Behind the Booth: The making of... our booth.
Posted by jake August 25, 2008


PAX, the Penny Arcade Expo, is coming up this weekend, and we'll be there. In a booth.

PAX has quickly become our favorite show of the year. From the engaged show attendees who actually know who we are and play our games, to our now annual "Make a Scene with Telltale" panel, to what is probably the most cordial and generally awesome expo security force in the world (Seriously, last year they came by and gave us water and soft drinks on a regular basis. This is amazing.), PAX is my friend. Anyone who loves any type of gaming should probably go. You won't regret it.

Anyway, the booth! We have one this year, and it is ridiculous. Last week a few of us got together in a warehouse to try and put the booth together once, as a test. Fortunately, it looks great. Unfortunately, the fully assembled booth won't be something we can show you until PAX starts on Friday -- in the grand tradition of all Telltale trade show coverage, our camera totally failed the moment we got the booth all the way built, and started taking photos of nothing but blackness.

We documented the actual assembly process, and some of the art, though, and thought you might want to see it. So, without further ado, here are a bunch of pictures of us putting together some sort of crazy wood and aluminum contraption that will be our PAX booth.


Working together: Emily and Doug bolt together the roof to one of the four piers that will support the booth and house the demo machines.


Pointing or touching or something: If Michelangelo built booths. I guess.


Lifting heavy things: Emily, Rachel (the designer of the booth), and Nick raise one of the four piers.


Demo-tastic: These platforms will support the screens, mice, and controllers for our six demo stations.


Sometimes my arms bend back: The middle of the booth is draped in some classy Telltale-red fabric.


Huge art! Pretend these are seven feet high.


A falcon! Some more mockups for the huge booth artwork.


Secret shame! Here's where the camera started to die, right when the whole thing was really coming together. As you can tell, though, it's looking cool.


The search for fact... not truth: The booth packs down into three custom-built crates, all of which look like they should really hold a haunted sarcophagus or haunted urn or something else that is haunted.


Defacing property: When you have a bunch of huge wooden crates, it's nearly impossible to resist spray painting some stenciled text on there.


Impossible to resist: This was also required.

That's it for now. We'll have a little more about PAX right before we head out at the end of the week, and we'll try to post some photos from the show, like we did at Comic-Con. Until then, enjoy those pictures! See you in Seattle.

Thanks to Marie Kare for taking most of these pictures!
Tagged Events, Sam & Max, Strong Bad, Wallace & Gromit, WiiWare Digg this entry Send this to a friend 26 Comments
sweet
Comment by jodafire August 25, 2008, 3:24 pm
the municipality was a nice touch
Comment by supraface August 25, 2008, 3:33 pm
Is Laura Palmer behind those curtains? :p
Comment by Philski August 25, 2008, 3:45 pm
o.o Wayy bigger than last year. I look forward to seeing it in 4 days' time! :D
Comment by Kedri August 25, 2008, 3:51 pm
Looks very sleek!
Comment by Mysterysheep August 25, 2008, 3:51 pm
It's like watching the masked magician.
Comment by t_mack August 25, 2008, 3:58 pm
I like the embossed TT logo! :)
Comment by Guybrush Threepwood August 25, 2008, 3:59 pm
looks awesome! pity i live in the uk...
Comment by V_Ben August 25, 2008, 4:25 pm
The curtains make me think that the booth should be modeled after the magical, time/space transcending photo booth.
Comment by TrogLlama August 25, 2008, 5:42 pm
I hand cut that telltale games stencil, by the way :)
Comment by tabacco August 25, 2008, 8:40 pm
Also, our crates are being looked into by top men. Top. Men.
Comment by tabacco August 25, 2008, 8:41 pm
*Hums obligatory Raiders theme*

They doubled the space this time, meaning way more cool things for everyone. But Telltale's got top billing being placed smack-dab where everyone walks in.
Comment by Kedri August 25, 2008, 10:25 pm
Sweeeeeet. Loving the new booth, very fancy. *thumbs up*
Comment by tobar August 25, 2008, 10:52 pm
You'd think a bunch of computer game designers woul be able to work a camera, wouldn't you?
Comment by Harley Quinn August 25, 2008, 11:52 pm
Wow, it's almost as if I'm there hundreds of miles away after all... and I think the photos are actually quite cool, pretty artsy. :)
Comment by Haggis August 26, 2008, 5:37 am
Swanky. Will you be putting it up for auction after? :P
Comment by Shazyzang August 26, 2008, 9:45 am
Looks great. Don't suppose you feel like shipping it over to the UK... then amalgamating PAX and comic-con... and holding the resulting glorious expocon in Manchester?
Comment by DoubtedEdwardo August 26, 2008, 11:34 am
Lookin good!!
Comment by StewG August 26, 2008, 2:21 pm
That's it. From now on we bring 5 cameras to every event. Five!
Comment by DanH August 26, 2008, 10:17 pm
You realize this is now your responsibility, Daniel?
Comment by Jake August 26, 2008, 10:39 pm
The municipality logo? Nice. xD
Comment by NickClick2 August 27, 2008, 5:25 am
Swanky. Will you be putting it up for auction after? :P

I'm hoping we'll find a spare 20x20 space in the office we didn't know we had, so we can set it up and hold meetings in the fort-like center area.
Comment by Emily August 27, 2008, 8:04 am
Yeah, the wonderful art of booth building.
Say, if you put Powers Boothe in there you can call it Powers' booth! Get it? Powers' booth(e)? ...
oh well ... the booth has the same sturdy look as Powers Boothe.

Maybe you should put a cardboard cut-out of him in there somewhere so you could call it your Powers' booth.
And while you're at it, why don't get a Powers Boothe game on the market?
Hmmm, doesn't Powers Boothe sound a lot like Powers' boot?
That could be the perfect name for the game, because in it he'll be kicking plenty of bad-ass booty with his powerful boot!
Wow, can't wait for you guys to release it!
Comment by Smollie August 27, 2008, 11:34 am
Man, you guys put energy and detail into everything - even your booths!
Comment by patronise August 28, 2008, 6:26 am
Nice pics! I always enjoy behind the scenes stuff, especially yours. Wow, you guys must be having a blast going to these shows and promoting products that anyone would be proud of. How I envy you. Have a good time!
Comment by Lunatik August 28, 2008, 11:18 am
I like the municipality logo.
Comment by Redrot August 29, 2008, 7:12 am
Your Name:
(required for unregistered users. register?)
Your Website URL:
(optional)
Supported Markup Tags
We support the following tags for styling your comments:
[b] Bold Text [/b]
[i] Italic Text [/i]
[u] Underlined Text [/u]
[s] Strikethrough Text [/s]
[url=link] Link Text [/url]
[quote] Quoted Text [/quote]
Mandatory Eye Exam
Type these characters into the box to the right to prove that you're human, and can read a bunch of offputting jiggly letters:
Can't see the image? Listen to it here.
Latest VideoLatest Video
Dangeresque 3 Gameplay Clips
- Check out more awesome Telltale Videos!
You ♥ The InternetYou ♥ The Internet
Wasting your time so you don't have to.
Sam & Max Hit the Wall
Somewhere in Switzerland, in a bedroom, lives this awesome enormous mural.
The Sound of Young America
Hear awesome people be interviewed!
QWOP
Try and make this guy run. I dare you.
Strong Bad LittleBigPlanet Level
Awesome level built by forum member sa_nick!
Sam & Max Season Two goodies described
If you're on the fence, this blog post may convince you to buy...
Add the Telltale blog to your homepage:
Or, add our blog feed to your RSS reader:
- More Distractions
Our RSS feed!
Recommended ReadingRecommended Reading
Grand Text Auto
All about interactive storytelling
Currently: A New Scholarship for Making Games
Boneville.com
Blog of Bone creator Jeff Smith
Currently: Jeff Smith & Neil Gaiman Jam Sketch CBLDF Auction!
The International House of Mojo
News of Telltale and Friends
Currently: I'm not putting my lips on that
Antinomian.com
Sound, Fury, etc.
Currently: Learn to Suck with Thomas Kinkade
Spectre Collie
Blog of Telltale writer/designer Chuck Jordan
Currently: Mediawean
- More Recommended Reading
Telltale Games - © 2008 Telltale, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Home  |  Store  |  Blogs  |  Forums  |  Product Support  |  Corporate Info  |  Jobs  |  Terms of Use  |  Privacy Policy