Deciding which industry shows to attend can be a tricky, stressful task for developers. We’ve been there - literally and figuratively - and want to help others from our experience.
We are Considerable Content, the Melbourne-based developers behind Rogue Singularity. We have attended many regional events, including PAX Australia, The Arcade Open Day, and GX Australia. Today we’re running through how we chose to attend PAX Australia 2016, and how we make the most of showing our games at consumer shows like PAX Australia. Buckle up!
Image: Our stand at PAX Australia 2016 - Photo Credit PCWorld
What is PAX Australia?
PAX Australia is a three-day extravaganza to celebrate gaming and pop culture, held annually at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Now in its fourth year, PAX Australia is still the only Penny Arcade Expo event outside of the United States – which is a testament to Australia's growing reputation among game developers and consumers.
Debuting in 2013, PAX Australia started in little more than a cattle shed at the Melbourne showgrounds. It was in the middle of winter, miserably cold, and rained so hard people wondered if they would take the show away. Despite the challenges of the venue and season, there was still an amazing turnout in 2013, and the event continued on. It is now a great event for consumers, and offers a lot of opportunity for the right game developers as well.
For Australian game developers, PAX Aus coming to our shores offered the largest new opportunity to demo games to general consumers. Our regular IGDA Melbourne meetups are amazing, but we all needed more opportunities to get feedback that wasn’t from other game devs. Voila, PAX Australia!
We (the Considerable Content team) have previously shown at PAX Australia in 2013, 2014 and 2015, and recently had our most successful showing at PAX Australia 2016.
How do you evaluate the worth of going to industry shows?
First things first - Australia is far away from many of the largest game development hubs in the world.
We don’t have a lot of domestic shows to choose from, making it tougher to fairly evaluate the benefits of PAX Australia for a domestic dev vs. international dev. But let’s break it down.
When you’re looking at showing at a game event, you must know what your goals are. Without goals, you don’t have the data you need to reflect on what went well, and what could go better next time.
Your goals for showing at an event like PAX Aus may include:
Get more confident and natural at pitching your game to consumers, media and colleagues
Get more qualitative and quantitative feedback from consumers (beyond your friends and/or other game devs!)
Gain media coverage
Drive support for a new Kickstarter or crowdfunding campaign
Trying to find a suitable publisher for your title
Sell copies of your released game(s) and/or merchandise
Celebrate your progress, release, or just share your game baby with the public!
In our opinion, PAX Aus is a great show for some, but not all of these goals.
All shows that our team has attended have been valuable. But all have been helpful for different reasons, and we want to stress that we don’t recommend developers see one single public event to be ‘make or break’ for their title. Your mileage may vary with our pros and cons lists, but this is how we evaluate making the choice to show at PAX Australia.
Image: Our demo space at the stand of our console publisher, Nnooo at GX Australia 2016
Why we love PAX Australia as developers:
Newbie-friendly! PAX Aus an amazing show to get used to talking about (and demoing) your game with the public. The attendee numbers, the noise, and the intensity are easier for newcomers than the American PAX events. While it’s a huge consumer show by Australian standards, PAX East or similar shows are much larger and overwhelming.
Hometown advantage. As Aussie developers, we love having a big show local to us. It helps savings on renting equipment, transport fees, accommodation and more. You also start with your community already around you, so there are friends and colleagues to help support you (and go on coffee runs!).
Super indie-friendly show. Every year, PAX Aus seems to expand the area they put aside for their indie showcase and smaller developers. The general public are also really interested and positive about indie games. Australia has a reputation for quirky, colourful indie games - and it shows in the calibre of talent on display every year at PAX Aus.
Access to the public. PAX Aus and similar shows are all about connecting with the public for us. Being on a show floor like at PAX Aus constantly brings you into contact with new people who don’t know you, and don’t know your game. It’s daunting, but an amazing opportunity to see what clicks and what doesn’t. Take careful note of what the public are remembering or taking away from the experience of trying your game.
Limitations at PAX Aus:
Not a huge opportunity for media coverage. Australia only has a small content creator community (thanks, terrible internet speeds!) and a small domestic media presence. PAX Aus also doesn’t attract a huge collection of international media, but that is slowly improving.
Australian consumers may only represent 5% of any internationally released game player population. Aussie consumers spend a lot and love games, but we’re still a small national population. We don’t recommend making huge design or content choices based only on Australian playtesters!
Pretty costly. The cost of living in Melbourne is high, the AUD is a robust currency, and booths at PAX Australia are quite expensive. Some local developers choose to fly their game and team to PAX East or a similar U.S. event as they see it as a better ROI in terms of financial cost and media presence.
What went well and what went badly in our previous showings at PAX Aus?
Unfortunately putting an unfinished product in front of strangers can bring out bugs and other irregularities you never noticed. Sometimes they can be totally obvious and you will wonder how you missed them. It can be hard to see a player fail multiple times on a bug that shouldn’t be in the game. Most recently we had a menu with a broken exit bug. Although we thought players would never look at that menu, one afternoon every player who came past the booth would accidentally get stuck. More than anything else, it can be embarrassing.
PAX Australia is a good opportunity to build up contacts with people in the larger gaming community. Through shows like PAX Australia and Games Connect Asia Pacific we were introduced to our publishers Nnooo, and it was through showing our game that we were able to forge relationships. You will also find that operatives from many different outlets including Steam or Sony may be on the show floor in plain clothes. If you are friendly and have something interesting to show, in our experience they will always be interested in keeping in touch.
Bad: Bugs. Sometimes you will discover a bug you didn’t know existed and it can affect every play session. It can be hard to see a player fail because of a bug you left in the game.
Good: It’s very satisfying to see someone (a stranger!) enjoy and really understand your product.
Image: Our Rogue Singularity Pinny Arcade design for PAX Australia 2016!
How do you prepare in advance of PAX Australia or any tradeshow?
Don't develop up to the last second
Its unlikely that any feature you put in the day before a show will substantially change the experience. Try and keep the most stable build ready for people to play and observe. If you break your build trying to add something at the last minute, you will be extreeeemely stressed.
Make a good tutorial/demo experience
Try and start the player somewhere that is not too bewildering. Or choose some area of the game that is simple and fun. Remember, mechanics and control schemes that are second nature to you may be very alien to some players. Playing on a show floor is also a bit different to sitting down for a 5 hour play session at home. Take carefu
