“Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get a reply, and don’t cherry pick outlets. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve not been able to schedule an interview and still stopped by a booth because I recognized the name. Chances are, if your name lands in their inbox, it’ll ring a bell when they pass by on the floor.”
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“Let’s be honest: successful game development is not about developing a game. Is about being able to find an audience for your game. A mistake that many independent developers are doing is to push all their resources into the actual making, leaving little to no budget for networking and marketing. Being able to build hype around your game is, in most cases, essential.”
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“Once upon a time, marketing was considered taboo and almost completely ignored by indie game developers. These days, most devs recognize its importance and do make some effort, but do little to differentiate themselves from the masses. In this article, we explore the art of marketing, and how you can use it to gain much-needed exposure for your game.”
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“At expos the Mini Metro booth mainly attracts people that end up enjoying the game, and likewise the Steam page only seems to pull in people that enjoy it. This has left us with a low return rate, a very high review user rating, and few complaints to answer.”
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“Being personable, funny, or just plain social will go a long way when it comes to inviting convention goers into your booth and more importantly, playing your game. I know it may be somewhat startling to know that not every developer has the personal skills, or desire to interact with large groups of strangers, but generally, they know someone who does. That’s the person you convince with free lunch and beers to come and demo for a few days.”
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“I liked this display for what appears to be a gaming movie, but there wasn’t anyone there to tell me more about the movie. Is it an indie movie? Will it be released in theaters or digital only? This display just seemed like an orphaned child sitting in the corner alone.”
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“Everywhere you looked was another practically unknown, two-person developer team with a booth barely bigger than a folding table and a pixel-art aesthetic. Simply spending 10 minutes with every game on offer could easily take an entire week, much less a weekend (and that’s without the massive queues of show-goers).”
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“We started by creating multiple to-scale booth concept mockups, adjusting any and all variables that we could, including table dimensions and placement, the number of and arrangement of iPads, etc. We needed to capitalize on the entirety of the 10’ x 10’ booth area while also creating a space that would be visually appealing and inviting to attendees.”
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“Because MAGFest runs 24 hours a day, Legacy of the Elder Star was up and playable on two machines for 74 hours straight, from noon Thursday to 2pm Sunday. Erik (the game’s artist) wasn’t able to come due to financial constraints, so I built and ran the booth alone. Here’s how I did it.”
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“Planning a booth for a large convention such as PAX can be intimidating. It is, after all, the moment many strangers see your game for the first time, and you want to capitalize on that opportunity. How can you stand out from all of the other booths around? How can you make the booth work in your favor? These are important questions to ask ahead of time.”
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