Indie Games Explosion and Gen Con 07

[Kat Miller]

I posted to story games about this here:

http://www.story-games.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=2404

With this years changes happening at the Forge Booth, a strong IGE presence I feel will help out during this time of transition.

Last years Explosion was a great Success.  The Games on Demand tables worked wonders.  If they are to be offered this year ten I'm going to need volunteers.  I hope to have 5 tables running 12 hours with 2 table custodians working per 4 hour shift.

If you want to run an indie game for the explosion, or would like to run a shift for the GoD Tables I have set up an IGE community Live journal open to the public:
http://community.livejournal.com/ige

thank you,
-kat miller

[Ben Lehman]

Kat --

I'd like to talk with you about ways that we on the sales floor can better support / promote IGE this year.  Would this thread be appropriate for that or would you like me to start my own?

yrs--
--Ben

[Kat Miller]

This thread is open to suggestions

[Nev the Deranged]

Hiya.

I looked over the IGE links, and I'm intrigued. As I mentioned in the GC planning thread, I'd really like to do more gaming this year (including possibly running something). Sadly, I pretty much ignored the IGE thing last year, so I'm curious what a "table custodian" does. Aside from that I'm guessing it's basically dedicated space for running indie games, whether scheduled or on-demand... right? None of the links quite had a breakdown of how exactly IGE works. Unless I missed it? Please point me in the right direction.

Thanks!

[Kat Miller]

Hi Nev,

In a regular registered event game, the GM is the person who collects tickets and fills out con paperwork as well as runs his game.

With the Games On Demand Events, The Table Custodian is the GM for the event.  The Table Custodians need to collect tickets and fill out paperwork as part of the Event.  The thing is you don't decide what your going to run ahead of time, you bring indie games you feel comfortable running.  When people come you take their tickets, and let them choose a game you can run.

People might come with their own GM.  You take tickets from eveyone but the one running the game and get them settled at a table.   When the shift is over you let the next person know what games are currently going on. and put your paperwork and tickets into a provided box.

thats it.

-kat

[Ben Lehman]

I think that the absolute minimum we should be doing is handing out IGE / GOD pamphlets at the booth table, possibly with every purchase, and have a big old sign up for IGE with premium real estate.

What I'd really like to see is many of our publishers doing a half-day of GOD.  So that when people play your demo, and like the game a lot, you can say "hey, come play a longer session with me at GOD."  If you do this, you'll not just be creating customers, but people who will go out and spread the word of your game to their friends, their stores, and their internet sites.

yrs--
--Ben

[Nev the Deranged]

Okay, so basically one could sign up to GM a particular game, in a particular timeslot (an event), or one can sign up to run X, Y, or Z, as requested, on demand.

And on the other side of the table, one can purchase a ticket for a specific event, or a generic ticket that can be used to fill a blank slot in an event or to get in on a GoD.

Got it.

Thanks for the tips, I'll keep an eye on the thread and see what comes up ^_^

[Ron Edwards]

I'd like to promote IGE and the Games on Demand activity very extensively at the Forge booth this year. All suggestions, and with any luck a self-designated point-person, are welcome.

Best, Ron

[iago]

I'd like to promote IGE and the Games on Demand activity very extensively at the Forge booth this year. All suggestions, and with any luck a self-designated point-person, are welcome.

Flyers, with a map, going into every purchase bag at the Forge booth.  Maybe as general handouts.  I like the idea of being able to drop by the Forge booth and pick up a "brochure" that lets me filter the GenCon experience through the Indie Games Explosion, applying the whole Sturgeon's Law principle to the thing.  This 90% is crap; here's the 10% that matters (how to get in on some IGE action, how to find the GOD area, how to get demos of what you want, where else to look on the convention floor for small press publishers that aren't with the booth this year...)

[Ben Lehman]

I agree, largely, that fliers in every bag is a good idea.  In the past, there's been some contention about mandatory flier handouts, but I have no idea if that's an issue or not this year.

Last year, we had too many publishers at the booth, often.  How do we feel about making one of the mandatory half-days a stint at GoD / IGE?  I think that this has the potential to be a really good thing for publishers, it would give GoD a full schedule almost automatically, it would take some of the population pressure off of the booth, and it allows you to ply your good, excited customers by saying "hey, come play this game with me for a longer period of time."  All of these seem like good things to me.

yrs--
--Ben

[Jason Morningstar]

Ben, that's a great idea.  Assuming we'll have the publisher saturation we had last year, I fully support it.  Maybe we could pair it with a white board that indicated which people/games were up at IGE when.  That way you could glance over and tell a customer "hey, Ben's not here, but if you want an extended Polaris demo, go up to IGE right now."

[Ben Lehman]

Ben, that's a great idea.  Assuming we'll have the publisher saturation we had last year, I fully support it.  Maybe we could pair it with a white board that indicated which people/games were up at IGE when.  That way you could glance over and tell a customer "hey, Ben's not here, but if you want an extended Polaris demo, go up to IGE right now."

Jason, that's excellent.  Ron and I were just talking about the flyer problem (no one sees the flyers until they get home from the con) and by having a big, public whiteboard we can totally duck that.  We'll need to have someone each day in charge of keeping the whiteboard updated (preferably someone with neat handwriting), but that's not a biggie.  Plus, it gives us the freedom to cycle people in and out more fluidly, thus keeping things actually *on demand*.

Check this out: "Hey, that was a really fun demo.  If you like, after you buy the game, we can go up to Games on Demand and turn it into a full session."

Ron has some other ideas, which interface with this pretty well, but I'll let him post them.

Kat, how are you feeling about these things?

yrs--
--Ben

[Kat Miller]

These are great ideas.

I really want both the GoD Tables and the IGE events to help out those of you involved with the Booths.

Coordination is going to be important this year since there will be more than one booth involved.  I don't have any solution to this yet.

I like the GoD/IGE pamphlets.  I'll have to check with the GMs to make sure they are all ok with spectators.  That way if the game is sold out (and most of the indie games do) then you could send interested person to watch a game in progress.

I hope the Tables do become a place that people can go to try out a full game after their purchase.

I'm a little uncertain about how many tables we will need.  I'm asking for 6 because last year we spread out to 5.

I'm open to any ideas that will make the GoD Tables useful as well as fun.

-kat

[Jasper the Mimbo]

I'd like to jump in at this point and say that the _only_ way this works is if the Booth Ninjas and other sales staff know who is available at what time so they can plug it, which means a bit of central planning. On the GenCon thread I posted my desire for a list of the GoD folks' times of availability posted somewhere really easy to see. This seems like a good place to reiterate that.

So in addition to pamphlets to be given out, I'd like some kind of banner/poster/whitebord thing that myself and the other Ninjas can point to and reference. Even if it's small and hung on the back of a book rack, it would be really handy.