Gen Con 2023 Part 3

Welcome back! I’ll be wrapping up my discussion about my GenCon Experience in this week’s blog. As a reminder, I listed my goals in going to Gen Con in the last blog:

1. Have fun

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Network

5. Playtest the mint tin games I have in development.

6. Meet all the folks I’ve befriended online over the last 3 and a half years in person.
   

   Networking:

   This was definitely an area that I saw many of my colleagues do a way better job with. I’d originally hoped to set up some pitch meetings for GenCon, but as time got close, I decided to spend my limited time making sure I was as prepared as possible for my Events and for the First Exposure Hall. I had a few publishers in mind for Dog Days, but simply didn’t put in the time and research necessary to set these up.
   
   I had one pre-planned meeting at GenCon: meeting Franchesco from M.O.B., my licensing partner for Super Snipers. We managed to coordinate a meeting spot (no easy task in the chaos of GenCon and with my lack of familiarity of where anything was) and met about a half hour after our initial planned time. I showed him Super Snipers, Dog Days, and my Mint Tin series of games to get his feedback both in terms of licensing and retail (he runs a game store in Italy). I’ll share a quick summary of his feedback, in case it’s useful for anyone else, or if you’re curious:
   
   Super Snipers: He thought the game looked great, was unique, and looked like a lot of fun, but relayed that the price point along with it being a 2-player game made it a hard sell for retailers in Europe. He discussed some of the components changes he would consider to help get the game to a $5 manufacturing cost and a $25-$30 MSRP. Followers of this blog know that the price point is the area where I think I made my biggest mistake with Super Snipers, and I was not too surprised to hear this. Bottom line take-away: you can get away with boutique quality, higher priced games on Kickstarter, but retail (especially outside of America) has expectations relating to player counts, game weight, and box size, that need to be adhered to if you want in on those markets. If I am ever in a position to do a reprint, I will strongly consider doing a cheaper “retail version” of the game.
   
   Dog Days: He saw a lot of potential for this game. He strongly suggested that the simplest form of the game (the “family mode”) be the way the game is presented, with the ability to increase the complexity added afterwards. At the time, my approach was to show the “full” game and then have call-out boxes in the rules explaining how to simplify the game for Family Mode. In conversations with him and others, I’m realizing that his approach is very good advice if I want to reach a larger market. He also said that I want to shoot for the “basic” version of the game to be around $30 MSRP.

   Mint Tin Games: I had to rush through these. He thought the ideas were very clever and that my target price points were good.
   
   I also had a loose plan to catch up with Eric Alvarado of Talon Strikes Studios, as he will be publishing a game of mine and Tanner’s. Tanner and I both managed to catch up with him and see him demo the very good looking Salon de Paris. Eric is a great guy and anyone could learn a ton from just watching the way he teaches his games.

   Accidental Networking:

   I met a bunch of other designers during GenCon. I spoke with a number of manufacturers while in the First Exposure Hall. And I even got to pitch Dog Days on my flight home!
   I ended up seated next to a woman who does marketing for Explosm games on my flight back. She struck up a conversation with me when she overheard me talking to our other seat mate about GenCon. We had a great conversation and she asked if I had any games I was pitching and I left her with the Sell Sheet for Dog Days. Nothing back so far, but who knows?
   
   Final Thoughts on Networking: I’m perfectly happy with how I spent my time at GenCon, but I realize just how much opportunity there is to meet and make connections with the appropriate amount of planning. I will get clearer on my goals and more proactive about setting up these meetings next time.

   Mint Tin Games:

   I brought along prototypes for all four of the Mint Tin Games that I’m planning to publish next year. I managed to get in a few tests of two of them with my friend, Tanner Simmons, but didn’t get the others to the table. I had thought that Mint Tin Games that play in 20 minutes would be the perfect thing to bring to a convention. What I found was that designers with higher player count games, had way better chances of getting things to the table as they were able to accommodate different group sizes (mine are all 2-players).
   
   

   Meeting my Friends:

   This was the highlight of the convention for me. Levi Robertson was my primary convention buddy as we were in the same hotel and often headed in and out of the convention together. I also got to spend a good amount of time with a co-designer and friend, Tanner Simmons. Besides those two, I had the opportunity to meet: Thyyen Taa, Dave Beck, Matthew Kambic, Stefan Barkow, and Chris Stone in person. I’ve worked with all of these folks virtually for a while now and it was great to see them and their games IRL. I also met Mathue Ryan, Wes Woodbury, and Koltin Thompson.
   
   Well, that will wrap it up for my mini GenCon blog series. I have a ton of self-publishing (the usual focus of this Blog) updates and news to share next time.
   
   Galen