By Charly SHELTON

What strikes me first about the Electronic Entertainment Expo – or E3 as it’s known – on day one is the crowd. It has gotten more crowded each year, and harder to get into the demos to see the walk-throughs or play the games. I met Stan Lee my first or second year at the show, circa 2004 or 2005. He just walked up and started talking to me, just like in “Mallrats.” Because that’s the kind of show it was. Not that it was ever really small, but just easier to access what we were there for as gamers – the games and the people who brought them to life. Now it’s several hours to wait in line to see the new trailer and play a walk-through. It’s still a fun show, it’s just hard to see everything you want to see in three short days.

But that forces a lot of people out to the smaller games from indie developers, where the wait times are shorter. It’s in this way that we discover new, upcoming games. Like Redpill VR – a virtual reality space to listen to music, hang out and maybe play some small physics games. It’s a new, up-and-coming platform that may be the way we interact and attend events in the future. And I never would have discovered it if the line for “Cyberpunk 2077” was shorter.

By Jake BOWMAN

E3 is a massive spectacle with huge game developers and tech companies pulling out all the stops to impress customers and get people excited for their new projects. This is my first E3 and, to be honest, what struck me as the most fascinating wasn’t all the craziness surrounding the big guys, but the passion the little companies and game developers have.

Tucked away in small corners of the LA Convention Center, indie game developers and small tech companies try to get the word out for their projects. It’s truly an amazing experience to meet people so passionate about what they do. It’s also really cool to meet the actual people creating games and not just the people hired to guide you through whatever experiences the big companies have set up. For those going to E3 this year make sure to stop by the indie cade and similar places to show support to these guys and girls.

  Charly Shelton, Jake BOWMAN