Thoughts from a First Time Self Publisher Part 33: PAX Unplugged Part 3.

Happy New Year! This week, I’ll be sharing stories from other Indy Publishers who ran booths at Pax Unplugged. Thank you Isaac, John, and Mathue for sharing your insights and stories! If you find these blogs helpful, please consider subscribing to get them in your email. If you want to keep up with Galen’s Games, I also have a monthly (sometimes bi-monthly) newsletter you can subscribe to here.

Best Part of my week (so far): The Super Snipers pre-production copies showed up!! You can check out an unboxing video here. I will have more to share about this end of the self-publishing process soon!

Most stressful part: Shoveling snow? In all seriousness, I have a ton of things I’m trying to accomplish this year and it may be a bit too much.

PAX Unplugged Continued…

I asked some Indy Publisher Friends to share their experiences from Pax Unplugged. Let me introduce them quickly:

John De Campos, is a game designer, publisher, artist, and musician from the Baltimore area. He runs Terrible Games along with a small team.

Matthue Ryan is a designer and publisher out of Las Vegas. He runs Envy Born Games.

Isaac Hirschfield is a game designer working towards launching his first Kickstarter in 2024. The game he is launching is called: Arbor Falls and his company is Montage End Games.

I asked them the following Questions:

Was this your first Pax Unplugged?:

John: This was my 4th time attending pax and the 3rd time I have run a booth.

Isaac: It wasn't my own booth, but I had a table in another company's booth. This was my first time exhibiting my own work at a booth , but I had previously been a volunteer demo person for Good Games Publishing and Tabletop Tycoon

Mathue: This was my first PaxU convention where I had a booth.

What were your goals for Pax?

John: This is actually a much asked question amongst publishers and also people who run a board game publishing business because there’s a lot of intangible benefits that come along with attending in-person events like PAX with a very focused audience of people who are keyed up and knowledgeable about the boardgame hobby. Mostly, my rationality for it is that it’s great if we walk out with a profit but especially with Pax Unplugged, it’s a high profile event, so the booth fees and the hotel accommodations all add up.

Isaac: My goal was to get more eyes on my first game design, Arbor Falls. I wanted to try the organic marketing thing to increase the number of people on my email list and get people hyped for my upcoming Kickstarter.

Mathue: Goals for having a booth at Pax Unplugged were to: sell product and make money (at least break even); Marketing/Brand Awareness; Networking; and having fun. 

I also used some time to accept pitches for the Tiny Game Series, as well as meet with some designers I have signed games with to demo play and test out some new changes to games we were working on together. 

How’d you do?

John: We were in for around $3000 and I think we just about broke even. We maybe made a couple hundred bucks. This is expected, but the benefits of being at this event are not about money really. it’s really more of a marketing exercise, and in that respect I think we did really well.

I was able to get some FaceTime with a lot of people I’ve met on boardgame TikTok, which is great as a networking opportunity. These kind of events are great, especially for making those person-to-person connections, because that’s really what it’s about. And that goes both ways, with other publishers, friends you’ve made online with the boardgame design community, as well as people who are just hobbyists who want to see the people behind the games that they’re interested in.

Probably my favorite thing about working these kinds of events is showing our games to somebody in a demo and seeing them get really excited and start to unpack strategy and understand some really cool moments that they might get out of playing our games.

So, as far as goals, I mean, selling games is what it’s about but you’re usually selling those games against a big upfront cost, so you’re selling them to recoup costs, but moreover you’re selling them to get more games onto more tables. Moreover, it’s about visibility; It’s about sending a message about our companies presence within the industry and it’s also about enjoying the convention and being around other board game nerds.

Isaac: I did very well. I added over 90 people to my email list, and added 50 follows on my Kickstarter page. But most importantly, I had a near 100% of those that demoed Arbor Falls say they would buy the game immediately if it was already available. It was a wonderful feeling to have so many people like my first game and it reignited my excitement to finish my project.

Mathue: The event was great overall, I think I could have better prepared. For example the first day of the convention I was in booth alone, which turned out to be a horrible idea. I missed the opportunity to speak with many people, because there is only so much 1 person can do in a 10x10 booth. I was completely swamped after that day and my voice was torn up bad.

Moving forward I will make sure I have help every day of a convention.

I also changed up my booth layout after the 1st day to something that worked much better for Saturday and Sunday. 

What takeaways would you want to share with an indy publisher considering getting a booth at PAX Unplugged?

John: I think my take away is that if you have a game you feel really strongly about that’s unpublished, and it’s your first time release, sinking cost into an event like PAX - where you’re not able to recoup your cost by selling anything - is certainly a gamble. But I’ve seen a lot of indie publishers take that route, where they get a 10 x 10 booth, they dress it really well, they create a visual presence, and they just run demos in the booth space and collect emails. I also saw some this year that gave away like a PAX specialty pack, where they gave you stickers and a pin, and they were also collecting pledges for a campaign that was live while they were at PAX.

There’s a lot of different ways to utilize the number of people and the visibility that you get in an event like Pax Unplugged, you just have to be smart about how you do it, and really weigh your resources against the cost of being there. Now, if you have inventory to sell it’s a little bit different. Just keep in mind that, yes, you do want to sell as much as possible, but there are other benefits to being at these events and the thing that can be tricky is that the market is fully saturated at something like this, and people are very discerning about how they spend their money, especially considering how they’re gonna transport the things they buy back home. There’s just a ton of variables that come into play in how people are gonna spend their money. Projecting how much you’re gonna sell, unless you have a really, really hot game, is going to be tricky, and you kind of have to accept the idea that you might take it on the chin when you work an event like this.

Isaac: Demoing for another company previously gave me a lot of insight into how it works. There's a lot pieces involved that I wouldn't have considered if I hadn't seen it. Such as helping booth setup; I had helped rearrange the setup 3 times until we found the best layout and WHY it was the best layout. I learned what the right balance to entice people into my booth without being too pushy. I saw a big glimpse into the background of the board game industry and how it works. So, what I'm saying is, demoing and helping with setup/teardown for another company helped me be prepared for my own project.

Don't neglect networking. Playtest other designers games. Volunteer to help others. Engage with the community. Other than it's fun to interact with people in our niche industry, connecting with others will open doors for you. I didn't get approved for my own booth at Pax Unplugged, but through my network, I found a publisher that was willing to give me space at their booth. Seek advice and humbly receive it, and give help when you can.

Last bit of advice, show people how excited you are for your projects. When you get your booth, make it your space and invite people in to see how much passion you've created. Be genuine in your excitement and your audience will be genuinely excited.

Mathue:  I often Air BNB with other publishers and designers which helps save money on cost of attending conventions. I usually try and get something within walking distance so I can get fresh air each morning on the walk in. 

I also coordinated having product sent to my families house which is 45 minutes from PaxU. This also helped me save money, as there are a lot of fee's associated with sending product directly to a convention and having people receive it and deliver it to your booth. 

If you have a friend or family member near a convention, consider this option as a way to save money. 

Make sure you have comfortable shoes for the show, my feet were totally spent by the end of the day. Also, bring cough drops, you are going to be talking a lot and you will lose you voice. (I recommend Ricola cough drops, they are my favorite)

Make sure you have some water and snacks in your booth, or maybe someone who can run off an grab stuff for you as needed. The first day I didnt have anything and got super thirsty and hungry by the end of the day. 


Well, that’s it for this week. I hope you found this useful. I may have more of these to add in a future blog. Thanks for reading!

Galen.