Advice for Independent Games Festival Finalists
Last year Lux was one of finalists selected for the 2005 Independent Games Festival. I got to go to GDC and show Lux off to everyone there. Even though no awards were actually won by me, it was awesome.It was the first GDC/IGF I had ever been to, and I went in without very much knowledge about what was going down or how I should prepare. As this year's GDC rolls around next month I thought it would be cool to write up some of my experiences/advice for any IGF finalists. So here's a random collection of thoughts, memories and tips:
Business cards are a must. I think I ended up distributing somewhere between 100-200 to people. I also took to laying out a sheath of business cards on my booth. This was good because it was less handing out for me and it covered times when I was away from the booth. Some nominees went all out and brought little plastic business card holders for theirs as well as another card holder saying 'leave a card'.
In fact, you can pretty much decorate your booth as much as you want to. Some people printed up info sheets about their games and were distributing them as mini press packs. Probably a good thing to have if you want more press (and you're crazy if you don't). The booths they gave us had enough room to attach some small posters. Putting such things up makes a booth stand out more amongst a row of 10 of them. I had no Lux posters, but was happy to put up an "Indies Unite!" flyer for gametunnel.
The setup might not be the same this year (as GDC switches cities again), but they will probably reuse the same booth segments, since I saw them in pictures from 2004 as well. Last year they gave us booths along with a monitor, keyboard and a mouse. We had to bring along a computer to hook up and display our game. I only had my laptop with me. I unhooked it whenever I left the building. There were a few booths where the computer was hooked up all night and available for people to check out during off hours. There wasn't really any locks on the setup, so I wouldn't do that with a computer that was irreplaceable (like my lonely laptop).
Something to note is that there will very likely be times when you are away from your booth. There are lots of interesting sessions going on every day at GDC, and you can't go while tending the booth. I was the only Sillysoft Games representative there, which made this worse. Bringing as many people as possible with you is helpful, so you can switch off booth manning duties.
Lux has a few rules you have to learn the first time you play, and nobody who stops at an IGF booth wants to go through a tutorial. So sometimes I would pass some time by just playing Lux myself. Usually you'll get some people who stop and watch while you demonstrate and show off some of the cool parts. After a bit you can introduce yourself to the watchers as the creator and network or whatnot.
Whenever near people around the IGF and at GDC, don't be shy in introducing yourself. If there are specific people you'd like to talk to then try to seek them out and make contact. I made a point of going through the list of exhibitors in the expo section and then walking around and talking to every one that I was interested in. The press people had a "press" ribbon on their badge, so I tried to give demos to as many of them as I could if they were nearby the Lux booth.
As I write this, I wish I had a nice picture that included my booth from last year to post along with this text. So I guess I also advise you to take some nice pictures of your setup for posterity.
So there's my stream of consciousness on the topic. Hopefully somebody will find it useful. Good luck in the IGF!
| Posted by dustin on February 18, 2006 with category tags of shareware games |
Written by dustin
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