penny-arcade posts

In less than two months the second annual PAX East game event will be held in Boston. A few days ago the event's current web site revealed the preliminary list of exhibitors that are scheduled to attend PAX East on March 11-13. At the moment there's only a couple of major publishers attending the show (2K Games and Ubisoft) along with PC hardware companies like Intel and Nvidia.

There are also a number of smaller game publishers attending this year along with indie game developers behind games like Skulls of the Shogun. PAX East had over 50,000 people attend its inaugural event in 2010 and that number is expected to increase for 2011 thanks in part to the show moving to a larger venue, the Boston Convention Center.

The final numbers for the 2010 fund raising drive for the game-oriented charity Child's Play have been released and its clear that there was a lot of good hearted folks out there who wanted to help the organization help children's hospitals around the world. The final total for the 2010 drive was $2,294,317.53, which blows away the previous highest number achieved in 2009 with $1.78 million.

The charity was first launched by the Penny Arcade web comic strip team back in 2003. That year the charity raised over $250,000 for one children's hospital (the Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle, Washington). The charity now helps over 70 children's hospitals around the world and has raised a total of nearly $9 million during its lifetime so far.

The Child's Play 2010 fund raising drive isn't quite over yet but the game industry-support charity that helps children's hospitals around the world has already exceeded 2009's $1.7 million amount. The charity's official web site has announced that it has raised $1,853,894.59 in donations.

The official fund raising drive is still ongoing which means that the final total will actually be higher than this week's already impressive amount. For example the Humble Indie Bundle, which is scheduled to end on Christmas Day, is giving part of its donations to Child's Play. The final donation numbers for Child's Play 2010 should be reveal in early January.

We are still two weeks away from Christmas but the gamer-focused charity Child's Play is already generating a ton of money and donations for its many children's hospitals. The official Child's Play web site has just announced that it has already exceeded the $1 million mark with the current total at $1.18 million.

Part of the big boost came from the official Child's Play charity auction in Seattle earlier this week with some one-of-a-kind donations from many game developers and publishers. Over $183,000 was raised just from that auction alone. There are also many other Child's Play sanctioned fund raising events happening this month and you can check them all out at the Child's Play web site.

Telltale Games got their start, interestingly enough, making a poker game. While they are far better known now for their cavalcade of licensed adventure games (all of which are, at the very least, decent), they were original a company that wanted you to play poker. They combined their two loves in their latest game, and it resulted in Poker Night at the Inventory. It mixes traditional poker sim gameplay with adventure-game dialogue, and the result is probably the best single-player poker game on the market. Despite this, it does have its flaws, and those wishing to try their luck at beating the four diverse characters in the line-up had better be prepared for a little frustration.

Telltale Games' quirky crossover game Pokter Night At The Inventory now has a firm release date. The casual poker title that features characters from four different game and game-related universes (The Heavy (Team Fortress 2), Tycho (Penny Arcade), Max (Sam and Max), and Strong Bad (Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People) is now due for release via Steam on Monday. November 22.

The game, which will available for both PC and Mac platforms, is already priced to be super cheap at $4.99 but you can pre-order it before it comes out for $4.49. Don't forget that by purchasing the game you will also get some unique in-game items for Valve's shooter Team Fortress 2.

The Child's Play charity has been a staple of the holiday season for the gaming community for a while now. While fund raising efforts for the organization begun by Penny Arcade are held throughout the year this week Child's Play officially started its 2010 holiday drive for donations of games, toys and cash to be given to a number of children's hospitals around the world.

Last year the charity collected $1.78 million and already this year the drive has collected close to $200,000. In addition to individual donation there are a number of events that are raising money to be given to Child's Play. That includes the blow out auction that will be held in Seattle on December 7 that features tons of unique items donated by the game development and publishing community.

Telltale Games' quirky crossover game Pokter Night At The Inventory won't be just for casual game players. The upcoming poker title that features characters from four different game and game-related universes will also allow players to gain special in-game items for Valve's multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2.

Just pre-ordering the game will get the player a poker visor for TF2 that can be worn by The Heavy. In addition playing the game itself will unlock other special items for other Team Fortress 2 characters including a timepiece from Tycho (Penny Arcade), the luger from Max (Sam and Max), and shutter shades from Strong Bad (Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People). You can check out a trailer that shows off all the items and a little of the game itself after the jump.

The second annual PAX East game event is being held March 11-13 in Boston and is expected to bring in tens of thousands of gamers to check out the various exhibits, panels and more. As with its mothership PAX Prime, PAX East will also be giving indie game makers a chance to showcase their works on the show's exhibit floor.

The PAX East web site is currently taking applications from Boston-based game indie developers to have their games shown at the show. The requirements for the event include having a small team (15 members or less) that created the game to be exhibited at the show. No game mods will be allowed and the team cannot be funded by an outsider part (i.e. a publisher). The deadline for entry is January 15.

[Via Joystiq]

Bioware's upcoming RPG sequel Dragon Age 2 isn't due for release for a few more months but today it was announced that that the developer is teaming up with the Penny Arcade web comic strip team to offer a special in-game item for the game.

That item is called Hindsight and is a special belt that the Penny Arcade team not only designed but also created a special comic strip that describes its powers and history. Bioware has gone even further, turning the strip into a full motion comic with narration and sound effects.You can get the code for the new item by subscribing to the Dragon Age 2 newsletter.