Gen Con 2023
Wow.
I have a lot to say about my first Gen Con experience and this may take more than one post. As always, these blogs are geared towards folks in or entering the world of self-publishing, but game designers in general should get something from it!
The Plan:
As a new publisher with nothing to sell yet, it didn’t make sense to have a booth presence at this con. My goals for GenCon - in no particular order- were as follows:
Have fun
Run how-to-play events for Super Snipers with the dual purpose of showing off the game to current backers and gaining new backers/ spreading the word.
Run Playtests of Dog Days in the First Exposure Playtest Hall. The goal being to see how the game plays with specific audiences and also to start spreading the word.
Network
Playtest the mint tin games I have in development.
Meet all the folks I’ve befriended online over the last 3 and a half years in person.
So, how did I do?
Fun:
This was my first time at GenCon and also my first time at a convention of this magnitude. On the first day I felt completely overwhelmed. I spent the first couple of hours just walking in circles and trying to get my bearings. There is just so much going on! I was eventually able to locate all the spaces I needed to know (Playtest Hall, where my events were, where I would be meeting folks, etc).
Once I was able to meet a few friends and settle at the stadium for some games, the fun truly began. There are a million and five possible things to do at GenCon and one could certainly try to squeeze all the juice possible from the experience; but I’m not sure that would be the way I would want to do it. I took what I thought would be a leisurely approach to the Con: About 13 hours dedicated to “work”, no planned events, no “games I have to buy while I’m there”, and lots of plans to meet up with friends and play games. I think it worked out alright!
I was able to jump in on one event. It was a giant sized version of Tsuro using huge interlocking tiles and our own bodies in place of the dragons. It was hilarious, fast, and fun. I may do more events in the future, but think I made the right call in leaving myself open space (which I had no issue filling!).
Kudos to everyone willing to wait in the lines and brave the Exhibit Hall every day. It wasn’t for me.
While there are many singular moments of fun (many of which will be detailed later), the two things that were by far the highlights for me were: 1) Sharing my games with new people and watching how much fun they were having) and 2) Spending real life time hanging and gaming with the good friends that I’ve met in this industry.
Super Snipers Events:
I brought 2 fully updated prototypes of Super Snipers with me and ran 4 one-hour events on Saturday where I taught 2 pairs of players the game at once. Registering to run events was a fairly simple process and I had no issue with my events selling out quickly.
There was some slight confusion with the ticketing system as it appeared I was overbooked for one of my sessions, but I was ultimately able to fit everyone in with a slightly staggered teach (which was challenging!).
For my teach, I ran a slightly modified version of what I’ve been doing up until now that gradually introduced the concepts while getting into the action as quick as possible. It went perfectly and everyone was able to learn and finish their games within the hour (usually faster). Besides the folks I taught, I had many conversations with passerbys, who took pics or scanned the QR code.
About half of my participants were backers, which was super rewarding. People left EXCITED for this game, which was very validating. I’ve seen late pledges post-Gen Con from non-backers as well.
What I did Well: Gen Con is massive and crazy. A 1 hour event is more safely thought of as 40 minutes of actual face-to-face time and you need to make the most of it. Adapting my teach to be more like a video game tutorial -where you start playing very quickly and concepts get introduced as you master previous concepts- was definitely the right move and helped everyone have a great time. I also regularly checked in “Any questions?” “Everyone’s brains still okay?”, etc. Choosing to run two games at once certainly added to the challenge, but also doubled the number of players I was able to get to the table.
What I Would do Next Time: I had an 8.5x11 print on a stand with my game and a QR code. Combined with the game on the table, it did an okay job of attracting attention. I should have invested in a larger banner. Definitely will for next time. I also wish that I was set up to easily take emails or pre-orders along with some sort of incentive for doing so.
Final Thoughts:
What Events are Good For:
1) Connecting with Backers
2) Providing full play experiences and generating interest.
What they aren’t good for:
1) This is not an efficient way to make sales or build an email list. Demos at a booth are a better fit for this as you will interface with way more customers. Interfacing with 14 potential customers in 4 hours is not an efficient way to make sales or build an email list.
2) Playtesting. I’ve used events for playtesting at my local con, but Gen Con events seem geared towards opportunities to be taught and play finished games. There is certainly opportunity for some feedback and - of course - observing players for data, but the focus is on them having a good time, not playtesting.
That’s it for now, I’ll have a Part 2 next week. Thanks as always for following!
Galen.
