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I'm starting to hit up the convention circuit with my game demo - I'll showing my game at a local comic convention in a few days, and showing it at a game convention a month from now. I have a demo station setup (both conventions I have close access to electric outlets), and some pin buttons to give away. I feel ready with equipment and gear, but in terms of the actual mechanics of sitting there and trying to promote my game? Not so much.

Any tips for showing Visual Novels at conventions?

I haven't shown, so take this as more "how people at conventions attract me to play their games".

1) Have some big banners with art from the game/advertising/something to attract me to the table. (A table with two laptops on it + some pins seems a bit sad) If you can have more than one person watching the table, so much the better, too. (Since one person sitting sadly behind an empty table is kind of sad.)

2) Candy is a nice, cheap give away that can attract people

3) Have a handout that directs people as to what you want them to do next (go to Steam to buy the game/wait until May 15th to buy, support your kickstarter, etc.) I see *so much* at conventions that it all starts to blur together, so it's helpful to have something that can jog my memory later and make me think "Oh, yeah, that was the cool game that I wanted to support!"

4) Have a *short* demo. I'm busy at conventions and probably have 15 minutes at most to spend playing a given game (unless it's one I've been looking forward to for months). Have something that grabs attendees within that time slot. (Since if the game is just "click on some random stuff, walk around, wait, wait, the good stuff is coming!" it's unlikely I'd remember it...)

5) One of my friends (who had a fair amount of success with his game) mentioned that demos are less about getting people to buy and more about getting a sense as to what's working/not working with the game. (e.g. what's confusing, where people are losing interest, etc.)

Re 5: I found something happened recently with my game when I got my first play testers. You learn a *lot* from talking to people about what they like/don't like/find annoying/confusing etc. (And I made some fairly substantial tweaks to the game following their feedback.) So definitely be receptive to whatever you hear. (Also, as an attendee, I think people will be more excited about your game if they feel like they're your awesome play testers than being given the hard sell. I really don't like wandering a show floor and feeling like people are pressuring me to buy, buy, buy right now. While taking 10 minutes to give an indie creator feedback on his/her product is something I'd feel bad about *not* doing.)

I've never been to a comic or game convention, but I have been to technology conference with vendor areas. I suggest that you have a monitor which shows a looping video of game-play.

Mutive wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2019 11:12 am Also, as an attendee, I think people will be more excited about your game if they feel like they're your awesome play testers than being given the hard sell.

This is probably the attitude I will try to adopt - this feels pretty right.

There is a GDC talk about this: https://youtu.be/gB8CvsOjDvg

verysunshine wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2019 6:31 pm There is a GDC talk about this: https://youtu.be/gB8CvsOjDvg

I watched this like, six months ago, and I really should have rewatched it a month before the con. I'll take these to heart for next time (throat lozenges would have been a godsend).

Just an update on the first con: it went AMAZING. I had over 100 people over two days play my demo, including more than a few that played the entire 15 minute demo. Everyone who played it for more than 3 clicks signed up for my mailing list, and I walked away with a pretty nice list of things to fix for next time. I also had some press opportunities. For a small con that couldn't have had more than a thousand people walk through the door, it went EXTREMELY well, and I've already been hunting down a few more comic convention opportunities.

I'm not sure if I have any experienced takeaways that the video you linked didn't cover, but I think I'm more than a few conventions away before I can speak with any authority about showing games at cons .

Nice! I'm super happy that it went so well for you. Wish you and your game much success!