You Suck at Showcasing Your Game

[@VestinVestin]

"That game saw at the convention was so cool... As soon as I get home, I'm going to... wishlist it and wait for a sale."

[@CrossoverGameReviews]

In that case, you charge double for your game on release and when the sales come, you lower it by half.

[@Kohdok]

Just spitballing here...what if...you put your game on sale the same time as the event you're at?

[@shelbyherring92]

@@Kohdok If it's on a PC platform marketplace like a web store or Steam, that'd be doable. Like a flash sale... Then again, still relies on the marketing.

[@SilverAura]

@@shelbyherring92 Unless Valve changed something, that's not so easy. You're not allowed to take part in any sales events if you recently changed your price or released.

[@quantumperception]

I don't know when was the last time I bought a steam game not on sale. Maybe if it's super cheap, like $5, but games that are $10 or more, I wishlist it and wait for a sale. My birthday is around the summer sale, so between that and Christmas, I will get a bunch of cash as gifts (or steam credit) so I will end up buying like 6-8 games for $80-$100. Other than that, it is occasional buys, when a 30-40 buck game is on sale for 10-15 bucks.

[@P.T.S.E.]

Not really what I was expecting from the title, but a very useful presentation. I'm not in the game industry, but I do conventions every year, so let me add some points from experience: - Comfortable shoes over fancy ones. A sitting exhibitor is a bored exhibitor presenting something boring. So be prepared to stand a lot. If you are tired, go further away from your booth to sit. The same applies for using your phone for personal stuff. - Bring extension cords and splitters are a must, as there are never enough power outlets. The same applies to hotels. - Never plan your booth down to the millimetre, as they are temporary structures, so the corners are not always 90 degrees or lengths and widths can often be shorter than planned for. - Bring cleaning supplies. People love to touch everything, especially screens and prints on hard surfaces. Also, if you have your own decor, it often gets dirty during transport. - Bring small, hard candy or glucose tabs. As you are going to talk your tongue off, your mouth will be dry as a desert. The best way to get yor saliva generation going is to suck on some candy. Prepare different flavours as you will get tired from the same taste fast and they need to be small, so it doesn't affect your speech or they are easy to shallow. Candy will make you thirsty, but you will still drink less than relying only on water. It also have the bonus of dealing with bad breath. - Always take the long way to the toilet and try to take different route each time. Attending to a booth will make your world shrink without you realising, making you tired faster. Walking around will free up some of the stress. Also if you have a printed shirt, you are a walking advertisement. - Always have a promotional material in your hand. You will flail around less while you speak and offering it as a gift at the end of your presentation will add a positive reinforcement. People will also often approach you to ask for it, presenting you with an opportunity to hook them. - Lastly: don't smile all day like an idiot. It will not only make your face cramp up, but it will make anything you say seem fake. Also if you stand around and smile all day, people will avoid you as if you were a creapy clow.

[@mattsharp6708]

One big tip I can offer to everyone is to make yourself a convention box. I used to grab my power strips, phone chargers, duct tape, etc. from my house every time I went to a convention. Spend a little extra money to get duplicates of all those things that are ONLY for conventions and put them away in a convention kit. It's also nice to put an inventory list inside the kit to just verify you have everything you need. This is also good to remember to get the things that you can't just get 'convention duplicates' for (i.e. a laptop or TV). Fantastic talk. This stuff is so important for people to hear.

[@phodaOG]

This dude is GREAT at talking. Such good presentation, everything had sense and structure, there were no boring parts. GJ!

[@bagandtag4391]

To get people to your booth you can pay someone to stand near it and tell everyone "This game sucks, it's so bad it's hilariously bad." so they try it to have a laugh, then after they discover how glorious your game is they go and tell this person that they're full of shit, so they get in a fist fight. This fist fight will attract a lot of people and you just have to persuade one of them to play your game (You can pay them/get in a fist fight with them too, this strategy is incredibly adaptative).

[@convolution223]

i like the way you think

[@warpzone8421]

Just give out convenient pocket-sized blocks of wood with instructions on them so con-goers can punch themselves in the face.

[@jamesgrimwood1285]

Don't forget to give out free Steam keys for the survivors. Or "Free steam key for every missing tooth" to add that competitive edge.

[@NeverduskX]

Forget the booth - just set up a boxing ring!

[@mamamia4642]

Lmao savage af😂, it works?

[@김김-e2l]

This might be super helpful for just-began indie game teams. Thank you for sharing.

[@johnfriscia1731]

I'm blown away by how useful this presentation is! Thanks so much for it! My brother and I are working on a SNES-inspired game that uses JRPG combat mechanics for its core gameplay, so it's not very flashy/action-oriented. Do you think a game like that still has a chance of garnering attention at a gaming event, or should we not even bother and stick to online marketing etc.?

[@jamesgrimwood1285]

I like the idea of a "Convention mode" for the game. I imagine that would lock out most of the game's menus, stop people exiting completely and also subtly tweak the gameplay to make it easier/harder/faster whatever is needed to make the player not put the controller down after 30 seconds. I'd leave that in the final game too, maybe as an unlockable bonus or "arcade" mode. Also - QR Codes. Put them everywhere. In them put URLs to your game, discount codes, hidden messages, anything. People seem to habitually scan these things now... and if some KZbinr walks past and catches one in their video, people watching the video will try to scan it too.

[@wuzzel]

You could also adapt that to "Friends visiting at a party Mode" where you can have inexperienced friends not mess up everything constantly :P

[@NukeCloudstalker]

extremely useful mode for having kids playing games when they still don't know how to control stuff and what does what. My siblings used to quit out of games without knowing how to get back in (on computers) a lot.. Old consoles was a good workaround for this. Not so much anymore.

[@trimboli_design]

Direct and to the point. Great talk.

[@Sagaan42]

Best talk I've seen in a long while! You obviously are a great designer, your slides show. You also had great ideas for your booths! I absolutely LOVE the drawing on blank characters contest thing. It's brilliant.

[@greenya84]

Short and up to the point talk. Thank you for that!

[@ke9n]

I wish more people had his level of skill of delivery.

[@blarghblargh]

I didn't realize from the title alone that this was going to be about event booths. I figured it was for steam store, your website, your press releases, or something like that. The description is just fine but I just saw the video title and hit play.

[@CelioHogane]

same

[@Islacrusez]

What’s the betting that we both watched this video through to the end even though it is of zero use to us?

[@weltraumimport]

i love barbeque guy, very fast and on the point. Many good advices, definitely gonna keep notes

[@NeverduskX]

That was 100 slides? It went by so naturally, I didn't even notice 30 mins had passed.

[@dolphinlettuce4376]

Raven Smalls 150 slides*

[@hiiambarney4489]

Kinda makes you wish you had a game in a state to do this stuff, seems amazing. Coming from a musician background it's almost like a live show. Well because it is actually. You spent all this time revisiting and honing your craft, refining it and then present it to an audience. Live.

[@tomekkret617]

Events kind of make sales. They increase the interest for your game and plenty of people add it to wishlist to get it on sale afterwards

[@Nersius]

Really wish they would've shown a wishlist graph too or add it as a second line.

[@lrdalucardart]

The amount of questions at the end of the video translates how condensed and effective his explanation was!

[@Diskhate]

28 minutes of basically me saying " how the he*k didn't i think about that?! "

[@takeshikitanochannel6882]

Amazing! For my ears "steam key" sounds like "stinky" lol

[@ZoidbergForPresident]

Yeah, me too, just a bit ahah. :P

[@dth-2783]

And here I thought "stinky" was a character from his game...

[@stefanms8803]

everyone gets a free stinky

[@lucamateipintilie7006]

It’s just an accent. But still funny

[@QuentDB]

I thought it was slang for a sticker.

[@PabloSanchez-th5em]

As always Berbece is my hero! every talk I saw from him was a HeadShot with Critical Hit on it! Thank you again for everything Mr Xelu

[@hotwaff]

Great talk. I especially liked the little mini-talk in the middle, "How to sell your game and get some sweet-ass character art at the same time."

[@trueborn25]

This is one of the best talks I've seen. Very straight forward, practical and explanations were backing up the content! Well done.

[@tempatempo3805]

Am not a developer but still a very interesting presentation

[@Ajan-X]

I am not a game dev, not an artist or anything related, but now i really want do go to an event and present something!

[@marioaugusto1543]

really good talk my dude.

[@mariam19554]

Absolutely love this guy! He seems to have all this knowledge that came naturally to him about games and behind the scenes of them. Super inspiring

[@Ic3m4n2010]

Those are really awesome guys! Thanks for the input, very informative.

[@leandrog2785]

You should have looked at wishlist graphs too! To see if there are wishlist spikes after events.

[@Lunareon]

These practical tips are great for showcasing or running a booth at any event, not just for games. Thanks for sharing! :)

[@JustDaZack]

Great presentation with valuable information! :) I'd like to add that the "exposure" that is being earned by attending events directly translates into trust, into brand recognition, into the perception of being high quality.

[@sorgtheblack]

Very good talk without the usual "death by power-point" structure reading from an awkward script.

[@acfromspace]

Super good talk, well done. The slides featuring videos and fixed photos helped put things into perspective.

[@MajkaSrajka]

So now I know how I know this guy! I saw him as a part of a panel @ GIC 6.X.2017 (Poznan)! ("How to prepare for events and how to attend them") IIRC there are no VODs of the event (as it is smaller one), but that proves his point even further, that events are there to make business connections :) Now I can see that yellow jacket really works :P btw: Yeah, I'm kinda sad there are no easy access to GIC VODs (?), as there were few gems, mainly: "A Maddening Whine: Creative Agency in the Audio Design for Darkest Dungeon" (that I attended) "The Creative and Artistic Design of Darkest Dungeon’s Crimson Court DLC" and "Paint It Black: Creating Artwork for Darkest Dungeon " And there is nothing more sick than to hear about the way DD was designed :D

[@jaebigc]

very practical advices

[@SilverHammer1]

12:48 Finally a good use for a line 6 guitar amp

[@kennydarmawan13]

The most important part? Don't promote the hype (by boasting big things) or presentation (by hiring big-budget performances). Promote the product (by showing the gameplay clean, raw, and unedited).

[@tsunamininja]

Hurray for concise, effective talks :D

[@MyOffDay]

Awesome talk 4 years later, stuff still rings true

[@laszloeszik5033]

At one time we were on a small convention with a small game about catching grapes, just because a participant dropped out and I was asked if I am interested to go. We did some stuff the talk mentioned: business card sized flyers, giveaway (we brought a basket of grapes), some decorations (an old style one shooter wich was also in the game), and a competition. We told whomever played the game, we write their name down, and their score, and the best will get a small rooster figurine. We didn't had big screens just a laptop, or roll up banners as it was a small hobby game. But still, it was fun. :)

[@luke2v52]

If y’all like the speaker and want to know more about game development, xelu has a youtube channel called Mental Checkpoint.

[@vonvetur]

That's how presentations should be made - straight to the point, without unnecessary blahblahblah. Great job

[@baldipogchamp8926]

I guess what's interesting about the spectators-get-rewards idea is that, whilst it doesn't translate to sales, it has the potentiality to increase people playing the game, thus increasing word of mouth. And on steam, as you can see how many people are playing, I'd be more encouraged to buy a game with people already playing it/checking it out.

[@leonardoraele]

I wonder how different those sale spikes are for indie devs that don't promote their games like this.

[@The28studio]

very sad

[@watchmp100]

dude I didn't know he was THIS good at talking about video games, holy hell. I'm super impress, really great presentation.

[@FarikoUnited1]

Convention modes would be super great if more developers would do that. I hate wanting to play a game and one person is able to just keep playing and playing. Also iwhile having a line is good and all if you have a line to demo make it clearly defined and monitor it in case somebody quits the game early or w/e to allow the line to keep moving as well as being obvious where it is at. I had a bad experience with one game at my last convention because they had several empty stations and no obvious line so I went to go play and the booth people got very angry like it was my fault and that I was line cutting and it didnt make me want to try it after that.

[@birdsephone]

Awesome informatioon dense talk, also, I am loving the orange blazer!

[@BitsofJoshua]

One of the best GDC talks. Fantastic.

[@naramoro]

One of the tightest GDC talks Ive seen so far

[@SenthilKumarKMdu]

Superb Talk. To the point. Surely will be helpful for new indie developers.

[@alan_ars]

You guys have to watch the previous video about Move or Die with Nicolae Berbece, he teach a lot in 30 minutes!!!!

[@dusandragovic09srb]

Hold this for a second. - Nicolae Berbece aka Johnny B BQ :D :D :D :D You need to give awards, like TOP 5 humor, 'something new', etc.

[@phoenixdblack]

I love this guy! He makes the best talkes ever

[@pom69]

their youtube channel is Mental Checkpoint for those who want more of xelu

[@联盟解散张新杰熬夜荣]

not 100%percent sure about others, but pretty much for sure the idea used by a successful alcohol in China is the same as he mentioned in 20:20. it is the customers' interaction with the producer. which is really an awesome idea.

[@lilkingtrashbaby]

This is great advice for other types of convention booths! Thanks!!

[@TorQueMoD]

Fantastic talk Nicolae! Thanks so much for the feedback!

[@viniciusvmrx2845]

That's the most amazing GDC talk I've ever watched

[@IrelandVonVicious]

After seeing this my biggest take away is never go to these events. Being recorded and tracked like that ruins any fun I could have.

[@_theHUMUNGUS]

Haha right? I am not your metric or analytic data

[@remem95]

Maybe instead of a sale chart they should measure visits on the website/trailers/steam page etc to see how much exposure the event generated?

[@kenziemac130]

Thanks soo much I would have never thought to pack scissors and box cutters in my luggage!

[@cwdgamedev822]

Great talk! Never been to an event but would like to some day in the future. One thing I'm concerned about though is that a lot of the demos seems to be short fast games. Is there room for slower paced games like an adventure RPG?

[@NathanK97]

put the convention mode to start the player off right outside a boss's door and nerf the boss and give the player sweet gear so the player doesn't need alot of skill in your game to beat it... it also showcases the awesome of your game... but don't use the last boss... just a random late game boss... dont want spoilers

[@rendiggietydog]

i'm so happy i got recommended this talk it's AMAZING THANK U

[@Pixiez]

I love this guy!

[@brunofant3562]

Amazing talk from a great presenter, thanks a bunch!

[@robovdino9127]

I demoed my game at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo last year and I still find this talk super helpful. The techniques for recording player feedback, community building, and getting people to play are excellent, thank you Nicolae! Here is my post-mortem: alexbairgames.itch.io/robovdino/devlog/14925/retro-on-the-retro-gaming-expo

[@ExtrysGO]

How can i secure VR controllers in an event?

[@xultros3868]

You were happy. So I paid attention. And that was cool! Thanks for the speach :) Great haircut btw, I've got the same ;D

[@AndrewDavidJ]

"Flyers suck. How many people actually goes home and looks at the flyers they collected? No one! So instead you should do flyers." I doubt the size really affects whether or not people will actually look at them once they're back home.

[@satannstuff]

The size affects whether or not people will throw them away during the event.

[@mariam19554]

Tbh I've been to some events and every single time (unconsciously, i only learned about it now) I would try my hardest to care about flyers but they would always end up in the trash. However, some of the bussines cards I got I actually kept with me and checked the games out. So, at least for me, it matters a lot!

[@kevinwells9751]

@@satannstuff Yeah, notice that none of the flyers on the table of discarded flyers were business card size. You can get a lot of cards before they become a hindrance, not so for large flyers

[@imbw267]

Fantastic talk, can be extended to presenting at conventions in general

[@baldipogchamp8926]

This genuinely made me laugh in a great way, entertaining host and great tips!

[@kim15742]

Very interesting; I have never even thought of such booths (never been to a gaming convention before). But I guess you'd need a larger team to pull this off and also some spare money

[@supern0vae411]

Some money, yes (they aren't free, but if you get in through IMB/an aggregator they can be pretty cheap), but most of the time you can do it with just you. IMB has volunteers whose job is to assist single developers at shows, and PAX has XAs that do the same thing.

[@npc6924]

Wouldn't it be a good idea to have a sale during the events, so that more people who see it would buy it?

[@TricoliciSerghei]

Very informative video! Thumbs up from Moldova!

[@inkstatic_art]

Incredibly well done talk. Excellent.

[@SourceSSB]

I was listening to this in the background and I swear I thought he said “stinkies” and not “steam keys” 😂😂

[@quinnjohnson8953]

A good way to do lights would be to have the game output serial commands (maybe only in convention mode), and then get a USB-compatible or USB-to-serial capable microcontroller like the ATmega32u4 or even a single board computer like the raspberry pi (that's overkill though), and control the lights based off of the serial commands.

[@quinnjohnson8953]

Using a raspberry pi could also be used to only record with the reaction cam (and split the videos accordingly) when the game is being played, again using the serial commands.

[@quinnjohnson8953]

Also, send simple commands, things like "PLAYER_X_DIED" or "PLAYER_DIED" are better than "LIGHTS R G B", because it can be customized without rebuilding the game.

[@quinnjohnson8953]

The SD card might not be a good place to store the footage, use an expansion drive please. Using one also allows you to plug it into any computer with ease, and only have the footage on it, instead of all the pi's files.

[@quinnjohnson8953]

Even send commands split by spaces, e.g. "PLAYER DIED 1" has three parts: • "PLAYER" indicates relation to the player, or like executing a command that controls reactions associated with the player • "DIED" indicates that a player died, i.e. an event or occurence • "1" is the number of the player that died, i.e. an extra parameter to the event

[@gazagne251190]

Precise and helpful talk, thx a lot !

[@mossmoss2019]

eyooo romania represent !! swag presentation dude, loved the venn diagram omg

[@Nota_33]

Such an intelligent guy!

[@fabiboiii]

Was the Expo in Japan at Bit Summit?

[@EddyLiuIsm]

What is that party game's name (The one that offers free steam key for spectators during the event)?

[@lue64]

oh hey it's mental checkpoint

[@FiloVFX]

Very interesting talk and superb slides

[@Hubert99999]

i though about why would you go through the hassle of getting a booth if you're just there to meet people but after thinking for a sec i came to the conclusion that for example the documentary guy would've probably not take you seriously if you just show him something on your phone so in that way a booth is a very good way to impress people and to make you look legit/serious

[@andrewmelnikov292]

5:00 Who are all these guys?

[@joerivde]

Best talk on the GDC channel?

[@SerbanTV]

GG. Great talk, extremely useful insights!

[@someonekenobi]

I saw this dude at Sweden Game Conference. Really funny and informative (but on a different subject)

[@baldipogchamp8926]

I love that idea about giving spectators Steam keys! Only problem is that Valve limits the amount of Steam keys devs can give out, right?

[@karue7581]

Incredible talk!

[@reginaldarmah2381]

Does this also apply to solo developers

[@Mushe94]

Yea sure, you should try to get some friends to help you though.

[@gamedust3299]

What the video from start to ending and i really enjoyed the speaker.

[@kxmode]

0:41 Badges? Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!

[@kimeiga]

amazing focus on content

[@mikeouwen]

Every indie should watch this.

[@Brodysseus113]

Love when he talks about giving away free stinkies

[@NorthernWhisper]

25:12 Ayy he met eggboi!

[@adamschofield1887]

hell yeah brother

[@chillworksdev4145]

Thanks for the vital info!

[@jadefae]

Wow this was a great talk

[@cabritsanscorgaming]

That was awesome! (My first words after this presentation)

[@AntKneeLeafEllipse]

Open back headphones might be a good alternative for headphones.