If you didn’t get the chance to see us at PAX Unplugged, we have the inside scoop for you about what we learned during that crazy weekend!
(Also, we’re a little late with this update but…the holidays have been hectic).
This year we got three day passes, so we were able to get a much more in-depth experience than last year – including walking through the entire expo hall, presenting Alynthia in the Unpub room on Friday and Saturday, attending panels, and more. Needless to say – we learned a LOT.
The Unending Expo Hall
This isn’t even a panorama
It can be overwhelming to visit the expo hall as a new designer, but we went in with a plan and would highly recommend you do the same. Our first priority was to visit manufacturers, and we were able to sit down with Panda Games Manufacturing and Longpack Games. We got some really great advice from Joe at Panda Games; don’t get caught up trying to design the ideal, deluxe version of your game. Make your game as solid as possible, and then knock it out of the part with a few components that you want to upgrade so people say “Hey! That game looks cool!”
If you haven’t checked out Fire Tower yet, you should.
As we walked through the rest of the convention hall, we were able to stop and visit with some fellow designers we had met at previous conventions. It can be difficult to put yourself out there as a new designer, but everyone we talked to was super friendly and encouraging! Several people said we could email them with any questions we had about game design or bringing a game to Kickstaters (and we hope can do the same thing for new designers in the future!).
Alynthia at the Unpub Room
As a small designer, the Unpub room is wonderful! Though it was a little out of the way, it’s a great way to get your game in front of people if you aren’t ready to spend big bucks on a booth. We were able to get 8 hours of playtesting in, had a blast meeting new people, and got some great feedback. That feedback helped us simplify our battle system, and gave us a lot of insight into our component design. Something we didn’t think about as much is that many players may have poor eyesight, so anytime we can make icons and text larger, Alynthia becomes more accessible.
Demoing a long game like Alynthia is a challenge, which made us realize that the co-op mode of Alynthia was much better for new players. Several new players were so excited by the unique gameplay of the co-op version of Alynthia that we realized it should be front and center! When designing a game keep on your toes, never let momentum take over if there’s a better path.
More to Come
With how much that happened over the weekend, you can expect some more blog posts about specific areas that we want to touch on. For example: what we learned from the panels we visited and some tips about surviving conventions. Until then, hopefully you learned something from our experience at PAX Unplugged, and we hope we’ll see you there next year!