We lived through Evo 2013.

At times, it was iffy.

You see, a “normal” show, like PAX, lasts from 9 or 10am to about 6pm.  At that point, the guards kick everybody out and you can close up the booth and go to bed or fix the bugs your found that day, or maybe even eat dinner.  Standing and talking about your game for 8 or 9 hours straight is pretty exhausting, though, and I rarely go out and have fun after hours at PAX because I want to be fresh in the morning for the next group of SpyParty players.

Evo, by contrast, goes from about 8am to 12am midnight.  Sometimes it goes even later, and as an exhibitor, we have to get there before the floor opens.  Yes, you are there, in your booth, talking about your game, helping people out, fixing problems, and explaining the damned over-complicated Transfer Microfilm mission for 16 or 17 hours a day.  Then you collapse, get up, shower, and do it again.  It is brutal.  Lots of exhibitors get in late or close up early, but not SpyParty; if we’re going to fly to Vegas and set up our booth, we’re going to let people play the game when they are there.  Like the Fighting Game Community itself, Evo requires a different level of commitment.

Surviving wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing help of kate, kcmmmmm, and berryalice.  John and I owe them our vocal chords.

Still, there’s nothing quite like seeing somebody visit the booth early in the show, being hesitant to read the manual, and then have them camping the unlimited play machine for hours by the end.  Even better is later seeing them online in the lobby the day after the show.

Also, if we didn’t go all-in at Evo, we wouldn’t have created a situation where this was possible, or maybe even inevitable:

Banana Bread Beer makes a hearty breakfast, in addition to a great prize.

If you have no idea what that is all about, read this, this, and this.

It was also great to see so many return players from last Evo, see if you can spot them between the two galleries!

One thing that didn’t return was the old set of Dell Zino HD computers.  The always-amazing Ben Kutcher got us some Intel NUCs, which even though they have a terrible name are pretty great pieces of hardware:

The Intel NUCs on the left replace the Dell Zinos on the right.

The NUCs are way faster than the Zinos as well as being about 1/5th the size.  I’m optimistic they’ll run the new art that’ll finally be in the game at PAX this year.  More on that soon.

The Pictures

Pictures after the jump…

Without further ado, here are a bunch of pics from Evo 2013.  Post a comment if I captured you!  And, once again, it’s worth pointing out that Evo is the most racially diverse video game show I’ve ever attended.  Look at the pictures, it’s pretty amazing and inspiring.

Edit:  whoa, ky made this amazing thing from the gallery:  GIANT IMAGE, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED