I got super busy and neglected to update this thread, but the game came out in August! I just put out the first patch, and made this app promo video (the 30s clip that shows in the iOS store) that shows the final art:
I've never really done any trailer work before (which is pretty obvious from watching I think) but I think it does an OK job given the incredibly short length. If you want, you can pick the game up for just a buck on
iOS or
Android (I appreciate it!!)
Anyway, Imma talk boothin' for a sec, since it's still relatively new to me, but I THINK I've got it under control now.
Over the past weekend I demoed the game 3 days in a row at local events. Saturday was the Boston Festival of Indie Games, which is a great show held at MIT every year that gets (I've heard?) about 10k visitors, and Thurs/Fri I did a smaller (a few hundred people) arcade pop-up at a local brewery (if you're around Boston, look up Bit Fest, it's a good time). Most folks who come up really seem to like the game, and now that I've done it a few times, I've been having some fun demoing it instead of just being terrified and awkward.
This is my Boston Festival of Indie Games booth. Going to smaller events over the past couple months has been good practice for BFIG; it let me see what other small teams were doing, and got me some practice pitching to people before needing to do it all day. That was really important I think; my first event was pretty rough, but by the 3rd I felt like I knew what to do. One of the biggest things was that just knowing what was coming, and being prepared, helped me feel a lot less nervous. I also got some practice helping out the developers of FranknJohn at PAX East at their booth this year; if you have a chance to volunteer at someone else's booth, I really recommend getting some practice in a setting where your game isn't on the line and you can work with someone who has at least a little experience. One of the most important (and hardest, for me anyway) things was just getting comfortable being outgoing, and asking random people if they want to play.
I only just figured out how to do the vertical TV display: it's hooked up to my Macbook as a second monitor, and rotated vertically through Display options, and the video comes from Quicktime Player, which has an option for screen recording that lets you choose an external iOS device (in this case an iPhone connected via lightning cable). It came out well, though I think the TV overscan settings are wrong? I couldn't find the options to fix that, unfortunately.
In retrospect, given only one screen, I think it might have been better to have video than live gameplay; it meant that if no-one was playing, I had to either play (making it hard to engage with people walking by) or leave it on the intro screen, which looks OK but definitely isn't as interesting as gameplay.
In total it cost about $200 to put together over the course of about 4 events, with the most expensive thing being the banners at $15 each + $40 per stand. They're from Staples, and are OK, but feel real flimsy. I suspect they'll last a few more shows before a tiny crucial piece of plastic that the banners snap onto will break and need to be replaced. The TV is mounted to a Target shelf rack, which is balanced on a 1 1/8" dowel cut in half, and attached with wire (~$10). Most of the rest of the money went into external batteries and usb/lightning cables. I'm glad I picked up the external battery: the USB off the Macbook didn't give enough charge to run the game all day, and my HTC One died about after a few hours (I forgot to fully charge it the night before, which is also important! It was about 2/3 full when I started).
I also made sure to bring bottled water, screen wipes, and hand sanitizer, which was TOTALLY CRUCIAL 'cause BFIG is a young skewing show (kids get in free) and some of them straight up just sneezed on my phones as their parents watched on. This was actually awesome for me 'cause I don't a good way to get the game in front of kids, and a ton of them seemed to enjoy the game (though how many will pay $1 for it I have NO idea). I sold about 10 copies of the game (at a dollar each) over the course of the festival. Not amazing, but hopefully all the pins I gave out translate into some more. I definitely think having a more novel way of selling copies than asking people to go on the app store would have helped; ideally like including a key for the game with a sticker, or some other unique piece of merch. Not sure how I'd do that for iOS/Android but I'm planning on investigating.
Left is the sticker, right is the pin. A bunch of people really dug them, which was awesome to hear. Pins were about $23 for 100 from PureButtons and stickers were $65 for 50 from Sticker Mule. The pins are OK quality, they look good for the price. The stickers are REALLY nice, but way too expensive for me to give away. I sold a few for $2; people really like the ghost design, and now I REALLY wish I'd made some shirts to sell too.
Anyway, hopefully some of that's interesting or useful to someone
I'm now working on the 2nd patch for MILE-AGE, starting a 3D prototype, and looking for work (probably contract, so I can keep doin' the solo indie thing). Thanks for readin', let me know if you have any hot tips on how I coulda done this better!
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