So we are back from Blackpool, Our fish and chip filled stomachs have settled and we are just about ready to talk about our first experience showing our game at an expo. We learned a lot showing our game and met a lot of great people. It was a great experience and seeing so many people playing Bears Can’t Drift was amazing. Most importantly we got a ton of feedback. What people liked, didn’t like and want more of. We were showing a new build of Bears, which had an art overhaul and a ton of new features and optimization work done to it. The response was overwhelmingly positive and we are really happy we did it.
We thought it might be useful to do a write up of all things we did right and wrong. Hopefully this will help other indies who are showing games off. Our first step was to read this article on Gamasutra.
Its a great article and had has lots of advice.
What we did right
Sweets
When you’re a week away from an expo and need to get sweets I can’t recommend these enough. They stock them in most poundland stores and are perfect.
- Each sweet is individually wrapped. That means no clumping together and no dirty hands fingering each one.
- Good price. We bought 20 packs (£20) for two days with event foot traffic of around 4000 people total and still had some left over.
- They hold up well in the heat
- Keep people coming back for another
- Easy enough to eat one between games.
Stickers
People loved stickers. Have them everywhere. Scatter them messily on the table put them on yourself and offer them to people at the end of a game. At the end of the event it’s a good idea to get someone at the exit and just shout! FREE STICKERS! People don’t care who you are or what game you’re representing. If it’s free and it sticks to things, people want it.
Water
Get a few 6 packs of water bottles. They will keep you hydrated. The rooms you showcase in can be very dry and you will be talking a lot. You can also make friends with other developers by having some on-hand for anybody who didn’t bring some.
Alternating shifts
They advise you go with two or more people and they are right. When you get to the event alternate who mans the table. It’s easy to go off and lose yourself in a game of space invaders so set a timed rotation. We swapped every hour and it made things much easier. Make sure your phone is fully charged each night as well so in an emergency you can always get the other person to come back.
Make T-Shirts
Having an “Official” t-shirt is really helpful for people at events. It lets them know that you had something to do with the game. You can buy custom shirts online for £15-£20 if your not bulk buying. Or you can buy a plain t-shirt and special paper that you can iron on your own printed designs. Its good value and produces descent shirts very quickly.
What we did wrong
Timing
Don’t leave things to the last minute. We really got lucky with our printing and managed to get it all done in a few days. Get it prepared and sent off weeks in advance. The deadline crept up on us and before we knew it, it was a week away and we had nothing ready. We got an email from the company doing our stickers saying they needed more money before they would do them and despite constant ringing and emails they wouldn’t respond. We still haven’t received our stickers and it going on 3 weeks now. Luckily we managed to make them ourselves and despite the tedious cutting out of 400 stickers it was well worth it and much cheaper.
Buy ear plugs
If you’re an indie dev going to an event like this. Odds are you aren’t going to be the richest person in the world and you probably decided that sharing a room would save a bit of money. You also might not be aware of how much noise your fellow developer might make at night, be it shrieking night terrors, incoherent ramblings or snores that rival a pneumatic drill. Investing in some ear plugs could be the difference between a half decent night’s sleep and a court case.
Make a List
Make a list and go through each item as you put it in the car. We got most of the things but completely forgot to pack the extension lead. Luckily there were a few at the event.
Meeting Other Devs (Part 1)
Meeting other developers is always a great experience and the people we met at Blackpool were great! They were open about development and were keen for feedback. We ate, drank and expo’ed together. There was a tense game of Uno, a confusing game of 21 and many miles walked together to find a half descent restaurant (didn’t find one). Below is a list of all the developers we met and we would love you to check them all out.
Ben Bradley, MegaDev, Ludophobia, Clockwork Cuckoo/Force of Habit, Sinister Soft and James Monkman (Indie herder and organiser)
Cake Collective
KiloBite
Kilobite is a 3D take on the classic game snake. The goal is to collect as many dots as possible, doing so adds to your score and increases the trail you leave behind. When you finally die you are left with a beautiful spaghetti like mess hanging in space.It has some amazing retro style post effects that you can turn on and off too.
Pixel Trip
http://www.pixeltripstudios.com/
The Breakout
The Breakout is a highly atmospheric adventure game with a charming art style that tells the story of a WW2 pilot who, after being shot down on a mission he’s now a Prisoner of War and must do anything he can to escape. It’s a lot of fun and I highly recommend keeping an eye on it.
Retroburn
Positron
Inspired by the Light Cycle in the film Tron, Positron relies on quick reflexes and a good memory as you navigate a maze at high speed. Its instant respawn reminds me of Super Meat Boy and has an addictive “Just one more go” quality to it.
Ben Bradley
Substream
Substream is a scrolling shooter that’s slightly out of the ordinary. It plays a lot like Starfox/Starwing except the level is repeated infinite to the left/right (including all the enemies and your own ship), allowing you to perform tricks like flanking an enemy who is in fact right in front of you. It takes a little bit of getting your head around but once you do (and once that amazing soundtrack kicks in and the environment starts to react to the beat) it becomes so much fun that you’ll want to play it again and again.
Force of Habit + Clockwork Cuckoo
http://www.clockworkcuckoo.co.uk/
Timmy Bibble’s Friendship Club
This game is fast paced manic fun. Take four friends, add bullets that bounce forever and set the speed to 200%. The games last seconds but are hilarious. Before you know it you’re onto your next match. Try not to take yourself out with your own bullet.
Thanks
We also need to give a shout out to James Monkman who helped organise the indies and made sure we were all okay.
I hope this was of some use to you. We had a great time at Play Blackpool and can’t wait to show Bears Can’t Drift off again!
