Recently, Null made the trip to L.A. to be a part of IGN Live, IGN’s inaugural attempt at bringing a bit of the old E3 flavor back to Southern California in June. We had a grand time showing off Demon Spore and ChainStaff to thousands of passionate gamers at the event space as well as debuting the world premiere trailer for ChainStaff on the IGN Live broadcast.
Our road to IGN Live started months ago, and even though this was only the second gaming event Null has had a booth at, I don’t think it could’ve gone any better. The flow of foot traffic through the space led most people directly to the Demon Spore couch, which was rarely empty for more than a few seconds throughout the course of the weekend. As we saw at PAX East, there’s something about sitting down with a few friends to play Demon Spore that is almost irresistible to convention-goers. I had a lot of fun demoing the game for people before turning it over to their group to see how far they could get. One group managed to clear 57 entire rooms before finally meeting their fate within a biohazard room, which was impressive to watch.
On the other side of the booth, ChainStaff drew people in with its colorful graphics and exciting action-platformer gameplay. Developer Nathan Fouts of Mommy’s Best Games was on hand to see how people handled the first level and first boss of the game, and the answer was: surprisingly well! More than a few people managed to clear the entire level and then take on the monstrous alien skull that acts as the level’s boss. The boss requires you to use all forms of the ChainStaff to proceed, so watching people have that moment where everything just kind of clicks was really fun to witness. ChainStaff also had some super fans show up, such as Daniel, who spent almost an hour attempting to beat the boss on Friday, only to come back Saturday and finally finish it off. Watch the ChainStaff socials for an interview with Daniel and other ChainStaff players in the near future!
Anyone who swung by the booth also had the opportunity to nab some stickers and pins we had printed especially for the event. We love giving away stuff here at Null, so the next time you see us at an event, please come say hello and we’ll hook you up with something special.
In addition to our booth presence, we also managed to debut our ChainStaff Reveal Trailer and the Demon Spore Official Gameplay Trailer on the IGN Live livestream over the weekend, and managed to sit down on the IGN stage for a gameplay demo of Demon Spore which was viewed live by almost five thousand viewers on Twitch and YouTube and tens of thousands more via the YouTube VOD archive. Thanks to Brian Altano for taking an interest in the game and ably hosting us while we showed off top-tier professional-grade Demon Spore gameplay.
In addition to the IGN Live festivities, we also brought ChainStaff to the Guerilla Collective event on Friday night, where Nathan showed it off to countless hordes of indie game fanatics. I also swung by the Giant Bomb At Nite show on Sunday night to talk more about Demon Spore and ChainStaff!
I’ve attended something like 15 E3s in my life and while last week was still a bit distant from the crazy hustle and bustle of the 14 hour days I’d spend tracking down games to preview and turning those experiences into content for GameSpot, it was still a heck of a good time to get back down to L.A. and think and talk about games for a few days. Even walking down the street was a continual experience of thinking “Do I know that person? What the heck was their name again?,” a feeling which was much more pronounced at the JW Marriott bar and lobby, which is where most industry people congregated as their busy days were winding down. I haven’t been to any of the SGF’s that have taken place, so this was the first time in a half-decade that I had the chance to catch up with a bunch of old friends (including the person who hired me for my first full-time job at GameSpot!) and chat about the goings-on in gaming.
While remote work is the new reality of gaming development and publication, it’s nice to know that in-person events are going strong. There’s nothing quite like being in a room with 100 or 1,000 other game lovers and chatting about the work that we’re all doing. We’ll see you in L.A. next year; if you ever want to meet up with us and discuss your work, feel free to reach out to talk@null.com and we’ll get in touch!
