As I mentioned in my previous article, this month has been a delicate balance between two projects: on the one hand, I've been working on the demo I described in the previous article. On the other hand, I was preparing POLYPAINT (my game from January) for a trade show in Denver. I spent most of the previous week working on that, so I thought I'd use this article to discuss my experience with the show and my future plans for POLYPAINT.
This is probably as good a time as any other to drop a link to POLYPAINT's official website! Check it out!
Everyone loves free stuff. I started by making some free things I could give out at the show. I made these cool little stickers, which steer people towards the POLYPAINT website and twitter page.
I also made little business cards with the same sort of information on them to hand out during the show.
I also wanted to make people interested in playing my game before they even approached the demo table. To accomplish that goal, I made this big banner, which I hung up high and right behind the demo table. It was hard to miss, and I think the tagline is captivating enough to draw people in and maybe try out the game.
The event was a huge success. People really like the game! Not only were they interested enough to walk up and try it, but most people stuck around for a little while and tried to get as far as they could in the game, which was really encouraging! I spent most of the day just standing near the demo table and answering people's questions about the game and my design process.
I learned a lot from the trade show, too. People were giving me really good feedback for the game. Even when they weren't, it's always useful to watch someone play your game for the first time. You start to pick up on simple things you could improve on or even just remove altogether.
After showing the game at the trade show, I've concluded that POLYPAINT is interesting enough that people will actually be willing to support the game and play it. I think it would be worthwhile to invest more time in it, polish it, add more content, and build up to an official release. So, I'm spending some more time researching what I need to do to market this game.
Thankfully, POLYPAINT is such a simple game that it won't be too taxing for me to follow through. Even if my marketing efforts are a complete failure, I think it will have all been worth it just for the experience, and I know it won't take me a terribly long time to finish the game. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's worth the risk to pursue this game professionally.
There's quite a lot I still have to figure out before I put this game out on the market. I need to learn how to make a trailer, consider crowd-funding options (or whether I even need crowd-funding), look into the various marketplaces I could sell the game in, and buy a copyright for the game. There's a lot to do there, but I think it'll be a fascinating and rich experience to go through.
To wrap up, I'll talk a little bit about this month's demo. It's coming along, but at a much slower pace than the previous monthly projects. POLYPAINT took up most of my development time this May, so the demo I have at the end of the month is probably going to be a little lackluster in comparison. Having said that, I'm still at it, and I'm excited to share what I have when the time comes! Until next week!
-Jay
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