So: this Dragonmeet just gone (4 days ago at the time of writing) was my first time selling games at a convention, which means: my first time choosing what games I think I should sell, my first time trying to sell people on my games face-to-face, my first time finding out what complete strangers come to a con like Dragonmeet looking for and their general approach to games.
All of which was massively useful, and I don’t want to simply forget all the useful things I learned, so I’m writing them down (and maybe they’ll be useful for other people too). So let’s whip right through them:
How are you selling your game to people who only know D&D?
Often, we [me or one of the other folks on the London TIN stall – I was selling Time Heist, The Andromeda Ward and Bear as part of a group of makers, so there was a huge range of games, zines and even short fiction books for sale] would ask people what they were into, or what kind of games they were looking for. The vast majority said they played D&D/D&D was the main game they knew.
Segueing from D&D into any of my games was not easy – the only one which could fit into a D&D-esque fantasy setting was Bear, which is also a solo, zero-materials game and therefore way out of the comfort zone of someone who only knows D&D. It was tricky with most of the games on the stall (bar a really cool supplement called Last Orders that fleshes out characters, items and adventures around taverns and inns). So, lesson learned: it’s worth having something to sell that you can easily pitch to someone whose only experience of TTRPGs is D&D.
[Quick note: I’m obviously talking as an indie creative on a group stall. Maybe having a stall selling one company’s games, that have a unified aesthetic and suchlike to draw and hold people’s attention for longer, buys time to describe something slightly less D&D-adjacent to buyers who’re unfamiliar with anything but that game. But I don’t have experience of that – and I also slightly doubt that’s the case anyway…]
Can you sell the concept in a sentence?
This should be kind of obvious, but then again…
My most successful game at the con was Time Heist, which I put down to three things:
- The most attractive cover art (The Andromeda Ward is made to look like a rehearsal copy of a TV script – cool once you’ve opened it, not the flashiest cover though; Bear has no cover art, so it’s just text)
- A tagline which is essentially the best thing I’ve ever written (“One Last Job. Twice.” which manages to capture something a lot about the game and be funny/eye-catching to boot, to the point I got a compliment from someone specifically about it)
- I can describe what it’s about in a sentence: you’re stealing a time-travel machine, with the help of your future selves who have, of course, already stolen the machine. Immediately what’s cool about the game is evident, the unique set-up it offers is evident, and people didn’t really need to know more
It feels like such a basic thing – pitch x/y/z quickly – but I’d brought three games, only one of which was super easy to do that with. (I thought at least two of them would be easy to do that with but…)
How many people there will know ‘Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace’, realistically?
In my head, at least 20% of all people know and love Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace. Because I reckon about 20% of my friends and the kind of people I’d bring it up with do. But, naturally, that’s no reflection of the general population – an unfortunate thing, given that The Andromeda Ward is heavily inspired by the TV show, and the simple pitch for the game is that you get to make your own Darkplace.
If people have no reference for Darkplace, that pitch gets a lot trickier.
How much do you really want to spend on ink?
Full disclosure: the bulk of the money I made from Dragonmeet is countered by the £90 I had to spend on two ink cartridges to print 10 copies of each game I took (I haven’t used all of both, so maybe the technical cost is more like £65 – but still).
Having a really good looking cover is worth it, but it’s genuinely made me think about the printing cost of various games and designing with that in mind in future, even if just a little. That said: the three glitchy copies of Time Heist (printer was low on ink, I was damned if I wasn’t going to use them, so I put stickers on claiming that the appearance of low printer in was time-travel related distortion) went first and people specifically chose them over the ‘properly printed’ versions, so – there are workarounds.
Will this game work for a passer-by?
As mentioned, Time Heist outsold my other games – it sold out, whilst only a couple of copies of the other games were sold. Bear’s a game that’s done really well on itch (for me, at least – it has the most reviews, has been reviewed elsewhere, gets a lot of positive comments, etc) – but arguably it’s too niche to grab a casual buyer’s attention. It’s a solo game with zero materials, that’s quite mediative and introspective – it feels very personal and some of the conversations I had with people whilst telling them about it revealed quite how intimidating that was for more casual players.
It’s interesting to think about where Bear belongs – where it’ll sell, find the people who’ll enjoy playing it, etc. Again, if this was part of a stall that all fitted a certain tone and mood – so people interested in that at a convention gravitated towards the table, or were prepared to take more time looking into the game due to it being related to a familiar name or a clear aesthetic, etc – maybe it’d do better. However, as a standalone game on a varied stall, it’s a lot to get your head around.
–
Those are my initial reflections. One of the big things is the response from Time Heist making me focus on Lore Breakers, a game that I’ve been gently working on for a couple of years that I think will sit in the same vein of easily-captured and attention-grabbing fun, and really committing to finally getting it done!
rollflipdraw.co.uk 