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Minutes from April Monthly Meeting 2014
This monthly meeting we discussed PAX, what we learned and what we had done differently. At the same time we discussed some large future plans.
Tentatively, the next Monthly Meeting is scheduled for May 28, 7PM at Awesome Inc. The topic will be IndieCade, which members of Super Soul have attended in the past. If you’re interested in IndieCade, the deadline for regular application is May 15, but there is late registration up until June 15.Things We Should Have Done Differently
This year, waiting to hear back from Indie Mega Booth set us behind. While we didn’t end up getting into the booth, this meant that we ended up purchasing a booth around a month and a half before the convention occurred. This set us back seriously both in fundraising efforts, booth design and construction, as well as in getting some of the important facets of the set up underway.
Next year, we need to plan for more buttons. OnlySlightly had 500 buttons, but effectively ran out Saturday. RunJumpDev had a few thousand and ran out Saturday, Frogdice had 2 or 3,000 and came home with only 100 buttons. No one “passed out” buttons, but rather left them on the tabletop, but they were quickly gone. Flyers for RJD were also quickly consumed.
An issue with booth construction arose where it was unclear that Zen Garden and My Old Kentucky home were there. The back of the booth appeared to be storage, though it was used. Consideration for further conventions is to try and move the booth so that those games are more visible, which would cut down on space, or adding features (lights, signs) that would make it more clear to people that there are games back there. Tom suggested large lighted arrows above the location of each game, adding a visual element while also incorporating light and interest. Putting storage underneath was also discussed, since misplaced items almost overheated Shylo’s computer.
Being backed up to a merchandise booth was also an interesting experience, as occasionally merchandise fell through the curtain between, and there were occasional collisions where merch employees would run into people from the RJD booth. There was also a conflict in that they were playing music most of the show that drowned out a lot of the audio in games, though we found out after the fact that if we had asked nicely they would’ve turned off the music.
Merchandise was unsuccessful across the board, with the exception of Frogdice which had a pretty successful weekend selling their $5 game Reignmaker. The question was raised whether next year RJD should just go without merch? Also whether Super Soul should’ve attempted to sell more cat themed merchandise, which was requested.
The app for grabbing emails was mostly successful. In the future, it might be nice to have something that ties the tablets to the table and it would’ve been better to have a few more tablets to gather information.
Frogdice overall enjoyed being in the Indie Mega Booth, but found their space to be a little cramped. They weighed the perks for being in the Megabooth (including high traffic and press) to the space constraints placed on them by the booth.
The media list was also a failing, since we didn’t have access to it until the week of the convention. This meant that the mailers were bulk mailed unsuccessfully to over 700 email addresses. This was not an effective way of communicating and will be done differently in the future.
What Worked
The space size was ideal, with plenty of room for people to come in and play, as well as accommodating the large crowds PAX is known for. The modular element was pretty fantastic, both in transit and in practice. As Tim pointed out, we can literally break this down and use it next year without any significant changes to design or construction. While the painted pipe wore down over time in terms of color, as far as stability and use it was a dream to put up and take down. In fact, Jason changed the modular design and re-used the booth at the Lexicon Board Game convention two weeks later.
To Indie Mega Booth or Not to Indie Mega Booth
This year, Frogdice was the only RJD member to make it into the Indie Mega Booth. The rest of RJD purchased a separate booth near to the Indie Mega Booth, but not a part of it.
Frogdice overall enjoyed the IMB experience, since it afforded them some excellent perks. The TV they used was supplied by an IMB supplier, and they mentioned that the location in the booth afforded them greater publicity and traffic. On the downside, entrance into the Mega Booth was late and it was difficult to plan around getting into the booth. As well, members of the IMB were unable to talk to press about their inclusion into the booth until the week of. Frogdice also felt that they would have preferred a larger booth, which is not available inside the IMB. Despite these downsides, Frogdice said that they were very interested in trying for the Megabooth next year.
RunJumpDev had a great experience with our location, being located about one aisle from the Mega Booth. People were often confusing us with parts of the Mega Booth, and the plan is to go for a location similar next year but to have individual developers apply for the Indie Mega Booth at their own discretion.
Future Plans
Tom has requested that we have a big Lexitron meeting to discuss future plans for the Lexitron, and for corrections to the machine. There were also some discussion of having the Lexitron game creation jam, which Leonard is potentially interested in spear heading.
There is also the upcoming Sigma Play convention that Super Soul is attending. There is still time to get your ticket, and it’s heavily focused on developers. The convention is situated out of Indiana, and will be Friday and Saturday.
There was also some discussion of the “We Make Games” convention. Last year there was a small event featuring local developers that we held at West Sixth Brewery. This coming year, we’re hoping to hold a larger multi-day convention for developers and local gamers. Still called “We Make Games,” this event would be held in Lexington and would feature some local and some of our networked game developers, as well as a potential Friday industry speaker. We will be working on more information about the convention as it nears.
