South By Southwest is fast approaching, and one of the integral parts of the interactive component of the festival is South By Southwest Gaming.
“In some way, shape or form, it’s been there for about 10 years now, give or take,” Justin Burnham with SXSW Gaming said. “But really our direction – the way we’re going now – I would say four.”
Lots of the convention part of the festival is for industry insiders and creators, but there's tons of other great stuff festival-goers can attend as well.
GAMING AWARDS
Returning for a second year, the SXSW Gaming Awards recognize the hard work that it takes to make a video game.
“We’re taking it up a couple notches on the Gaming Awards from last year. That was very well received. That’s now in the Moody Theatre,” Burnham said.
The awards are hosted by Janet Varney, the voice of Korra in Nickelodeon's “Legend of Korra," and Markiplier, a YouTube gaming sensation. Critical Hit, a four-piece orchestra that tours and plays video game music, will also be playing at the ceremony.
GAMING EXPO
The SXSW Gaming Expo is the hub for all things gaming at SXSW.
“The Expo has the normal stuff like exhibitors and stuff like that. We’re showing fantastic games and technology, but there’s also staples that, really, people should pay attention to even more so than that,” Burnham said. “You have the Tournament Stage, which is an Ultra Street Fighter tournament in the eSports world with an actual $20,000 prize winning money.”
The Expo also has a ton of international representation now.
“Oh yeah, absolutely,” Burnham said. “Even more so in our Indie Corner. Our Indie Corner stepped up a little bit more from last year. We accepted 30 games for that corner, and I would say about 50 percent of those games are international.”
GEEK STAGE
The SXSW Geek Stage features tons of different events, including a cosplay competition as well as panels with celebrities. Among the scheduled panelists are "Walking Dead" creator Robert Kirkman, actor Colin Hanks, actress Busy Phillips and YouTube celebrity TheSyndicateProject.
For more information on SXSW Gaming, click here.