[GenCon 2007] Forge Booth Menu

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

Last year I started to work on a booth menu, then Alexander took it over and did an awesome job.  Is anyone up for starting this project again for this year?  Those who used the menu last year, how did it go?  What suggestions might you make to imrpove it?

Peace,

-Troy

[Ron Edwards]

Good point, Troy.

Alexander, I know you won't be at the booth this time around, but are you available for menu construction anyway?

Best, Ron

[Clyde L. Rhoer]

Hi Troy,

I bought quite a few games at the Forge booth last year. One thing that I noticed that really slowed down the exchange of cash for game was the order the games were listed in. I forget if it was in alphabetical order by company name or author name. I think it should be in alphabetical order by game title. Many times the person at the register wasn't sure who the author was, and it could take them some time to find it, whereas if the menu was by game title I imagine they could easily find it. Perhaps break it into sections by letter to easier facilitate quick searching.

Otherwise it was nice to have a list I could take and look at away from the craziness of the booth.

[iago]

If more experienced menu constructors are unavailable, I would be happy to step up and use my layout skillz to put together the Forge booth menu this year.

[jrs]

I strongly encourage two separate handouts.  One should be focused on the new games at the Forge booth--the ones that will be demoed there.  The other should be a basic price list for the IPR stock.  And I agree that organizing the price list to facilitate look-ups would work best. 

Last year there was some confusion because the handout included all games available for sale and attendees were asking for demos that were not available.  The listing did have a notation for the games with demos, but it was easy to overlook.

Julie

[Eero Tuovinen]

If there's really a shortage of layout/graphic workers for the booth, I'd be happy to put together menus and whatever else is needed. But I'm sure that somebody who's going to be there can also take care of this stuff quite handily, so I'm just mentioning this so nothing worthwhile is left undone because everybody is too busy...

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

I strongly encourage two separate handouts.  One should be focused on the new games at the Forge booth--the ones that will be demoed there.  The other should be a basic price list for the IPR stock.  And I agree that organizing the price list to facilitate look-ups would work best. 

We've gotten a few good suggestions here, and Julie's is one of the best, IMO.  The menu that should have priority is the one that lists the games that can be demoed at the booth.  Brennan can weigh in on what he would like for an IRP stock menu if he wants.  Fred, you did an awesome job with my Hunter Rose character sheet and I know you will both have games at the booth and be there yourself.  If it's okay, I'd officially like to put you in charge of making the menu.  Ron can overrule me later if he wants, but I'd rather get this decided now.  It's a pain.

Now that that's done, what do people who are A) going to be demoing games at the booth and B) going to be buying games at the booth want to see on the menu?  Clyde has a good suggestion that they should be aranged according to name, but what else?  What can we add to the menu that might entice people to try and then buy a game?

Peace,

-Troy

[Gregor Hutton]

Just an observation from last year: can we have small price tags that sit on the display racks? I think if they were branded like the menu and had the game title and price that would be really cool and, of course, useful. Something small but clear would be ideal.

[Iskander]

I won't be able to do it again this year, sorry! Too much on my plate right now.

Some thoughts, in no particular order, as advice / warnings / prejudice:

- stick to a content deadline. Game publishers - if you haven't priced your game by the time you need to provide this information, you are a bad person
- don't let the gazillion game design companies suggest that every company should get its own section. It makes life very hard at the till, and for punters - and this document is for punters, not the damn designers
- include details about where to find the GoD and IGE
- Z-fold works just fine
- invest in a couple of bone folders
- arrive on Wednesday, go straight to FedEx/Kinkos in Monument Circle  and be very nice to them

[iago]

I strongly encourage two separate handouts.  One should be focused on the new games at the Forge booth--the ones that will be demoed there.  The other should be a basic price list for the IPR stock.  And I agree that organizing the price list to facilitate look-ups would work best. 

We've gotten a few good suggestions here, and Julie's is one of the best, IMO.  The menu that should have priority is the one that lists the games that can be demoed at the booth.  Brennan can weigh in on what he would like for an IRP stock menu if he wants.  Fred, you did an awesome job with my Hunter Rose character sheet and I know you will both have games at the booth and be there yourself.  If it's okay, I'd officially like to put you in charge of making the menu.  Ron can overrule me later if he wants, but I'd rather get this decided now.  It's a pain.

Now that that's done, what do people who are A) going to be demoing games at the booth and B) going to be buying games at the booth want to see on the menu?  Clyde has a good suggestion that they should be aranged according to name, but what else?  What can we add to the menu that might entice people to try and then buy a game?

I'm up for it. 

While I'm thinking about it, should I grab the Forge logo from the top of the website here, or is there a higher-resolution one I could lay my hands on?

I'll work closely with IPR to get the IPR menu put together.  Actually, to extend the metaphor, I feel like the IPR menu should be done in the vein of the wine list at the restaurant ("we have these in our cellar") with the booth members doing demoing and such on the menu ("these are the dishes we'll be serving this evening").  Bonus points if we can get someone acting as a traffic cop at the booth to wear a tux and play the role of maitre d'.

I'd like each item on the menu to have a few notes (again, like a restaurant menu) about what's included in each "dish" -- basically a one sentence description for each game.  Some sort of iconography for the various "genres" or "types" -- if we're willing to create a taxonomy of them -- might be nice too. 

We're talking about a single sheet of 8.5x11 paper, front and back, being used as the basis for this, yes?  How many menus and wine-lists are we expecting to print up?

[iago]

- stick to a content deadline. Game publishers - if you haven't priced your game by the time you need to provide this information, you are a bad person
- don't let the gazillion game design companies suggest that every company should get its own section. It makes life very hard at the till, and for punters - and this document is for punters, not the damn designers
- include details about where to find the GoD and IGE
- Z-fold works just fine
- invest in a couple of bone folders
- arrive on Wednesday, go straight to FedEx/Kinkos in Monument Circle  and be very nice to them

I was thinking about printing them up beforehand locally, and just chucking them in the back of my car!  Any reason not to do that?  Seems like it'd take some time pressure off, but again, I don't know what the quantities we're talking about are like, here.

I definitely like the suggestions to include GoD and IGE information.

I'd ALSO like to provide information for where to find the OTHER "Forge diaspora" booths, or at least name them as points of interest, like the Ashcan Front, etc.  The Forge should be the first stop of many, the way I see it.

[Brennan Taylor]

The problem at the register last year had nothing to do with the menus at the booth. The register used a different code for each game, and the list provided at the register was not alphabetical. That won't happen this year. There will be a deadline to provide game info for the booth, and after the deadline, it doesn't go in the register and it doesn't get sold at the booth. Ralph was stuck programming the register the week before the con and new games were coming in while he was trying to do it. Not this time.

Regarding the menu, I like all the ideas here, but I think we are going to have a bit of trouble getting all of the games plus a one sentence description on one sheet.

[Paul Czege]

I'll work closely with IPR to get the IPR menu put together.

There will be a small handful of non-IPR games being sold but not demoed at the booth. (see Ron's [GenCon 2007]The plan for this year post for the policy: "And if you have been a long-term participant at the booth and aren't carried by IPR, and if you're at GenCon in any capacity, the booth will have your game on the rack too for no charge beyond IPR's commission, if you desire.") My Life with Master will be one of them. And perhaps Primetime Adventures as well? Presumably these should go on the menu with the IPR titles?

Paul

[iago]

There will be a small handful of non-IPR games being sold but not demoed at the booth. (see Ron's [GenCon 2007]The plan for this year post for the policy: "And if you have been a long-term participant at the booth and aren't carried by IPR, and if you're at GenCon in any capacity, the booth will have your game on the rack too for no charge beyond IPR's commission, if you desire.") My Life with Master will be one of them. And perhaps Primetime Adventures as well? Presumably these should go on the menu with the IPR titles?

Oh, sure.  I was responding specifically to the thing one person said about having the games that weren't represented by in-booth demo folk (at the time, identified as "games IPR's bringing") listed separately.  Really what I see happening is a "contact me with your game listings" process happening where people identify whether or not they'll be in-booth to demo.  If you're demo-capable, you go on the Menu.  If you're not, you go on the Wine List.  IPR will get a chance to add "unrepresented items" it is bringing to the Wine List as well.  I'm also going to ask for notification of the various diaspora booths so we can point people in those directions ("If you liked what you found here, make sure to also visit...") as well.

Regarding the menu, I like all the ideas here, but I think we are going to have a bit of trouble getting all of the games plus a one sentence description on one sheet.

If I am able to produce the menu in sufficient quantities at home before heading out, thanks to Rob Donoghue's help, I should have the capability to build little booklets rather than a single sheet z-fold brochure.

Can anyone give me a quantity estimate on how many menus need to be printed?

[Jason Morningstar]

I'm all for booklets, or any way to increase type size and readability.  I know there's a trade-off there, but if cost is an issue I'd be happy to chip in for something that was, in itself, a compelling and desirable object.  If it became an eight page digest-sized booklet (two pieces of letter-sized paper and some staples), perhaps both the demo stuff and the catalog could be included, along with blurbs about IGE/GOD/WTF etc. 

Maybe that's too much work for a handout, but it'd sure be nice.