Convention Dreams and the Indie Designer

[Dregg]

I was speaking with the Chair of one of the 3 major NJ Conventions and a good point was brought up. I am posting this thread, as basicaly a Info gathering for Con Chairs to get Ideas of what us as Indie Desigers need.

Alot of Cons are reaching out to the Indie Designer. Why? Well unlike our Major Company bretheren, we are easily more recpetive to coming to cons, we run our own stuff, and we are enthuiastic about our product.
For Example if anyone has seen the energy Burning Wheels Abzu puts into his appearances, man you would want him to do demos at your house.

So on that note. Being a Gaming Coordinator/Indie Designer myself and knowing that other coordinators have a great interest in Indie gaming at thier conventions...

What would be the things you would like to see done for Indie Gamers and companies at conventions?
* Free Fan Tables
* Listed As Guests
* Have Special Indie Tracks made up
* Given Hospitalities
* Have a special Industry Party thrown
* Given a Dealers table

I know I-CON and Wild Gazebo are doing some cool stuff for Indie Gaming Programming, specificly focused on promoting the Indie Designers and Double Exposure is more than showing interest as well.

Our time has more than come within the Industry...
Lets get some want lists, I know alot of us coordinators are standing by and taking notes.

[Matt Gwinn]

Though anything that's free or cheeper would be great, I think what would help the most is free press.  Having some kind of article or review in the con program would be of great help in getting indie games some attention.   Online reviews always stir up buisiness, but a lot of con goers don't necessarily read stuff like that online.

Mentioning our games in a mailer would be helpful too.  When I get a flyer for a con, if it lists games at all, it only lists the big name games like D&D, Vampire, Warhammer, etc.  Simply adding indie games to that list with a short description would greatly help.

,Matt Gwinn

[Luke]

Matt has a good point.

I wouldn't dare imply that small press games should receive the same billing as the biggies -- let's face it, listing the major label titles reassures the fan-base and draws them to the cons. But a paragraph listing all of the various small-press and self-published titles that are being played would definitely help. And of course it should be billed as "Try something cool!" or something like that.

Free or cheap stuff definitely helps the small publisher. All we really need to do our thing is a table for a couple of hours. Press definitely helps. But Con organizers should feel like they can ask of the small pubs, too. Personally, I love helping out. Especially to fill dead space in the con schedule -- running games at odd hours is a great way for the con and the game to shake hands.

just my 2¢
-Luke

[Brennan Taylor]

I have had some trouble with getting any exposure from con organizers in the past, but I think that is definitely changing, at least around here. Like abzu, I am more than willing to step up and help with extra sessions at odd times, or whatever.

I think the best thing that can be given to demos is a higher profile. Listing as a special guest can help, because then there is a better chance attendees might have heard of you when they come by the table. Of course, I would never turn down free tables either, if the con organizer wanted to provide them.

I definitely think the indie wave is coming on, at least in the New York area. The cons have all treated me pretty well when I've gone around, and I have never had trouble filling a demo.

[jdagna]

I think attracting small press is a smart move for game conventions.  Having asked people why they pay hundreds of dollars to travel to GenCon, the most common response is "We'll see people we won't see anywhere else."

While a small con certainly can't attract the number of dealers GenCon does, they can easily lure in local indie/small press companies to get that same claim to fame.  If a con gives you access to new games you won't see at the national cons or your local stores, it gives you a real reason to go (beyond just the chance to play).

As a dealer liaison for Dragonflight, we're working on a lot of these things for just that reason.

Anyway, in my experience the most valuable thing I want from a convention is simply a visible location where I can put up signage and sell games and run short demos.  A dealer table is usually the idea solution, especially when the space is big enough to fit a few extra chairs for small demos.

Something else that's useful is accurate demographics information.  I have been to several conventions that said "Oh, we have plenty of role-playing" only to discover that the RPG room is four tables in the back of the hotel with board games spilling over onto two of them.

As for hospitality and parties... I don't really care for those.  The food in hospitality is always sugar-laden so i have to buy actual meals anyway, and parties always happen when I'd rather be demoing or sleeping (since my usual con schedule has me running demos for 13 hours with a couple of short breaks).

By the way, it's my opinion that being labeled indie actually hurts sales.  As a result, if there were something like an "indie room" or "indie track" I would avoid it, even if it cost me short-term.

[M. J. Young]

Let me comment on some of the things I see here, and some other ideas.

Being listed as a guest is a big deal, I think, particularly if the designer is a guest--that is, free admission to the convention. I don't mind doing what I can to help the convention when the convention is clearly working to help me. This past weekend, I did attend a guest dinner which was intended to a) thank the guests for participating; b) give the guests (and staff) a chance to get to know each other a bit better; and c) create an opportunity for a limited number of convention goers (I never found a suitable designation for attendees) to spend some time with the guests. I also stepped up to the call for convention guests to spend a block of time playing board games with other people, and wound up my convention stay with a solid game of Vanished Planet with three con goers. (I also ran the Sunday morning worship service on behalf of the Christian Gamers Guild, which I think a number of convention visitors appreciated, although that was my initiative.)

I disagree with Justin on food. A lot of conventions are held in hotels; the hotel restaurants are usually overcrowded or overpriced or both. I'm at the convention for hours at a time, in an unfamiliar city where driving away from the hotel may mean a major struggle to find my way back and get a decent parking place in a limited amount of time. Knowing that I can get a meal quick and free, or even cheap, is a plus for me. Then, I'm not a picky eater and don't have any major dietary requirements or limitations (can't eat turkey, but that's usually pretty easy to avoid).

It's usually not difficult to arrange demo tables, I think, if the guest simply schedules these as convention events. Anything that can facilitate getting those games scheduled is a plus in my mind. I run rather long demos, and so they work as con events--but providing flexibility such that game designers can schedule demos as events of whatever length best suits them individually is a plus. I note that at ShoreCon all events were scheduled by slots, and all slots were four hours. In contrast, at UberCon when you scheduled an event, you entered when you wanted it to start and when you wanted to end, and if there was an available table for that time period you were so scheduled. That worked well for me, at least.

You asked about free dealer tables. I think that's probably unfair to other dealers--I note that there are people at the convention paying for the opportunity to sell to the convention visitors, and to some degree we're in competition for the same dollars. What I would suggest instead is to help connect people like me to dealers who do have tables and don't mind handling product. I know that if NerdNYC is at a convention, they will have space at their table for Forge-related games (including mine) and will handle sales for me. I don't mind giving a dealer an appropriate dealer cost that enables him to mark up the game for his own profit while still selling it at a convention discount, if I can tell people the game is there and I know it's in sight of anyone passing the table. If NerdNYC isn't there then I've got the awkward job of trying to find someone in the dealer room who is willing to handle my books for me, and if the convention management can facilitate this in any way that's a boon for me without being an insult to them.

Some of the other ideas here are also good. I'm happy to write a piece for a program if asked to do so, to participate on panels such as writers or game design if the con is running these.

In that regard, I think there is value in this for game designers: there will be people at these panels who won't come to your demo or pick up your book, but seeing that the convention regards you as "someone from whom people can learn something" gives you, and your games, a bit of name recognition it wouldn't otherwise have. I could be wrong, but I know that in the few conventions which I have attended I've come to recognize some industry people whose names were just esoterica prior to that whom I now connect in a more palpable way with games.[/list:u]
Obviously the independent game designer can't expect "equal time" with the majors--you're going to have far more events in the major games than in any one independent game. However, anything that conveys the idea that there are good games offered that are off the mainstream, and not weird specialty games only oddballs would find interesting, is going to help.

Thanks for asking.

--M. J. Young