Power of Play 2015 was an amazing opportunity for me to exhibit Bit Ball, the game I’ve been working on for past few months. It happened to also be the first time I have ever exhibited anything that I have created. With no experience going in I was excited to see what I would learn. I’ve settled on three takeaways that I consider the most valuable. These may seem obvious to the veteran exhibitor but they weren’t to me and I suspect may not be to other less experienced exhibitors.
Draw Attention to Yourself
Your goal when exhibiting is to get as many people to play your game as possible. You need to convince people who are passing by that your booth is a booth worth checking out. Quite a few people had giant banners, one group had two monitors anchored up high (I think this was a really good idea), but many others, myself included, didn’t have much other than the screen/device to play the game with.
I noticed something interesting with my booth. I best attracted people when my game was currently being played. Passersby would see the action of the game and stop to watch. Once the current players were done then the spectators would step up to play next. This made me realize how valuable it is to always have action going on with your booth. If no one was playing my game then it usually sat idle at the title screen which does a poor job of attracting people. This isn’t too surprising once I thought about it. Arcade machines never sit idle and will show gameplay clips to entice customers to spend quarters. To avoid any downtime of excitement on the screen, the next time I exhibit I will have a looping video footage of the game playing during the time when there aren’t any active players.
Flag People Down
Luckily this is one I picked up on pretty early on but I think it’s worth mentioning since many of the exhibitors around me didn’t. Attendees at an expo are there to check out games. However many of them appeared hesitant to approach a booth to try out a game. On top of that, many exhibitors were hesitant to step forward and approach attendees. This led to many missed opportunities.
Unless I was attending to someone who was playing my game, I made an effort to pull people into my booth. If someone walked by and looked at the booth I approached them, said “hello” and asked if they wanted to try out Bit Ball. And why not? Most people were thrilled to stop and try the game out. Those who kept walking? I wasn’t going to get them anyways.
Not Everyone Will Like Your Game
During exhibiting I developed something of a test. After I mentioned what buttons did what in the game I would tell the player to press ‘start’ to begin. If the player had to look down at the controller and search for the correct button, I knew we were in for a rough time and there was a very good chance that this person would not have a great experience.
This one is hard because I want everyone to enjoy my game but reality is not everyone is going to. There are all kinds of people who attend conferences and conventions. Some are PC players, some console players, others mobile players, some enjoyed platformers, others puzzles games, some people walking around aren’t gamers at all. Your game will not be a good experience to all of them. As a designer it’s painful, but it’s something you have to realize and accept. There’s no grand solution that I’m aware of but I found myself much happier letting it go.
Overall Power of Play was an incredible experience. I went in knowing very little and came out having learned a lot. I’m looking forward to taking what I’ve learned and applying it to my next exhibition experience where I expect to do even better.
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