SXSW: Gaming Expo

Moving out of my comfort zone a bit this year, I took the boys down to the Gaming Expo last weekend. Its part of SXSW, and this was the boys' first introduction to this Austin tradition. (In my defense, I see enough of the SWSW crowds during the week, and I loathe going downtown over the weekends).

                
There were lots of things for kids at the Gaming Expo, including a sneak preview and play of the new LEGO City Undercover video game. Its an entire LEGO police video game, and that has always been one of Ryan's favorite LEGO themes. It has very cool graphics, and despite the fact that the demo was set up at the Nintendo wii U booth, I didn't realize this meant that was the only gaming platform that would release it.

But apparently it is, and since we don't have a wii U, apparently this is the one and only time Ryan will play it. :(

We had timed our visit to see a Minecraft presentation. Alex is all about Minecraft these days, and he was thrilled to hear their "Director of Fun" (official title) speak. There were hundreds of people at the Minecraft talk, and we watched her line up five various Minecraft toys on her table. Both boys were very excited. VERY excited. She said she would give them away at some point, but she didn't know how, because there were so many exciting faces there.

After her presentation was over, she opened it up to Q&A. Alex's hand shot up. After about twenty questions were asked, someone Alex was picked. He stood up, was handed the microphone, and asked, "When are you going to give away the toys?" Everyone laughed, and the Director of Fun replied, "Um, how about right now? Would you like one?" Gasps and moans from all the other children began. And Alex walked right up there, and picked his prize, a funny Steve in armor looking character.

He was over the top delirious. Ryan was jealous, and a lot of other kids couldn't believe his luck at asking such a stupid question and earning a reward for it.

 Yes, that's my son.

We looked around a bit more. Some places were child-friendly, some weren't. I couldn't find the folks promoting Beau's game and company - they were on the schedule for Sunday, so its possible they weren't out on Saturday. But I texted him a writeup of what the promo said.

And since I'm the proud big sister, here is his trailer, filmed back during his December visit around Austin at the Georgetown Quarry and down at Fischer Hall.

Connected to the Gaming Expo, NASA was around, promoting the James Webb Telescope.

Team Danger is pretty gaga for all things NASA, so this was very cool.

And hot... the boys enjoyed this heat camera demo, using ice cubes and hair dryers to cool and warm up various parts of their bodies.

We came home with all sorts of free goodies and bling, so all in all, it was a day well spent.

Plus. there were legos to play with.

And ghostbusters.

And other um, people, randomly dressed in costume.

For a while, it felt like we were at comic-con, rather than a gaming expo.