PAX East 2015 took place all weekend long at the Boston Convention Center, and saw thousands of attendees, some cosplayers, other just observers, engage in endless gaming, panels, concerts, competitions, and much more. The convention has grown each year, and it’s safe to say that 2015 was its most comprehensive to date. We caught up with some of the folks who make the wheels of this event turn smoothly — from cosplayers to producers to directors — to get their perspective on the now legendary PAX East.
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Echang Cosplay, Character Demon Hunter from "Diablo 3" -- “The base of the crossbow is actually a snow broom. Added some foam over it, skull and handle sculpted with worbla.”
Rich Gallup, Executive Producer, Disrupter Beam -- “It’s one thing to love video games and another to learn to love how to make them. No one in game development can move at a leisurely pace, just don’t have that freedom.”
Kelly and April, Characters Cybil and Red from Supergiant Games' "Transistor" -- “We loved Bastion, we loved the aesthetic of it, and the whole game, and we were so excited about Transistor and that aesthetic had a big decision on us picking these costumes.”
Warren, Character Connor from "Assassin’s Creed III" -- “The costumes they’re particularly intricate. They’re kind of nice looking, they have pay a lot of attention to their costumes, and they are considered historically accurate in a way.”
Tori and Josh, Cool By Proxy Productions, Characters Arcane Zatanna and Atomic Green Lantern from "Infinite Crisis" -- “Not so much working a booth, but being part of a booth it’s definitely different than walking around like a free-range cosplayer because you’re like tethered to the booth, but it is nice to represent them, have a home base where you can relax and chill.”
David Mills, Volante Design, Inc. -- “What got me to sew and work in couture was, well, the easy answer is I had a hard time finding things that fit me the way I wanted them to. So, I started designing my own stuff. I don’t like altering from a base so I started designing patterns and going from scratch so I can get exactly what I wanted.”
Lili, Character Leah from "Diablo 3" -- “I find I have a lot in common with Leah- a passion for learning and a determination to succeed. I’ve loved RPG’s for years and Diablo 3 was a natural choice.”
Adam and Ashley, Cuddlefish Cosplay, Characters Skull Kid and Happy Mask Salesman from "The Legend Of Zelda: Majora’s Mask" -- “Zelda is my favorite series of all time and Majora’s Mask is my favorite by far. Just how dark Majora’s Mask is it set it apart not just from any other Zelda game, but most Nintendo games by far. It’s what made it stand out.”
Megan, Polyhedron Cosplay, Character Kaya the Wildborn from tabletop game "Hordes" -- “Costume took about 6 months to make. Staff is made out of worbla, with a wooden dowel as its base and a few LED’s thrown in for lighting as well.”
Ryuu, Character Lolita Mario from "Super Mario Bros." -- “There’s just so much new stuff to see at PAX. There’s so many people that come from all over the country just to be here so it’s all about hanging out with people you know, trying a bunch of new stuff, eating food with people you love, a bunch of cool stuff.”
Ryn, Character Lulu from "Final Fantasy X" -- “I played the game when I was younger and Lulu was just fun, she was cool, I just really liked her.”
Jillian, Character Warlock from "Destiny" -- “I love that fact that normally when you’re a girl playing a video game there’s a lot of animosity you get or harassment, and this was just the first game where I didn’t really encounter that or if I did other people stood up for me. It’s great to have that sort of comradery among friends and other players.”
Lisa, Marissa, Bobby, Characters Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, and Star-Lord from "Guardians Of The Galaxy" -- “All the other Marvel superhero movies are great, but they’re very dramatic. Guardians was just the right amount of comedy with some seriousness and overall fun. It was just, every part of it made for a great movie.”
Chris McQuinn, Designer, Drinkbox Studios -- “I think what got people on board was the challenge. There’s not a lot of examples of games where that it matters where you touch on screen. We don’t wanna make a game that’s a mobile touch game and you use the screen as a button. We wanna make it so where you touch on the screen, where your gesture goes matters. It’s a challenge, something we wanna take on.”
Kevin Watt, Design Assistant, Media Molecule -- “The booth took 11 hours, 3 paper cuts, and god knows, 560 folds to setup.”
Brandon, Character Zatanna from DC Comics "Zatanna" -- “A male version of Zatanna hasn’t really been done before. I kind of wanted to break the doors down on that. I love who she is, what she stands for, her powers, everything.”
Greg Kasavin, Creative Director, Supergiant Games -- “My favorite part of design? I think the world building part, thinking about games thematically, and how every aspect of the presentation and the mechanics can all kind of feed back into each other and create a cohesive experience for someone and creating an emotional experience for someone. I like thinking about games in those terms.”
Daniel, Character Gordon Freeman from "Half-Life" -- “I love Half-Life. It’s the silent protagonist, the everyday man whose thrust into a situation he is in no way use to and has to make the best of it and survive.”
Jaycie Gluck, stream name GillyweedSC2, Twitch Streamer/Video Content Creator and co-host of "MissCliks show Eye On The Storm" -- “You know it’s funny I started with video content like on Youtube and then I just thought it seemed fun and wanted to be able to connect to the people that I met through my Youtube videos and on Twitter, so I started to stream. I’m so glad I did. A lot of the people I met through my stream have ended up being such good awesome friends.”
Calder and Sydney, Characters Splicers from "Bioshock" -- “Stories these days are mostly are mostly bout action, but Bioshock has an actual story to it and an actual plot. I don’t know. I just think it’s a lot more interesting that way.”
Meagan Marie, Community Manager, Crystal Dynamics -- “The first time I played Tomb Raider and saw Lara Croft I saw a woman, a brunette, all these sorts of things I aspired to be. She was tough, intelligent, physically capable, articulate, didn’t take no for an answer, a sort of sass to her, all great characteristics. It’s something I really aspired to be. She always inspired me to push myself harder and to always be the better version of myself.”
April Gloria, Character Red Robin from "Dragon Fin Soup" -- “I didn’t really get into cosplay until a couple of years ago. I actually had the same haircut as Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite, you know the short haircut, and people kept telling me I looked like this girl so I got the game, and I kind of wanted to make a costume from it. I didn’t hand-make the first version of the cosplay, I just wanted to try it out and see if I liked it, put some pieces together, wore it to a con, and I wanted to make another one.”
Echang Cosplay, Character Demon Hunter from "Diablo 3" -- “The base of the crossbow is actually a snow broom. Added some foam over it, skull and handle sculpted with worbla.”
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