Straub, about doing a web comic for us. He was very awesome in taking the time to put together a hilarious strip(as seen above) to help us promote the Kickstarter. He and his long time buddy Scott Kurtz(PvP Online) were both at the convention and so I stopped by to say hi, and of course give him a keycard! Turns out, Scott Kurtz is also a Space Quest fan and was excited to hear about the return of the “Two Guys”.
LUNCH WITH THE COLES
The last day of comicon was still a complete blast just like all of the previous days but I did get to do something that all Sierra fans will apreciate a lot, I would think. I had lunch with Lori and Corey Cole. After the panel Lori and Corey both came up to talk to me but I didn’t really get to talk with them because of a lot of others kept jumping in front of them and asking questions. So on the last day, I texted Corey to see if they’d like to talk and have lunch. Shortly after that we met up and started talking about their future plans.
I did agree to stay silent about certain things, so please forgive me for having to respect that. But I can say that they got a lot on their mind that they are planning to do in the future. I was proud to hear that they were both very supportive during our Kickstarter. Corey had even emailed out to their fan database to show support for us. We also talked about them doing a live interview on the Guys From Andromeda Podcast. I’ve got that planned and in the works actually! I’d also like to mention that they will both be appearing at the SpaceVenture wrap party in Oakhurst! 🙂
THE JOURNEY HOME
Well there isn’t a lot of things exciting to say about this topic. There is something funny I’ll share though. I picked up so much free giveaway stuff/sourvaneirs for my kids that my suitcase and backpack were busting at the seams full! In fact, I didn’t realize just how full until I’m standing in the Atlanta airport and my suitcase pop out. See below image…
Apparently it busted open during transit and the baggage dudes had a blast wrapping it into a nice embarrassing mess for me to have to claim right in front of everyone else standing there!
Thanks everyone for taking the time to read this!
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