TL;DR - Our Major Takeaways
- Contact the press as early as possible
Prep your contact emails much earlier than the moment you get a press list or do a social media search - Consider the psychology of queues
Always have someone playing the game at your booth, even if it is you/your team - Initiate interactions
Don’t wait for people to approach you and lose potential players; engage in conversation and be assertive, while being respectful to people’s comfort level - Promote minimal effort
Make it stupidly simple for players to sign up for your mailing lists and follow your online presence - Remember: not all devices are the same
Have a working show build, with backups, available for the devices you will be running it on during the show. Re-test everything when you put a ‘working’ build on that new device - Have a streamlined show demo build
Within 5 minutes, a player should have played most of the demo, have a solid idea of the core and interesting game mechanics, and be able to get there while experiencing good game balance
What is the PAX East Indie Showcase?
- A Tofu Tail –by alchemedium (that’s us!)
- Antihero –by Tim Conkling
- Open Bar –by Gingear Studio
- Shadow Bug –by Muro Studios
- Thumb Drift –by SMG Studio
- Unmatch –by Andrew J. Adams
Who are we? And what is A Tofu Tail?
Our game, A Tofu Tail, is a story-focused puzzle game about a man turned into a tofu cube by a deceptive fox-spirit, the Kitsune.
Showcase Layout and Gameplay Video
PAX provided a monitor that we used to loop video of key gameplay, dialogue, boss levels, and stages not shown in the show demo build. We decided against displaying active gameplay from players mainly because, if no one is playing at the moment, nothing is happening on the screen used to pull people in.
Mailing List and Social Presence
In addition to contacting the gaming press and news sites WAY too late, we had an issue with poor social media presence and following. While our mailing list grew a good bit, our social media growth never picked up. Given this is where our main source of game dev and lore content is posted, we need to improve here greatly.
Platforms
Acquiring two refurbished ASUS Transformer Pad Android tablets ($140/ea) and a refurbished Windows 10 Acer One 2-in-1 ($110) for use at the show, while the specs were not top notch, served a ‘many birds, one stone’ purpose:
- Owning lower spec machines for testing and future support
- Figuring out support for Windows 10 touch input, 2-in-1s
- Minimizing potential monetary loss from damage, theft, etc
We also purchased a few Anker Multi-Angle Aluminum Stand for Tablets ($11) that worked out amazingly well in propping the tablets to a comfortable angle without falling over. They even collapse for nice and compact storage! |
Logistics and Setup
Because the airline staff will visibly and unashamedly toss these around without care for damage to your stuff, we kept the shipping boxes in which the tablets were originally shipped for use in transporting them in a nice and sturdy Northstar Sports 16″x40″ Duffle Bag ($28), and all our other materials to the event via checked bag ($25 each way). |
Show Demo Build
Creating these show-specific builds has allowed us to:
- Keep player interest over a smaller play session of 5-15 minutes
- Show a smaller, more focused subset of puzzles in a shorter time frame
- Have a better chance of keeping players playing “just one more puzzle”
- Let the code handle the flow of pulling players, engaging them, providing call-to-action and resetting the demo at play session end
The smaller subset of puzzles included: stages to teach each new puzzle mechanic without having to explicitly explain them, stages to improve on what was learned thus far, as well as some slightly more challenging levels (omitting many of the more difficult puzzles). This lines up with our full set of levels, but progresses at a faster pace, moving players through the experience to catch as much as they can in the limited play time. We also removed the more involved dialogue, world map navigation, and ‘boss’ stages to shorten the play time (showing those aspects in the looping video).
A few other nice features we had planned (but not all implemented):
- An attract mode that would show gameplay when no one was interacting
- A manual quick soft reset option to instantly start a new player at the demo beginning
- Leaving to the menu plays “thanks for playing” splash and resets to first demo stage
- A hands-free demo reset after 90 seconds of inactivity (given first input is entered) and a 10-second faded screen telling the player of the impending reset
Issues and Oversights in the Show Build
We had a few nasty visual bugs on two of the tablets due to GPU processing issues – luckily in brief spurts of background art or in late demo stages. No one seemed to notice during puzzle solving – and no one seemed to mention it – so maybe it went largely unnoticed? It was still painful to watch… It hurts that pride bone…
Noted.
Attendee Interaction
We had a loose strategy of having at least one person to greet and pull people into game sessions, and at least one person to engage people in friendly conversation or talk in depth to those that have questions. Essentially someone to funnel people into interactions and someone to interact directly either before or after a play session to attempt to create a good experience for them. When a player would finish their play session, we would briefly mention the mailing list and free, branded stuff in the closing pitch – sans obligation.
Psychology of Lines
Cost Breakdown
Was It Worth It?
Without the free space and monitor provided by the PAX team, we personally would not have been able to justify the costs of showing at this event. From what I understand, the standard booth cost (at minimum, without extras) would be ~$1,700 for a basic 10’x10′ space on the show floor.
With the price of entry for this kind of event, it is likely only worth the money if you spend time to prep your presentation of the booth space and game itself. This is not the environment to perform rough and early playtesting/prototyping. And don’t pass up the opportunities to reach out for press coverage, increase your mailing list, and leave people with a lasting impression or takeaway of your game.
Was there anything you think we could have done better?
Let us know in the comments below!