Anyway, the festival:
No one interviewed me! So I guess I was afraid to contact press, because I'm insecure, I suppose. However, half the reason I went to this thing was for press exposure. So instead of contacting anyone on the press list that was distributed to all exhibitors, I just hoped they'd come by and talk to me. And they didn't. It didn't help that I had the cheapest spot on the top floor in the corner. I wonder if there are parallels to my dating life here.
Admittedly, Saturday night, there was a press/exhibitor 'party' after the convention closed to the public. However, I had been up past 3 am the last two nights working on the game and my stepdad and my 'little brother' (from the Big Bro Little Bro organization) who had come with me and helped me at the convention weren't allowed to go to the event without a special badge, so I just had dinner with them and went to bed. You know, family is more important than career.
Anyway, the response from attendees seemed really good and very similar to the responses I've typically received at live events. It's funny tho that, to me, that the reaction to my game seems about the same, whether or not I fix the bugs. As long as I have the energy to make jokes and be self degrading and as long as there's basic functionality, people enjoy it. So, really, I shouldn't stay up late squashing little bugs, if I know I can just make a joke about it. I've never exhibited any other game than this game, so it's pretty hard to have any kind of reference point for trying to be object (and then there's all the everyday, psychological hurdles of for objectivity lol). It definitely felt good to see people having fun playing my game, especially several families and then the occasional gamer who expressed excitement the moment they realized this game is a Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime-alike. And one of the guys exhibiting at the booth next to me said he loved my game and was very excited to see where it goes and kept coming over and playing. Which, like, it's so simple, but it's such a nice feeling to hear that.
Anyway, there's other details about logistics and the convention experience I guess I could go into that could help others...maybe. But I recently read an article on something that said stop reading articles about how to do something and go and do something. So if you're reading this to figure out whether or not you should exhibit your game at a convention, .... I don't know. I regret not contacting press before going. I don't regret going. I regret my car breaking down a day after.
Right, so. Some news. I quit my day job. I'm going to try to find temporary housing/friends' couches thru the fall in Boston, to stick around Boston Festival of Indie Games (BFIG) on September 23 and also to finish out the BSSL (bssl.com) soccer season and try to help Eagles maintain their spot in the top flight. So I appraised my last house on Friday (it's now Wednesday) and finished up all my reports yesterday. I may receive a report or two back from quality control, and I'm also helping train my replacement, but dudes...I'm pretty stoked.
So now I'm working on the demo for BFIG on September 23rd. This will be a tricky test, because I'll need the game to be able to teach itself, for the most part, since I won't make it to BFIG, because I'm in a wedding. Because friends are more important than career. Also, soccer and dog are more important than career too. Maybe.
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