Big Recap of 2 Weeks of Awesome

It was totally worth it

I would have written this days ago if it weren't for being so sick. I'm just now getting over a cold so extreme it makes me wonder how I was able to make it through at all. Resilience I suppose. Speaking of which it's been a pretty crazy last couple of weeks! First there was Devastation, the next weekend was the 24 hour gaming marathon for charity, and lastly a super spectacular surprise that I got today. First let's talk about how awesome Devastation was.

Devastation 2011

While the event officially lasted 3 days for normal attendees, it would last 5 days for myself. I headed out to the convention center on Wednesday afternoon to set up my booth. When I got there, they had only given me one table but I asked and they were able to set me up with another. The staff at Devastation are some of the nicest and most professional people I have ever worked with. It was refreshing to see a group set up an event of this caliber and still keep their cool. Set up went smoothly, well as smoothly as it could considering this is the first convention I've sold my art at. I got a little bit of rest that evening, the excitement for the weekend to come kept me awake.

Thursday was the "preview night" of the convention. It's basically for a limited number of attendees including other vendors and people who registered early. It was pretty slow for the most part but I got to meet the awesome people that shared the booths on either side of mine. To my right was House of Haha, a couple that makes funny geeky t-shirt designs. And to my left was Boson, a company selling specialty 3D glasses for gaming. We all watched each others booths when we went on bathroom/smoke breaks. Everyone was so helpful! I didn't sell much on preview night. Just a couple of pixel characters. The highlight of the evening was the catering (free food is always awesome), the bright party like atmosphere, and being able to play on the arcade machines and consoles before it got packed.

That evening, when I was walking home from the train (light rail) station, a strange thing happened. I tripped on the sidewalk! I tripped and I had a pretty heavy load of stuff on my back so I must have fell in a weird way, because I caught myself wrong. I didn't think much of it as I got up and brushed myself off. My knees hurt a little bit so I went to check out the damage, upon doing so I saw where the real damage had been done. My hand. More specifically, my right hand. My pinky was contorted in a freaky gross way that's comparable to something you'd see in a survival horror game. It didn't hurt all that much at first, but damn it looked terrible. As I was walking home I wondered if it could have been because I didn't leave earlier to see Voltaire in Scottsdale. When I got back to the apartment my bff gave me a ride to the ER where I had x-rays done. Turned out my pinky was both dislocated and broken. I sat there for quite some time cracking jokes with the people sitting in the room next to me from behind the curtain divider. Despite being in pain, everyone still seemed to be in good spirits, finding common ground in sarcastic humor. Later than sooner the doctor came in, poked me with a needle to numb my finger and then popped it back in place and put me in a cast. Pain killers were purchased and it was back to my place where I would get about 4 hours of sleep before getting up to take on the first official day of the convention.

I was back at the convention center on Friday morning. Soon as they let people through the door, business was booming at my booth. Pixel characters being sold left and right. Now I was going to use the funds to go to MagFest in January but now all of it had to go to pay for my doctor's bill since I, like many other working class folk, do not have health insurance. Regardless of my monetary situation, I can't put into words how amazing and humbling it is to have so many people buy my work. These things that I spent tireless nights and ungodly hours on. Someone, or rather, lots of people were actually buying my art. It's moments like this when all of the hard work really pays off. Everyone was full of energy and there was never a dull moment since the guys a couple booths down were playin' some awesome music throughout the entire event. Every once in a while I would break and take a look at all of the games and everything that was going on and get some footage for my video montage. There were also a bunch of familiar faces, people that I'd met at other events showed up too. It was great to see everyone again and talk about games, art, and everything else. Friday evening I hosted Video Game Trivia at my booth. The person who won was someone that had won before at Cade's last trivia event. Everyone did a great job and I even gave prizes to 2nd and 3rd place winners. These included pixel art, paint prints, and plushy mushrooms.

Saturday was the biggest and busiest day of all. There were probably twice as many people as there were on Friday. It was nuts! It was so busy that if it weren't for my good friends Shiara and Liz showing up, I wouldn't have been able to take any breaks. Throughout the day we all had fun sharing and selling pixel art, used games, and most importantly raffle tickets. The raffle tickets were important because it was my last effort to raise money for the 24 hour game marathon for Extra Life. Everyone had lots of fun winning prizes too! Saturday night I hosted a costume contest at my booth, to which only a couple of people showed up to. It was all good though. The first prize went to a Chun Li. She will be getting her own article on Phoenix Gamer some time later this week. We stayed pretty late and stuck around for a while after we closed up our area and played video games for a while. While I was playing Puzzle Fighter 2 this guy comes up and sits next to me and challenges me to a match. Of course I accepted. I asked him if he was in any tournaments. Turns out he won 2nd place in the Blazblue tournament. A serious gamer! I kicked his butt at Puzzle Fighter though. He asked how I got so good and I shared strategies including building combos, safe zones, patterns, and how this game can be compared to a fighting with the counter attacks and such. He ended up beating me a couple of times too. It was so much fun to have a challenge like that and an honor to play against such a prestigious pro gamer. Hands were shook, and it was a good game all around. I went and played some Metal Slug and called it a night.

Sundays are the worst. The last day of the con is always a little disheartening. Today was the finals of all of the tournaments so the audience was super pumped. I also joined a tournament myself halfway through the day; Mario Kart 64. I didn't win but it was fun and I got a pat on the back for attempting to play with my hand in a cast. We sold more pixel art and had a lot of requests for stuff we already sold out of. At least now I'll know what to make more of the next time we do another event like this. I also raffled of my largest piece of pixel art to date (pictured above). Now, while most cons end early on Sunday, usually midday, Devastation is awesome in that they were open and operating until 11pm that night so it was like getting an extra day/half day of convention. Without a doubt Devastation has to be one of the BEST conventions that I have ever gone to and/or been a part of. I didn't want it to end. But of course, it had to. I want to give a HUGE thanks again to all of the staff and everyone that was so awesome, nice, helpful, and that bought my art. You guys are what make the Phoenix gaming community so great and I look forward to seeing you all again next year!

When I got home I slept for a day or so and when I woke up my throat was scratchy but I didn't think anything of it. I thought that it might have been because I kept having to speak over the crowd at the con...

Extra Life Marathon for Charity

Just in case you hadn't heard, Extra Life is a 24 hour gaming marathon and charity event to raise money for kids in local children's hospitals. This year was my first year participating. With games and consoles lined up I awoke Friday evening...feeling sick as a dog. But no worries! This is something that had to be done! I started brewing my coffee and popped in the games. There's not really much else to say other than I played video games for 24 hours straight. Well, actually, later in the evening on Saturday a couple of friends helped me out with the last stretch as we played Marvel vs Capcom 3, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, and Guilty Gear XX. That was tons of fun. I ended the night by failing at Jet Grind Radio, even though I've played it a billion times. The cast got in the way and it's tough when you've been up for that long. And then I played Psyconauts. Thanks again to everyone that donated! You guys are the best! I'm sure out little gamers that needed our help will remember this for years to come.

After all was said and done, I passed out. Woke up the next afternoon feeling a sense of dread wash over me as the sickness twisted it's nasty grip on the last threads of fun-easy-going-pushing-myself-too-far-again-awesomeness and I fell into the post-event depression. Not much I can do until I recover I suppose. Then I checked my email today to find out that I FINALLY got the option to monetize my Youtube videos. I've been working my ass off for the last year and half, it's about time. Man was I excited! But then...It's back to work. Like, real work. If only we could live our lives making a living at writing and making videos about video games. But that's not the way the world works, is it?