tinyBuild x The Tiny Icon

4 min readMay 3, 2022

What the heck is a tinyBuild? TinyBuild is an indie game publishing company based in Seattle, Washington. Indie games are games produced by an independent or smaller group of developers. Often without financial or technical support.

Recently I was invited to work for tinyBuild for a convention up in Boston, MA. I’ve had some sort of grasp of what an indie game was because I played some games. Let me tell you, attending a PAX convention was like a dream for anyone who is just getting into gaming. PAX is for a lack for words, is an indie game convention. PAX standing for Penny Arcade Expo. It started with two webcomic creators of Penny Arcade and grew instantaneously. After discovering the history and growth of annual PAX conventions, I couldn’t contain my excitement!

From tabletop games, VR games, 2d games, on platforms like Steam, PS, Nintendo Switch and XBOX. The event was more than I could imagine. I learned about how personal tabletops games are, and how creative each booth strived to be. The more I got to know people, the more I loved to be there. I met characters from games I’ve played such as Tiny Tina’s Wonderland, and Tom’s Nook (ACNH).

I’ll show you pictures towards the end.

To be honest, I’ve never really been to a convention, let alone working one. The first set up days were huge craft projects to me. I got to set up most of 1-out-of 8 game booths, called Potion Craft. It’s a game where you gather ingredients from your backyard, make potions on a map that you have to explore and sell to customer to aid their weird problems. I very much enjoyed watching other people of all ages play and get lost in the time. When I got home, I knew I had to play immediately as it is currently on early access. I’m now level 20, you may imagine the proud smirk on my face.

Anyway setting up was the longest because we had huge crates of boxes in boxes, in boxes! There were cool items to set up like a greek theme booth and a witches alter.

Speaking of 8 game booths. YES! 8 game booths of games that were on early access, exclusive demos, and beta games. My favorites were of course Potion Craft, Spider Heck, Rhythm Sprout, and Justice Sucks. The other games were incredible as well, but I like what I like. Our booth for tinyBuild was over 4,500 sqft. That’s a lot of space for games! I enjoyed our carnival theme, it truly tied all the games together. Although popcorn and ice cream was not allowed on the floor, who can pass up a carnival booth?

Directing traffic for each booth was fun, because I got to have new talking points with each client at whichever game I stationing at the hour. One of my bosses did warn me that I would get hit on, and my partner did mention that if I did, it would be a bit awkward. I had one guy in line at the punch ball machine, after he hit the ball, his score reached extremely closed to the high score. You didn’t win anything, just bragging rights. When he stood next to me as I watched his score rise, he yelled

SHEEESHH!

With natural reaction as I am perfectly dramatic, I also said “sheeeshh!”

Oh dear, the look on his face was as if he just fell into reality. He was shocked he said that to a girl out loud. Completely freaked out on me, and walked away.

YEAH.

Besides the weird encounters with awkward men, I also learned about how one could obtain a new position for more well known companies. I met a guy, never knew his name. He actually set the high score for the punch ball machine before the convention started. We talked one of the days, and he mentioned to me that he likes to make an impression during building days through event days, because that’s how one gets his foot in the door for a new job.

Of course, I, one who loves to learn and enjoys the easiest way to do anything strategically, obsessed over this new excitement as this door opened its world to me. You’re telling me, that I can enjoy craft days, connecting to people with games, meet characters from animes, comics, games and potentially hunt for a new job in the gaming industry? Sign me up for all future events! GENIUS.