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!)
Great! I imagine having so little time make the nerves to the skin. And of course if the people will understand and like that style. How much people goes there to that events?
Thanks Juan.
Well, this was a local (and relatively new) event, so it’s not a busy as the major events – but then again, you can have more discussions with people. So, it’s all good!