Currently riding the train back from London to Rotterdam after attending my first real game conference. I’ve never talked so much in my life. It was like having back to back interviews all day. Selling both Gametje and myself to other people and companies. I made some great connections and got some good feedback on Gametje and the games. Here’s a quick look at my booth:
I got so many positive comments on my stand. I was in the Indie Dev area, so luckily was not competing against the AAA studios. Everyone loved the roll-up banner and were impressed with my 32in monitor I managed to haul with me from the Netherlands. Huge thanks for Monika for helping me create the roll-up banner.
I was able to apply some lessons learned from the DGA Network lunch back in November and allowed people to learn in a more “async” way about Gametje so I wouldn’t have to tell everyone the same story. The banner, flyers and gameplay videos helped people get the basic concept and then I could take it from there.
What is PGConnects?
PocketGamer Connects is a global game conference that is focused more on B2B connections than the consumers/players themselves. I met developers, publishers, artists, composers, musicians, students, AI Advertising reps… you name it. Anything used in games or games adjacent had some representation there it seemed.
With these types of events, they also usually have a “MeetToMatch” platform that allows you to schedule meetings ahead of time with companies you see collaboration potential with. The first day I had 10 meetings scheduled and filled the gaps with people dropping by my booth basically non-stop from 9:00-16:00. I barely had time for lunch!
Why did I attend?
I first heard about PGConnects from my friends over at gamingcouch.com. They have a great couch gaming platform where you use your phone as a more traditional controller. Think Mario Party style games but with no downloads. Go check them out!
I was lucky enough to get to know one of their founders Jasu in the past few months. He recommended I attend one of the PocketGamer events to make some connections and get some exposure. He also gave me a good tip to look into the Indie Developer Tickets program which reserves a small amount of tickets to gift to “up and coming” developers. Luckily for me, PGConnects was hosting an event in London just a few months later. IT seemed to check all the boxes I was looking for:
- Happening soon
- Easy to travel to
- Still had space and the potential to get a booth!
I applied in time and was lucky enough to score a table.
I wanted to attend an event like this to get some exposure for Gametje, learn more about the industry and see what kind of companies might be open to collaborating. In the process, I also learned quite a few new acronyms (every industry has their own of course). It was sometimes difficult to follow the conversation without interrupting to ask the ‘stupid question’ but I did it anyway. UA, UGC, CTI, A16Z, GDC, IAPs, IPM… the list goes on.
I’d call it a great success. I connected with a huge variety of companies and people. Looking forward to my meetings for next week. Lots of different opportunities to explore.
Takeaways
- Talking about your passion project/company is a ton of fun for the right audience. Telling people your idea and hearing it validated over and over again was really reassuring. Maybe some of that was fluff (especially for the companies trying to sell you THEIR product) but I also got a lot of positive feedback from students (who had a lot less to gain by buttering me up).
- Not that I didn’t know it before… but AI is everywhere in the gaming industry. I’d say at least 30-40% of my conversations with other companies were related to some kind of AI tech (mostly advertising stuff) or something with Blockchain. Gametje currently doesn’t have any ads and I’d preferably like to keep it that way. There is potential in the future to serve ads to my “free tier” which would allow those types of players to still play the games but even that I’m not 100% crazy about. It isn’t my preferred route, but it can be hard to compete with other platforms that offer free to play.
Yes I realize the irony of this picture :)
- Standing, talking, and solving more “dynamic” problems with other people is exhausting. In my past life of corporate IT and enterprise software, I of course had days where I had 3-4 hours or meetings but this was something else entirely. I’m generally quite a social person, well above average for a “techy” but I definitely felt my social battery was drained at the end of both days. Even still, I attended the after parties on the Sunday and Monday night (Monday it was at a ping pong bar!)
- Next big conference, I’d love to have a helping hand. It was a bit difficult to be the one manning the booth and having meetings. I managed in the end, but having at least a 2nd person there to help would have been great.
Overall I’m really happy I attended the conference. It was run quite well, the facilities were good (other than the internet/wifi) and the events were enjoyable. It was easy to connect with people and hopefully will yield some fruitful collaborations in the future.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading!