Our first trailer and what to expect from a game con?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Jam2 Games, Jan 15, 2016.

  1. Jam2 Games

    Jam2 Games New Member

    Jan 15, 2016
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    London
    Hi guys

    I have been following these forums for some time now and find it a great resource for advice and knowledge.

    Myself and my friend have been working on a game for a while now and are heading to our first game con. (Pocket Gamer Connects in London) next week so we made a trailer for our game.
    https://vimeo.com/151648374

    I was just wondering if anyone would be able to give some feedback on our trailer, and wether it is good enough to take to the show?
    I'm not totally sure what to expect from the show but we have sorted out a bunch of flyers and promo gear that should hopefully work out ok.
    Has anyone got any advice for a first time showing?
     
  2. Nullzone

    Nullzone 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Jul 12, 2013
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    The video is ... hard to describe. I zoned out because it made me dizzy (well, I am tired; bu a lot of people on a Con will be too, so take that into account). I found the initial header too long: "yes, Tetris and Rubrik have a kid. Now, where IS the lil rugrat?"

    About Cons itself:
    Never been to a Gamescon myself, so cannot comment. Go check Gamasutra, they have a lot of articles on Cons, and quite a few of those give very useful advise.

    Now, I've been a Larper (Live Action RolePlay) for a long time, and from reading the above mentioned articles, the basics are the same. You tend to cut back on the necessities because they take away from your "playtime". The older I got, the more I planned for those, because I could take less and less of missing out on important stuff like sleep, food and drink.
    As all those activities need uninterrupted time, this is the most important lesson: plan for free time.

    Plan for, in no particular order:
    - Personal hygiene, including changing into fresh clothing.
    - Sleep. I cannot strengthen this enough. Get sleep, as much as you need. Tired, you make more mistakes.
    - Food. Drink. Sleep. If not provided, bring your own. Add 50% to what you originally bought, round up. E.g. "1 crate of water? Bring 2."
    - Winddown. You will need time to wind down from stressful situations. E.g. if you have appointments, say with press or an investor: leave at least 30 minutes between them. Don't do them back to back. If you need to do cleanup or change the stage in between, plan at least an hour downtime.
    - All the electronics. Double checklist of what you need to bring. Backups for *everything* (even as simple as an iPhone loader cable), if you can afford it.
     
  3. Destined

    Destined Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2013
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    Be prepared to chase after people. Don't just sit there and wait for interested people.

    Remember a crowd attracts more people. As such make sure there is enough that a few people can be doing something at once.

    Keep a list of emails to send game info too (they might intend to download but forget, if you follow up could turn into a download).
     
  4. Jam2 Games

    Jam2 Games New Member

    Jan 15, 2016
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    London
    Great!

    Thanks so much for the feedback, I will see if i can make some variations on the trailer to show during the day, maybe just some straight playthroughs to have looping and such.

    I had not even thought about things like water, that is a great tip, also backups of electronics is a good idea.
    Good to know that we will have to go chasing people now rather than figuring that out halfway through the event. I think we are going to try and drum up some attention by running a competition over the event to win some prizes.

    I will check out some of the Gamasutra posts as well.
    Thanks guys.
     
  5. Nullzone

    Nullzone 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Jul 12, 2013
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    Always welcome, Jam2! Wish you success, and that all goes well. Would be great if you can report back when the dust settled after the Con ;)
    You might also enjoy taking a look at "Joel on Software", Joel Spolsky's blog. I think it was at the start (aka further back in time) that he wrote about his experiences with presenting his company and software. I remember some interesting details, like massive problems with the acoustics and PA system in one hotel conference room where they held their presentation.

    If you have folks you want to talk to in your target sight already, send each a *personal* (! very important, no mass letters!) invitation to come visit you; ask if they can tell you beforehand when they might stop by, so you can make sure to have time for them. Send your own schedule as well (without details, of course; e.g. "spot taken" instead of "talking to Eli from TA". Sending an overview of free slots and marking everything else as "not free" might even be a better idea).
     
  6. Destined

    Destined Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2013
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    I have yet to see a competition really help an indie in any of the ones I went too. You can't really announce to everyone at the expo about it so they still have to make it to your table.

    If they aren't supplying you with a large banner of some sort that is the best use of funds (since you can reuse it) and increases your exposure significantly.

    If the stand is in the form of a table rather than free standing booth, don't sit behind the table. Stand in front of it. You will notice all the big brands do that.
     
  7. Columbo

    Columbo Well-Known Member

    Sep 1, 2014
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    One thing you can expect is for about 50% of the people who visit your stall to be the reps of various advertising networks, wanting you to choose their ad network and/or to use their ad network to promote your game.

    IME, they're nice enough and polite enough, you swap cards, and you get a bit of follow up spam. But it's a bit frustrating because what you really want to do is show your game to journalists, the general public and swap stories with other devs.

    At the very least, take some time out from your table to go circulate and chat to the other indies at nearby tables.
     
  8. Jam2 Games

    Jam2 Games New Member

    Jan 15, 2016
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    London
    So
    Your predictions were all quite accurate, lots of add networks and the likes.
    Our day was really successful though, (well more than we had expected really) and we had a great time!

    It was really invaluable meeting and chatting to other devs in similar situations, we learned a lot from that alone. We also had a number of publishers come up that were interested in our game which felt nice, and I managed to get interviewed by pocketgamer connects which was lovely as well (link here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DyDMJqkVWk), although this was during the first day when we were still not quite sure why we were attending the event. By the end of day 1 we were quite convinced that a publisher would be worth following up on, if only to find out what they can offer and how it could be mutually beneficial.

    I will write up a full rundown of the show this weekend and post it here for you all as a thanks for the help!
     
  9. Touchmint

    Touchmint Well-Known Member

    Oct 19, 2011
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    Congrats on this. Game looks great and Ive always wanted to go to a con so its cool to learn about how it really is.
     

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