What we learnt from exhibiting at PAX Australia

PAX Australia was amazing this year.

Given that it’s one week on from the craziness I thought it might be worth sharing some of the lessons we learnt from having the privilege of exhibiting at the event for the first time (in the hope that others may find it useful).

We (Cognitive Forge) were at booth PAX rising 700, exhibiting game “Aura of Worlds” and sharing the booth space with “Heist” and “Grim Balance”.

Despite some mistakes, we ultimately found the experience to be thoroughly worth it.

Business Stuff and Preparations

• First off, don’t leave half you’re business stuff to the last week, it will drive you InSane:
• To avoid additional delivery costs, try and get merchandise sorted days or even weeks in advance.
• We went with Print Locker Custom T-shirts and Dinkums Print & Design for business cards.
• Buttons/badges seem require notice of 1 business week to generate (we missed out).
• Test your equipment and get it tagged at the venue as soon as possible. We found out the hard way that our new xbox 1 controller wasn’t compatible with windows 8 by default).
• Organizing to have a second person help out on each session/borrowing or renting equipment can be chaotic (again, don’t make my mistake and get it done earlier then the last week XD).
• It’s worth having at least 3 people manning the booth (minimum 2 at all times)
• Be prepared for additional processing time and overhead costs (e.g. needing high visibility vests during pack up/leaving).
• Attend as many preparation events from your local game communities (such as IGDA Melbourne) to get advice on how to prepare.

Murphy’s law will always come into play.

• On setup day, a car crashed into the tram on route 55 on the way to the venue, blocking the road (ran to nearest train station)
• There were a few occasions where the equipment shut down without warning due to overheating/disconnected power cord.
• Exhibitor passes cost $130 to replace.
• keeping the booth manned is usually more important then getting extra materials for it.

At the Event

• If your game is considerably complex with a steep learning curve, try and show a trailer loop to polarize players and draw more in.
  Showing people what’s possible in late game levels will encourage more people to join in far more than watching novice players getting lost and struggling.
• Confidence and communication are key, when pitching to players or the media.
• If you suffer from imposter syndrome, put it aside, you’ve spent months or perhaps (like in our case) years part time working on your project.
  The last thing you want is for opportunity to pass you by because you’re not excited.
• Alot of people will indicate that they’re not interested in your project and dismiss it earlier during development
  This can hurt particularly with close friends, heroes and family, but remember that many more will heart emoticon your project to.
  It’s a matter of finding your target audience and getting experience with engaging them.
• Feedback is important. Don’t believe everything you hear, but at the same time it’s one of the best ways you can work out how to improve.
• Keep scope creep to a minimum and focus on business stuff during PAX week (don’t make our mistake or you will lose ALOT of sleep).
• Take breaks and have at least one other helper at the booth at all times.
• Keep an eye out for media badges and try to engage them
• Keep alot of backups of previous builds of your project in case you need to revert.
• If someone stops for a few seconds looking at the screen, it’s usually a good chance to greet and pitch to them.
• Use time off to network, and meet with other developers and catch snippets of the rest of the event. One can see alot of the PAX rising and pavillion indie stands during set up day, without contending with the crowds.

How it went for our game “Aura of Worlds”

So PAX Australia went much better then we hoped:

• On the first day we had about 45-55 players + 4 media badges come to look.
  +had the privledge of meeting journalist Goose from tv show Good Game (which I’m a avid watcher of).
• Second day 55-65 players, 3-5 people with media badges
• Final day about 85 players (+ 6 people with media badges)

On the final day, 2 of those media people took photos and another 2-3 of them filmed us 🙂

I had taken over 270 cards with me to PAX. At the end of the event I was out of media cards (and couldn’t find any spare to give to a Streamer and several exhibitors I met at the end XD)