Infographic
Let’s start with a summary in form of this Infograpic:
The Great Wobo Escape @ Digital Dragons 2015
The main goal of our attendance was to showcase The Great Wobo Escape in the Indie Showcase. We were chosen among other 59 indies to showcase our upcoming game for more than 1000 attendees.
From Brno, Czech Republic to Kraków, Poland it is rather a short trip by a car. We have found an accommodation just around the corner which was super convenient! With fine bars and restaurants all around (we have tested one and it was well worth it – Well Done B.B.Q and Burger), we were looking forward to the conference.
Our setup on the spot was simple. A table was available for us in one of the large halls. Two of us pitched and showcased the game, gathering as much feedback and contacts as possible. One of us went to talks and workshops, contacted other indies or just networked.
With over a 110 people playing our game and asking questions, another huge round of testing has been done. We have carefully observed behaviors, concerns, errors, trials, joys and thrills of gamers of various skill. So many players with different gaming backgrounds gave us basically a set of game analytics data, which would we otherwise gather only during a soft launch. He are a few examples:
- See which puzzles are skill defined, which are difficulty-defined and which are controls-defined
- Where to adjust difficulty, how many retries are acceptable and where
- What is the first reaction to controls
In order to entice visitors passing by, we had to be active and approach them. With enough gaming devices, there was always room for 2-3 people to play simultaneously. Here is the list of our equipment (check it out in the gallery):
- 24″ monitor – running 30 sec. trailer in a loop
- 2 notebooks
- 3 game controllers (1x Nvidia Shield controller, 2x Xbox 360 controllers)
- 6 tablets (2x iOS, 4x Android)
- 100 flyers
- 220 business cards
How was our activity during those two days translated into numbers, please look in the previous section. I have prepared a short infographic with the most significant numbers and statistics. One of them is my private statistic about how many indie developers come prepared and how many make last minute (or even on the spot!) bugfixes and builds. It comes with a surprising result…
Conclusion
Positives
Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by the setting, location, program, organization and attendees as well. Let me cover it in more detail:
- Setting & location – the city center of Krakow provided an excellent location to organize such event. Counter-intuitively, there were many parking places near by as well as many choices for accommodation for any budget. The venue has a nice vibe, halls are spacious, catering and coffee was well supplied and delicious :)
- Program & organization – packed 2 days, all went smoothly. Organizers stopped by several time to ensure we have everything needed. Kudos! Keynotes were in high quality and there too many to choose from.
- Attendees – our first contact with the polish indie scene. Not only indies but rather all attendees shared a constructive feedback. We had a lot of technical discussions too. Everyone was well supplied by business cards so we gathered few :)
Negatives
I guess, none for us! We have arrived early Thursday morning (8:15am was early, apparently, as many indie spaces in our hall were not occupied before 10am) to setup our table and luckily avoided the long queue for registration.
What could have been expected is a lot of noise in a huge hall full of people and a speaker giving a keynote. Staying there almost a whole day non-stop, we were drained.
Overall
Was it worth it? Totally! I hope we will be able to return also next year!
If you are interested in any info, hints or tips, just contacts us on info@gamifi.cc or through www.gamifi.cc/contact.
Few useful links & info
Digital Dragons 2016 will take place on 16th – 17th of May.
– Rudo, Dave & Matej
