On Boothing


I set up and ran my first booth showing a few days ago at PAX 2012.

First, some history. I wasn’t expecting to have a booth. About a month before PAX, a booth spot unexpectedly opened up. Andy Nguyen at Pocketwatch Games (Monaco!) informed me of this and helped me nab it.

I’ve demoed on a show floor a few times before, but at those times, the show provided me with a free station, table, computer, signage, the works. This PAX was my first time planning, buying/creating the materials, and setting up my own booth area. I’m fortunate to have been supported by the soft cushiony hands of the Indie Megabooth - they made the experience very streamlined and clear.

Great, I now had a 10’x10’ booth spot, ready to show my new game Quadrilateral Cowboy. Now I needed to figure out what I just signed myself up for. In a few weeks.

Booth

A few weeks later, I found myself in Seattle setting up my booth. Tying up banners and wrangling computers very much had a Little Rascals “c’mon guys, let’s put on a show!” vibe. The always-amazing Ben Esposito and Marc Nguyen helped me set up, and the likewise-amazing Caleb Bladh helped me demo the game during the show.

Here’s how the Blendo booth ended up looking:

It was a basic setup, and it worked well. People were able to enjoy the game, I met great folks, and I witnessed what playtesting-on-steroids looks like. Quadrilateral Cowboy had a good showing, and I’m looking forward to doing more shows.

With the niceties out of the way, let’s get into the nitty gritty.

The Nitty Gritty

At the close of each day, I wrote in my notebook on how things went. This resulted in my list of “things I need to do differently next time”, mixed with idle observations:

In closing, one last thing: it’s been so great to be part of this group of independent developers. Everyone was so supportive, and my booth neighbors Gaslamp Games, Vlambeer, DrinkBox Studios, and Fire Hose Games couldn’t have been more gracious.

Long live the Indie Megabooth.