Summary of events and work for September 2008

• Force Unleashed Launch Party
• MakeSF September Meetup

The Force Unleashed Launch Party was last night in San Francisco, and we were there to help along with the festivities.

LFL definitely know how to throw a bash, It was at the local Best Buy, strange I know but it really worked. The place was packed, and I was told that almost 1,000 people showed up during the course of the evening. I met people from all over the country and some people had even flown in from Europe to be there – crazy I know.

They’d built a stage high above the showroom floor and were doing give-a-ways ever 30 minutes or so,  they also had the various SW movies playing on all the big screens, and console where people could play the new game ahead of the midnight release.

All the major voice and character actors from the game were in attendance signing autographs and taking photos with the fans, and they had big backdrops from the game throughout the store for photo ops.

The Rebel Legion and 501st were also there in force.

It was Gerard and I with the Artoo’s, and Steve providing support. The store was so big we had plenty of room to roam around and not bump into one an other (most of the time.)

George arrived at 8:30 and spoke to the crowd briefly (see the video), followed by the character actors and developers talking about they’re expericence working on the project.

It was a long night, sadly I did not get to take as many photos as I’d hoped, but here’s some highlights, and there’s more coverage and photos in the links at the bottom of this post

Most of the networks were out covering the event and we recorded a few spots, including one for the 11 o’clock news, and Steve, our resident droid wrangler and spokesman, also did a few interviews, including this one with CNET.

And to prove he’s a real jedi, here he is practicing his force lightning

Sam Witwer (the Secret Apprentice) messing with the troops

Around 10pm the party was moved outside while the store was reset for the midnight opening. Sony had brought in special buses where people could play the game and one of the local radio stations provided a DJ.

By 11:30 we were all beat, cold, hungry and ready to call it a night, but were asked to go out one more time for the people waiting in line for the game. The 501st decided to form into a squad and did a circuit of the parking lot.

By midnight we were all exhausted, I think Boba Fett below sums up how we all felt, most of the troopers suited down and we swapped out our batteries for one last tour of the store before heading out with a copy of the game 🙂

Big thanks to Lucasfilm, especially Mark Franklin, for inviting us to this event and being super host.

Additional Photos and Videos:

• My complete gallery of photos
• Official Star Wars Blog
• CNET coverage and video and additional photos
• Kotaku – Photos and coverage
• io9.com coverage
• Matt Tolosa’s Photos
• Jessica (Juno Eclipse from the Rebel Legion)
• Mark Chu-Lin’s Flickr Set
• Roberto Moran’s (Sith Anakin) Photos

I spent last Sunday afternoon at the MakeSF Meetup with Artoo, this month it was held at the TechShop in Menlo Park in the heart of Silicon Valley. It’s a relatively new group and a spin-off of the Make Faire.

From the MakeSF website:

Our Mission
Meet with local people to discuss and show-and-tell new technology.

The goals are to:

• Meet other local Makers
• Share ideas, skills, and local resources
• Create collaborations between engineers, makers, craft folks, artists, etc.
• Get projects ready for Maker Faire, Burning Man or other nearby events
• Get opinions or advice on project execution

There were around 20 people in attendance, but only one person had brought something to share, so I was encourage to do an improtute presentation on building and Artoo.

The TechShop also gave us a tour of the impressive facility.