“Binder clips, to the indie game convention exhibitor, are like rolls of duct tape to a handyman: an incredibly useful and versatile secret weapon that you’ll find yourself using over and over for unexpected reasons. In a sea of lousy office supplies that break, fail, and ruin things, binder clips are (for lack of a better descriptor), a F#^$ING GODSEND.”
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“On the show floor, explaining the game succinctly over and over again and watching people’s reactions completely changed how I though about the game myself. Many things I thought of as core features turned out to be irreverent or too complex to explain, and things I thought of as trivialities turned out to be very significant to people. It is very easy to completely loose perspective on a project and showing it to new people is the solution.”
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“I like to arrive early to various events, which is why I made sure I was always there early during the three days of the convention. I found that it was a good time to meet with people I otherwise wouldn’t have time to, and have given some business cards during that time. You never know when opportunities will arise, and I do feel that being present early in that way can give a leg up on other devs. And if not, it’s just a great occasion to mingle with your fellows, which is tougher to do later on”
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“So, how much money do indie developers make in a year? On our anonymous survey, we asked IndieMEGABOOTH exhibitors about their annual household income. This question may seem intrusive, but it provides valuable context for understanding indie sustainability. As Jen’s blog post noted, almost 80% of the devs we surveyed identify as full-time indies, but this only tells part of the story. There’s a big difference, after all, between making games as a supplement to other sources of family income and relying on game sales to keep a roof over your head.”
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“Demographically, those who filled out the survey mirror the demographics of the game industry at large. Of those that responded to this question (59/61 response rate), 93% respondents were male and 7% were female, meaning that women and non-binary individuals were under-represented. In terms of respondents’ reported race (56/61 response rate), 82% self-identify as white, while the remaining 18% identify as Mixed, Asian, Filipino, Black, Indian, or Hispanic.”
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“There are a lot of reasons to exhibit at these conventions, but the biggest one for most developers is to build a community and generate some leads. For me, I really wanted to expand my mailing list. My method might be a bit tricky – I collected emails by saying they were signing up for Alpha testing. While this is true, they’re also going on my mailing list. I had a simple notebook and pen for sign ups, which I’ve found work very well for me. Other developers prefer digital sign-up. It all depends. I was able to collect quite a bit of emails and have increased my subscriber list by 100%!”
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“If you’re going to a convention to accomplish specific goals, make it as easy for people to help you as you possibly can. This I consider the biggest failing of my booth setup. There were more than the eight people who voted who seemed to genuinely enjoy my game and likely would’ve voted “Yes” on Greenlight right then and there if it was as easy as pushing a button. And even those who only slightly enjoyed the game may have voted if it was easy.”
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“I’ve often heard about the psychology of lines with people at trade shows and shops, but at PAX, it was really apparent. If no one was in the booth, people would gaze over at the video, see a few seconds of it, and then continue walking by. However, if we were standing around the front perimeter or playing ourselves, more people would stop and watch or sit down to play.”
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“You’ll need time to familiarize yourself with the layout of the place, and it can be a little difficult to figure out which area to get your pass, where the entrance is, and where all the other booths/business meeting areas are located.”
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“This was an important lesson for us: make as easy as possible for players to play your game; don’t assume that people who want to play the game will actually do it if they have to engage in a close relationship or a conversation.”
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