Game Conventions as an Indie: A Booth Design Guide
No budget, no problem! Sort of.
By Victoria Tran, the Communications Director at Kitfox Games, an indie game studio in Montreal. She also handles event management and general convention shenanigans.
Game conventions are fun, exciting, and extremely exhausting. When you go to a PAX or any other number of cons, it’s awesome seeing your favorite games go all out, like a giant dragon head for Monster Hunter or giant touch screens for a Puzzle & Dragons tournament.
And then, if you’re like us at Kitfox, you’re an indie studio with a convention budget of uh… zero dollars.
I mean, not exactly zero dollars — screens, computers, labour all cost money. But as far as the studio budget is concerned, you’re not allowed to buy a life-sized dragon head. (Boooooo.)
Game conventions as an indie are their own kind of beast to tackle, whether you’ve been going to them for years like we have or it’s your first time. So here are some of the things we like to keep in mind when we’re prepping for one.
Cost
Every studio’s budget for conventions varies. Kitfox, in general, is fiscally conservative. What does this mean for us?
- At any point, we’re usually figuring how to save the most money. E.g. an Airbnb that’s a 20-minute walk away is more desirable to us than a hotel next to the convention center.
- We arrive the day of convention set up. This does backfire sometimes — we’ve had times where our electrical orders haven’t arrived at our booth because we weren’t present, or we ended up having to set up in the evening due to delays.
To be clear, this isn’t necessarily the best method. Cutting costs may mean added headaches, and we might change this in the future, but it’s what we’ve been doing for now.
If you’re interested in saving even more money, bringing your own TVs or monitors is always cheaper than renting it from the convention center. And if that isn’t possible because it’s too far away, then if you able to drive to a store and buy those electronics yourself, it still is cheaper than renting. However, that comes with its own kind of headaches and needs, so Kitfox hasn’t done that yet. What we do bring/buy ourselves are smaller things like chairs, decor, and PCs.
Your Game(s)
Every game has its own appeal, and not every game is good for conventions.
In general, conventions are loud, distracting, and at all times there are several other booths that a person wants to get to before the show floor closes or a panel starts. Thus, games that are eye-catching, “exciting” and/or easy to pick up are usually going to be the best. If you envision someone playing their game at home, in a quiet space, with a cup of tea, it might not show as well. This isn’t to say you can’t show your game, just don’t be discouraged if it seems it isn’t picking up as well as that action game next to you.
Additionally, people often go to shows with friends, which can be great if you’ve got a multiplayer game. But if you have a single-player game, someone may feel bad if their friends are kept waiting too long.
Our current game Boyfriend Dungeon is an awesome convention game. It’s eye-catching in many ways, easy to explain and pick up, unique, and anyone on the sidelines can have fun watching. The Shrouded Isle on the other hand is narrative-heavy and requires a lot of time and deep thinking, though it still showed surprisingly well, likely due to its striking art style and unique appeal.
Booth Layout
I usually like to draft what the Kitfox booth is going to look like for a few reasons:
- Mental model for both me and the team of what we’ll need and where they should roughly be
- Tanya (our captain) and I can discuss ideal placement for visibility — more on this later
It doesn’t need to be fancy or even that neat, by the way. As long as you’re aware of what you need and can explain the set up for feedback, if that applies to you.
Layout is extremely important. Overall you want to make sure there is enough space for people to get around and be able to see your game from far away. If possible, we like to have some sort of private-ish corner that serves as a small space for any interviews or if someone working needs a breather.
Booth Design
A well designed booth can help your game look more eye-catching or appealing. This isn’t to say you have to decorate your booth, or that decorations need to be over the top. Plenty of games show well with just the basics or look appealing with just a few standing banners.
Key Features
Here are the most helpful things we’ve found worked well for our booth:
- Low game stations — cheers to Felix and Finji for passing along the idea to us! The lowered height means it’s easier to look over someone’s shoulder, but also is wheelchair friendly.
- At least one TV facing outwards — this is for showing a game trailer and serves as something eye catching for those casually walking by
- One TV mirroring a station’s gameplay — this makes it interesting for people waiting to watch, or as a handy way for people to understand the game better
- TV/monitor toppers — especially important if you have more than one game showing. At PAX East 2018, when we showing off three separate games, having the name on top of each screen was helpful. You can also use the toppers as CTAs, e.g. “Wishlist on Steam” or “Buy Now”.
I have no money! How can I stand out?
You don’t need much to make a booth look halfway-legitimate. I’d say you should at least invest in two things (which will be reusable at multiple cons):
- A backdrop
- A standing banner
If you want to add anything extra, research small space decorations or even “___”-themed parties on Pinterest or via suggestions on Amazon. Often times you’ll find there are ads or decorations perfectly suited for a party… and a money-savvy indie booth. As an example, a neat low-budget idea I’ve seen is Super Daryl Deluxe’s entire booth backdrop consisting of ordinary lined paper taped together that visitors could doodle on.
For Boyfriend Dungeon, we’ve gotten a lot of compliments on our booth look, which honestly, is extremely easy to achieve. The best part is that it looks different than every other booth.
Here’s what I bought: fake rose petals, fake candles, fake roses, and fairy lights for a grand total of about $50 USD. Easy to reuse and transport, low budget, and most importantly… high romance~
Sometimes for multiplayer games, just having a giant crowd of people yelling and having fun is its own kind of attraction. In this case, you want to make sure your game is visible for bystanders who are waiting. Hosting a tournament (at a pre-announced time, with or without signups or prizes) can also be a great way to attract a crowd.
A press-specific station is extremely useful. Whether it’s for appointments or for casual press dropping by, people are often more understanding that their demo might be interrupted when a sign says “PRESS ONLY”.
Help them remember you
Don’t forget your goals when it comes to a convention! Often it’s to build awareness about your game, so ensure you’re well equipped for that. Generally, this can be done with:
- Postcard-sized handouts with game info
- A way for people to sign up for your newsletter and/or social media accounts (even if it’s a piece of paper they write their email on)
Some studios like giving away free pins, pens, etc. Choose what works best for you, but we’ve just stuck with the handouts and newsletter sign ups. Note that many convention centers (e.g. the PAXs) will not let you handout stickers.
Merch
Oooh so you have some merch to sell do you? That’s great, because at conventions, merch is a great way to get people ultra invested in your game and a nice way to make up for some of your booth costs. And maybe even profit!
There are lots of services out there that can create physical merch for you — each with their own quirks. Usually companies like these can handle shipping to various conventions, both to there and back. Of course this can come with its own costs, but it’s way less of a headache than having to store all the shirts and whatnot yourself.
Make sure your merch is highly visible during the convention, whether that’s by openly displaying it on a table, or printing large signs. If you can, selling game keys or physical goods at a convention-exclusive price is an incentive for people to buy it now rather than later.
We’ll dive into merch in a later blog post, because that’s a whole other beast to tackle.
Multi-Game VS Single-Game Shows
If you’re in a position similar to Kitfox, you have past games that could be shown alongside your currently promoted game.
Often it’s advantageous to have your old games at shows, because:
- Usually the vast majority of people won’t know your old games
- Thus, a boost in awareness for your old games
- Fans of the old game will recognize it and be fonder of your studio and/or be even more invested in your new game
- You can sell game keys
However, there are certain cons to it too:
- More games = needs a dedicated space = costs for a bigger booth and people to staff it
- If anyone was dissatisfied with your old games, they could be turned off by seeing your past game. So far Kitfox hasn’t had much of that. Usually it’s just a good springboard to convince them you’ve learned from past mistakes, if anything.
Conclusion
That’s it for now! As a persona health note: don’t forget to take breaks, drink water, eat at least one fresh fruit or vegetable every day, and get an appropriate amount of sleep, by the way. No one wants to be sick during a convention.
Hopefully this is a good starting point, or something to chew on if you’ve been thinking about showing at a convention.
Maybe we’ll see you at one? ;)
