The start of PAX Australia 2013 for me involved the opening keynote by gaming legend Ron Gilbert.

The creator of Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island and more games than you could shake George Lucas at is a brilliant speaker who had the crowd entertained from start to finish.

Hearing tales of his beginnings as a developer and then joining Lucasfilm Games (later Lucasarts) was fascinating as well as fun.

Most interesting was his comments regarding games and the creative decisions that get made from choice of characters to how games will end.

Seeing his refusal to bend to outside forces is heartening considering some of the more recent controversies with big budget games. I’m looking at you Mass Effect 3…

Anyway, it’s a great way to start the expo and I wait to see what the rest of the weekend holds.