ErikH2000
08-31-2005, 04:21 PM
So I went to a show (http://www.dragonflight.org) and set up a table to pitch my game. It was a smaller show with maybe 500 attendees (I'm still waiting to hear what the headcount was). I spent $60 for a 6-foot table that I manned for 3 days and another $40 on a sign. I sold 4 copies of the game so far. Got 15 names for a mailing list. Handed out 25 demo CDs to people who expressed interest in the game (not just swagmongers). I think I'll probably get a few more sales out of this, so let's say 5 sales and I'm breaking even on costs, not counting paying for my time, which thankfully was free.
On the bright side, some good things happened at the show not related to orders. Four superfans showed up and said hello and that is always good for the ego. I learned some very valuable things from talking with another vendor at the show--how to print books cheaply (possible add-on merchandise for the game), how to approach distributors for gaming stores, and how to get people to demo your products at shows for you. I watched about 15 people sit down in front of me and play my game. If I wanted usability testing, a show like this would be tremendous. Sure people are distracted, but that simulates the level of commitment people have when they download a stranger's game to play it.
Ways I screwed up:
* No primary goal. Am I getting names for a mailing list? Am I getting people to sit down and play? Am I handing out demo CDs? Am I selling games at the show? I tried doing all of these things, and what is really needed is a focus on one thing with some kind of process flow that can lead off to others. So the main thing may be to get people to sit down and play, and then maybe after they've played, hand them a demo CD and ask if they'd like to enter a drawing (add name to mailing list). I'm not too hard on myself about this because this was my first show, and I had no idea what was possible. I did notice that on the last day when I put out a sign that said "$20", it was harder to get people to sit down and play. They saw the sign and feared a pitch.
* Sitdown demo too long. My shareware demo takes about 2 hours to complete. (By the way, I didn't know this until I timed some people at the show.) A sitdown demo for my game should probably be more like 20 minutes max. People camped out in front of my table for hours, and I'd watch other potential new players look greedily at the seat and then drift off. I didn't want to tell the player to get off the machine--there's just no graceful way to do it. What is needed is a special truncated "show" demo that lasts about 20 minutes, at the end of which I hand the player a demo disc and encourage them to keep playing the game at home, or better yet, at the show's LAN area where other people can see him.
* Know the space before setup. I didn't do too bad here, but it would have been nice to know in advance that I had a wall behind me to put up posters. And that I was getting a "half" table that was 6ft by 2ft instead of a normal table like I'd imagined. These blind spots were partially caused by the smallness of the show. I know that my wife who sets up at larger wedding shows gets a floorplan and even knows what businesses will be set up around her. Not to malign the Dragonflight people, but they just weren't anywhere near that organized.
* Describe my game in one sentence. I'm not really an inarticulate person, but I have a hard time describing my game quickly. And there is that artist's aversion of comparing my work to other things similar, but it helps a lot. So as soon as I was willing to admit that DROD was a fair amount like Nethack or Rogue, then eyes stopped glazing over.
This convention I went to was primarily for printed games, i.e. card games, board games, RPGs. In fact, I was the only one there selling a computer game. This sounds really dumb at first, especially when 3 blocks away, Penny Arcade was raging on, filled to the brim with computer gamers. I don't want to imagine the grass is greener on my side, but from what I heard about Penny Arcade, it was full of big budget games and short attention spans. I think interest for my game would have been terribly small there.
If you wanted to find this "hardcore indie gamer" market many of us wish for, then conventional gamers are a good place to start. Shove all those soccer moms in a minivan and dump 'em over a cliff, I say! At this show, my problem was if anything, that my game was too casual and not depthful enough to satisfy the desires of people who push handpainted figurines around on tabletops for 18-hour sessions. These people relish an unfamiliar but unique style of gameplay, and don't whine about no mouse support or even mediocre graphics. The people that played my game, with only a few exceptions, dug into it effortlessly. I saw an inspiring willingness to keep trying the game even when it seemed hard to figure out. On the other hand, I hesitate to confuse this behavior with actually liking a game, because these experienced gamers are almost professional about it. They might play 10 new games each month, investing hours to gain a basic competence, and then leave the games in the dust never to be played again.
Here's some pictures from my humble little table:
http://www.caravelgames.com/DFPhotos.html
Anybody else gone to shows? I'm very curious about your experience, especially what your goals were and how well you did. There is one guy here on Indiegamer I know about that had some big plans for going to shows, and I was particularly interested in his insights, but I won't give away his secrets.
-Erik
On the bright side, some good things happened at the show not related to orders. Four superfans showed up and said hello and that is always good for the ego. I learned some very valuable things from talking with another vendor at the show--how to print books cheaply (possible add-on merchandise for the game), how to approach distributors for gaming stores, and how to get people to demo your products at shows for you. I watched about 15 people sit down in front of me and play my game. If I wanted usability testing, a show like this would be tremendous. Sure people are distracted, but that simulates the level of commitment people have when they download a stranger's game to play it.
Ways I screwed up:
* No primary goal. Am I getting names for a mailing list? Am I getting people to sit down and play? Am I handing out demo CDs? Am I selling games at the show? I tried doing all of these things, and what is really needed is a focus on one thing with some kind of process flow that can lead off to others. So the main thing may be to get people to sit down and play, and then maybe after they've played, hand them a demo CD and ask if they'd like to enter a drawing (add name to mailing list). I'm not too hard on myself about this because this was my first show, and I had no idea what was possible. I did notice that on the last day when I put out a sign that said "$20", it was harder to get people to sit down and play. They saw the sign and feared a pitch.
* Sitdown demo too long. My shareware demo takes about 2 hours to complete. (By the way, I didn't know this until I timed some people at the show.) A sitdown demo for my game should probably be more like 20 minutes max. People camped out in front of my table for hours, and I'd watch other potential new players look greedily at the seat and then drift off. I didn't want to tell the player to get off the machine--there's just no graceful way to do it. What is needed is a special truncated "show" demo that lasts about 20 minutes, at the end of which I hand the player a demo disc and encourage them to keep playing the game at home, or better yet, at the show's LAN area where other people can see him.
* Know the space before setup. I didn't do too bad here, but it would have been nice to know in advance that I had a wall behind me to put up posters. And that I was getting a "half" table that was 6ft by 2ft instead of a normal table like I'd imagined. These blind spots were partially caused by the smallness of the show. I know that my wife who sets up at larger wedding shows gets a floorplan and even knows what businesses will be set up around her. Not to malign the Dragonflight people, but they just weren't anywhere near that organized.
* Describe my game in one sentence. I'm not really an inarticulate person, but I have a hard time describing my game quickly. And there is that artist's aversion of comparing my work to other things similar, but it helps a lot. So as soon as I was willing to admit that DROD was a fair amount like Nethack or Rogue, then eyes stopped glazing over.
This convention I went to was primarily for printed games, i.e. card games, board games, RPGs. In fact, I was the only one there selling a computer game. This sounds really dumb at first, especially when 3 blocks away, Penny Arcade was raging on, filled to the brim with computer gamers. I don't want to imagine the grass is greener on my side, but from what I heard about Penny Arcade, it was full of big budget games and short attention spans. I think interest for my game would have been terribly small there.
If you wanted to find this "hardcore indie gamer" market many of us wish for, then conventional gamers are a good place to start. Shove all those soccer moms in a minivan and dump 'em over a cliff, I say! At this show, my problem was if anything, that my game was too casual and not depthful enough to satisfy the desires of people who push handpainted figurines around on tabletops for 18-hour sessions. These people relish an unfamiliar but unique style of gameplay, and don't whine about no mouse support or even mediocre graphics. The people that played my game, with only a few exceptions, dug into it effortlessly. I saw an inspiring willingness to keep trying the game even when it seemed hard to figure out. On the other hand, I hesitate to confuse this behavior with actually liking a game, because these experienced gamers are almost professional about it. They might play 10 new games each month, investing hours to gain a basic competence, and then leave the games in the dust never to be played again.
Here's some pictures from my humble little table:
http://www.caravelgames.com/DFPhotos.html
Anybody else gone to shows? I'm very curious about your experience, especially what your goals were and how well you did. There is one guy here on Indiegamer I know about that had some big plans for going to shows, and I was particularly interested in his insights, but I won't give away his secrets.
-Erik