[GenCon Oz 2008] continued (split)

[muddlepud]

Currentlly looking at something along the lines of Option 2 - Indie games showcase using the title Indie Games Explosion.

Andrew and I spoke the other day about what we'd like to try for the event and I'm emailing the GenCon Oz people about the proposal.

[Peril Planet]

All good.  As I said in my PM, I am going to have to do a bit of the dodgy at work to get up to Brisbane for the whole con, but I am keen. 

With some further thought, as well as one of my own games (Space Rat, or my new project, perhaps) I could run Vs Monsters, maybe Esoterrorists or one of its variations and... mmm... the choices are too many.  I wouldn't mind doing a super-hero game, and a pulp game - just a matter of which ones.  Further suggestions are welcome!

My menu might look like;

Space Rat OR  My Kingdom for a Hero
Vs Monsters OR Trail of Cthulhu
Spirit of the Century OR Two Fisted Tales (any other pulpy suggestion?)
Earth AD OR Faery's Tale
Something super-hero-y (suggestion?)

Actually, I like the idea of a kiddy friendly game like Faery's Tale.  Any other suggestion for a game aimed at a younger audience?

- Nathan

[Vulpinoid]

I've put in my official entry to launch my game "The 8th Sea" at GenCon Oz...nothing like giving yourself a hard and fast deadline to make sure your work gets finished.

I submitted it a week ago, but haven't heard anything back yet.

But as I said, I'm definitely still up for helping out with any other Indy games...

V

[Andrew Smith]

Spirit of the Century OR Two Fisted Tales (any other pulpy suggestion?)
Something super-hero-y (suggestion?)

I'm going to offer SOTC at one of my small list of games.  Unfortunately I don't have the same selection of games from which to choose.

As for the superhero one, have you considered With Great Power?  Haven't played it, but after hearing an interview with the author I have to say that it sounds like a good challenge for the players.

[Andrew Smith]

I've put in my official entry to launch my game "The 8th Sea" at GenCon Oz...nothing like giving yourself a hard and fast deadline to make sure your work gets finished.

What's your game about?

[Andrew Smith]

OK, so the IGE event has been submitted (by Mr Muddlepud - thank you sir).  I'm going to write this from memory, so leap in and correct me if I start typing lies.

The basic format is that we intend to run three sessions (Friday night, and two during Saturday) with up to three GMs hosting indie games.  Players can come and collectively choose which game they want to play from the list of games offered by the GMs.  At least, that's the plan.  muddlepud tells me that he will be working on some clever looking menus for each GM involved, so it should look schmick.

Does that sound right to you, mud?

[muddlepud]

A slight correction:

3 sessions per day on the Friday and Saturday with 3 GMs available to run in each session. Sessions are 10am - 12pm, 1pm - 5pm, 6pm - 10pm for those days.

Once the game is confirmed, I'll collect the game list for the menus from our GMs and start working on something.

I also found some flyers/cards for IPR I'll be able to bring along to help push indie games. I grabbed them last year when I was at GenCon Indie.

[Andrew Smith]

Cool.  Thanks for the correction.  That looks like a nice, meaty set of sessions.

[Vulpinoid]

What's your game about?

Sorry I hadn't responded sooner...work, study, preparation to make sure everything looks reasonably professional when it gets launched...

The game is an epic adventure of swashbuckling time travellers, where anything can (and often will happen).

At it's core the game runs in 5 acts, with a number of scenes per act equal to the number of players. Everyone gets their share of time in the limelight, and while other characters are in the limelight, other players take the role of assistant GMs and help to convolute the storyline in new and interesting ways. Players are rewarded for making things difficult in the story, characters are rewarded for getting through those complications.

It going through hefty playtesting at the moment...(there should be a few more threads coming up on the playtesting part of the forum shortly).

V

[Andrew Smith]

Swashbuckling time travellers?  Got to be good.  Every buckle needs a good swash now and then.

[Andrew Smith]

So it's been quite some time since any information about this was posted.  I just wanted to drop a line in to give a list of the games that will be available.

Primetime Adventures
Dust Devils
Cold City 
With Great Power
Hero's Journey 
Spirit of the Century
Don't Rest Your Head
Agon
Nobles - (just a playtest for my own game, really)

This is an incomplete list, however.  When I get final lists from the other GMs, I'll post them up here.

[Peril Planet]

I will be offering;

InSpectres
Og
Vs Monsters / Vs Outlaws
Space Rat

(I think Scott has this list already)

I think the list of games is shaping up to offer a pretty good variety of games / genres and play styles.  Cool.

- Nathan

[Andrew Smith]

Just in case anyone is still watching this thread (with only three days left before the con), don't forget to check out a couple of seminars on indie games.  There's Steal This Trick on Thursday night, and another yet-to-be-announced seminar on publishing your games, tentatively scheduled for Sunday afternoon.

[Andrew Smith]

Now that Gencon Oz is over, I wanted to post a summary of sorts. Now, although most of this forum is accustomed to a Gencon that has tens of thousands of attendees and a programme guide thicker than a phone book, our version is nascent and our population is less than 10% that of America's - so please take this in the spirit of celebration it was intended.

Also, to save me some typing, I'm going to cross post this on a few forums.

The first Gencon Oz was, for indie games, a good experience. We had games from Australian designers being launched, we had seminars on indie game play and design, and we had full registrations for all tables of the Indie Games Explosion. Best of all, the organisers are enthusiastic about our contribution and are keen to give us more space for larger events in 2009.

And now for some details.

Seminars
There were two seminars for indie games across the four days. The first was on Thursday night, with a panel of Nathan Russell, Michael Wenman and Robin Laws (and I got to be MC for this illustrious group) and the topic was "Steal This Trick - The indie games you should play at least once". For an hour the panelists spoke on the topic and took questions from the audience.

The second one was in the last day of the con, and wasn't actually advertised in the programme, but we still managed to get people to come. It was intended to be a session on indie game design, primarily with the guys who were launching games, but we turned it into a Game Design Roundtable as was done at Dreamation. Two games were thrown on the table and dissected by the assembled group. Both of the designers set themselves goals to have ashcans ready in six months, in time for Melbourne's Arcanacon.

Indie Games Launched
Michael Wenman came up from Sydney to launch The Eighth Sea, his game about time-travelling pirates with a penchant for making money from temporal disturbances. He ran two or three sessions every day, and was fully booked (and over booked!) for each one. The pre-orders list grew quite well, I hear.

Nathan Russell decided to only run his game - Space Rat - through the IGE, and was handsomely rewarded. I sat in on an hour of one session and enjoyed it immensely. Due to a delay in printing from Lulu he didn't have any product to sell, but he handed out stacks of postcards and flyers. He generously left me with one of his few pre-release copies to add to my library. Thanks, Nathan!

Indie Games Explosion
According to the registration table, all sessions were fully booked and even though about 10-20% didn't turn up, we had gamer after gamer approaching us and ask about empty spaces at the table. We estimate that about half of them had never heard of any of the games, and were still keen to play. We also estimate that about two-thirds finished the games and asked, "Where can I buy this game?" Unfortunately, the only thing we could do was point them to the IPR online store. We hadn't really expected people to try and buy these games from us, but they were keen. I would have loved to point them towards one of the retailers, but none of them were carrying indie stock either.

In short, the indie gamer crowd had more demand than supply and the organisers noticed. I suspect that we left our mark partially through the registration database and partially through the periodic visits from Robin Laws, Peter Adkinson and the Gencon staff. I need to give a big thank you to Scott Vandervalk, Nathan Russell and Michael Wenman for bringing content to the con. I also need to point out the great support from Peter Ball and the rest of the con organisers for squeezing a non-standard event into the programme.

And now... go plan the next one.

[Peril Planet]

The con was great, and the IGE reception was awesome.  So many people, so many games, so much fun!  I had a few highlights from the indie games point of view, including;

Running Og as Robin Laws watched on - we chatted later about the virtues of the game for con play.
Running the best game of Space Rat I have ever had in three years of play - expect an actual play soon!
Playing With Great Power, run by Scott (Muddlepud).  I wasn't sure about the system at first, but as the stakes grew it became intense and completely drew everyone in.  The adventure ended with our hero group disbanded and the characters scattered as they searched for ways to come to terms with their failures - and it was awesome!  The best super-hero adventure I have ever been in - and my character never even got into a physical conflict!

While GenCon Oz was tiny in comparison to the US cons, it still had a great buzz.  A bonus to this smaller size was that the special guests etc were very accessible.  I (first time game publisher) spoke on a panel with Robin Laws and chatted with him over coffee (and Andrew got to play Grey Ranks with Robin and Peter Adkison), I ran games for other designers and writers between their seminars and other commitments, and had plenty of chances to see most things (though I didn't get to sit down and demo a couple of intriguing board games).

Finally, Andrew Smith was far too modest in his previous post and failed to mention his contribution to the success of the IGE events.   His Spirit of the Century games were in high demand and all players left very satisfied, from what I witnessed; he worked hard to find local gamers that he could entice back for more indie game goodness in the not too distant future; he did an exceptional job as MC for the "Steal this trick"  seminar and asked some great questions that drew out some interesting responses and debate; and he had the coolest epilogue in With Great Power - will we see the return of Liberty Belle, or is she gone forever?! 

Everyone had a great time running and playing indie games at the con and I think we are all already looking forward to next time!