Recently, I did my very FIRST exhibition for a game conference, and I had such a great time! 🙂

It was at Southampton Game Fest 2018, which is right on my doorstep – unfortunately, I only learned about the event a few days before it was happening. At first, I figured I would just rock-up as an attendee (seeing as all I had were a few PICO-8/Jam games) and check out the local Indie Dev scene, of which I was previously unaware even EXISTED! 😮

However, after announcing my guest ticket purchase, I was very kindly “encouraged” by a fellow Indie Developer (Mike Tucker of Bitmap Bureau) to exhibit my PICO-8 games anyway. I’m so glad he did, as this was one of the best “last-minute” decisions I’ve made all year – as I got to meet some great people (and hopefully made some new friends in the process!) 🙂

My setup was VERY basic (I had 2 days people, TWO DAYS… to prepare!), so I went with a very portable setup – most of which I was able to fit into my backpack!

My “booth” setup:

• Raspberry Pi 3
  – (Loaded with PICO-8 and a selection of my games)
• iNNEXT Classic USB Gamepad Retro SNES USB Controller
• VONTAR Air Mouse Remote/Wireless Keyboard –
  – (I got this coz I thought it might be “cool” for my Point+Click games – but, a mouse is still better!)
• Tablet PC
   – (Looping my demo reel of playable games)
• Standard monitor (borrowed)
• Cheap, but good, speakers (again borrowed)

Luckily, quite a few people were attracted to my “Retro/Pixel” style enough to come up and ask about my work. I have to say, it was great to watch complete strangers playing and, more importantly, enjoying my games! A few people even got quite competitive (read: addicted) to getting the highest score – something I’ll definitely be trying to incorporate more in future events 🙂

During quiet periods, I found time to mooch around and check out everyone else’s stands and play some games, including…

• MaoMao Castle by AsobiTech – (An awesome Space Harrier-inspired rush of kitty adrenaline)
• Xeno Crisis by Bitmap Bureau – (A VERY impressive Smash TV-inspired “ALIENS” shoot-em-up)
• Eagle Island by Pixelnicks – (A lovely looking Roguelite/Platformer with lots of character)
• The Mystery Of Woolley Mountain by James Lightfoot – (A promising new Point+Click adventure game)

This was one of the most valuable take-aways from the event, as I got to chat to some incredibly talented Indie Developers, share stories, and learn lots of useful tips.

After the show, a bunch of us headed over to a local pub and had drinks, dinner, and lots of laughs…

Made it to the end of the night. #southamptongamefest @BitmapBureau @StellinaSerpent @small_signs @Liquidream #indieselfie pic.twitter.com/0HviccvqmH

— Asobi.tech #DFuzedGBC 💣🤖 (@asobitech) October 6, 2018

All in all, a VERY good day – hope to do another one soon! 🙂

(Skip to: 40secs, and also 2min 50secs, to catch a brief glimpse of my “stall” and games being played!)