02/14/2008    |    Devlog    |    lindseyangela    |    Discuss

Notes from an animator out in the field…

I’m not really a con artist… character animator, actually. My only knowledge of scamming people is piratical in nature… a sure fire get-rich-quick scheme is to ask people for their gold, and stab them repeatedly if they say no.

My professional life consists mainly of animating special Florentine attacks and bringing those adorable shoulder parrots to life. Every so often, however, they let us artists out of the dark cave of Artco to interact with the public. I was lucky enough to be channeled into the world of gaming conventions to help man our demo stations and meet a lot of really cool people and talk about how bad-ass pirates are.

I first volunteered to help exhibit the game at PAX 2006. The fun started while fans waited in line to come to the FLS meet-n-greet on the night before the show…we searched our brains for sea-faring trivia to quiz the crowd, invented various piratical games (including a “jig-off”), and gave t-shirts to the winning fans.

Arriving at the convention hall bright and early the next day to help set up, I felt mighty special as I was handed a badge and allowed to make my way past the long line of waiting gamers. It was a scene out of a (nerdy) movie as I stepped into the huge gaming hall, my eyes widening with amazement at all the brightly colored banners and flashing video displays opening up before me. I had attended the Seattle ComiCon before but this was special, this was my first gaming convention and I was here to show a game I’d been a part creating and am very proud of.

As game enthusiasts started to pour in, I immediately felt in my element. I may not look it but, man, I am a freakin’ dork. (All Hail Ball! Hahaha….) My first patron, a young lad, stepped up to my demo station and I began to teach him how to sail the Caribbean. Almost immediately I felt the deep gratification of getting actual firsthand feedback, cold and objective. If you were hanging around our booth long enough you were likely to hear me nonchalantly say, “you see that crew member on the ship scratching his arm? Yeah, I animated that…”

I really enjoyed showing the game and talking to gamers – especially our awesome Pirates fans – and I guess the team here liked the way I handled things during the show because they invited me along to be on the demo team at GenCon Indy the following summer. By the time of the show I had another year of animation under my belt and I was excited to show off all the ways the game had improved (including avatar combat! Woo). GenCon turned out to be an incredibly fun four day gaming-party-palooza. I was nervous about the 12-hour days of demo-ing, but even after averaging four hours of sleep I didn’t get tired of talking to people about our game.

And boy, did we have fun at our booth…I’ve lost count on how many people dressed as pirates I talked to – including the MOST convincing Captain Jack Sparrow impersonator I could imagine…I was seriously giddy talking to him.

And, of course, he was hanging out with a Stormtrooper (only at GenCon). In the rare time that there was a lull at the Pirates booth we found various ways to entertain ourselves, such as throwing bouncy balls at our pals at the SOE booth across from us or learning how to do the Hustle from Danicia…and then requesting the DJ, who had been continuously blasting dance music into our eardrums, play the Hustle. In an open space in front of our booth we performed the disco favorite daily. Our friend Binky, from SOE, was kind enough to document our facetiousness.

In this video you’ll see Theresa, Jodi, Steve, me, and our pirate-wench booth babe shamelessly dancing in front of an undoubtedly confused crowd… ah, good times. (Hey, I’m an animator… I like performing)

After long days of running people through the tutorial, waiting patiently as they took their sweet time creating their characters (I don’t mind, that’s my favorite part too), and avoiding answering questions about the launch date (“we haven’t officially announced that yet, but we’re in a closed beta if you’d like to sign up…”), we partied hard – gamer-style – after the convention closed each day. The first night was a fan meet-up (so YOU’RE so-and-so on the forums!) and an after-party at a super-secret location (Troy, can we mention the Spy Bar? Oops…). The next night was partying with our new publishers SOE and then Jodi and I infiltrated a Gaymers party for some Apples to Apples and other board game fun late into the night. The wildest shindig was the following night at the White Wolf party, where we met up with our friends from EVE Online. Free drinks, loud music, dancing, and, why not, fire-dancers.

I was still recovering from GenCon a week later when we were again showing the game at PAX back in Seattle. I happily talked to people and demoed the game the first day. The second day I arrived and Jodi, totally rocking in an awesome pirate outfit, tells me she’s brought me a costume too…who am I to say no to dressing like a pirate?! And so, with the best pirate-speak I could muster and armed with a plastic sword, I manned my demo station as a pirate captain.

In between shooting t-shirts out of our specially crafted t-shirt cannon and having a little too much fun threatening people with my sword, I was approached by Gamespot to do an impromptu interview. Unprepared but willing, the bright lights and camera were in my face and I talked about our game, as well as accidentally stabbing the interviewer with my hat-feather twice.

With all of the crowd interaction at the cons, I found that people were often surprised to learn that I actually work on the game. Especially when in pirate attire, the assumption seemed to be that I was just hired to work the con. No sir, I’m a dev who FLS, possibly regrettably, has let talk to the gaming public and have enjoyed every minute of it.

Three things I’ve learned from my con experiences:

• Our fans are awesome
• I’m okay with embarrassing public performances
• I love animating in and being a part of the game industry

So thank you Flying Lab! Thank you Pirate fans! Hopefully you will see more of me out conning in the future.

<3,
Lindsey

02/14/2008    |    Devlog    |    lindseyangela    |    Discuss