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[wednesday]

I've been throwing around an idea of setting up an exhibition space for indie game developers to show off their games in an art gallery style space. I imagine it would also have a bar of sorts, but the idea is the game equivalent of an art show. I've been inspired by Babycastles which has been alive for a while.

Ignoring all the details and cost, I wonder if there is even an interest such a thing. There's a lot of small, local art galleries in my city and while I enjoy going to them, I sometimes wonder how they survive. Maybe they have grants, maybe they make enough through their bar, maybe occasionally selling a piece of art lets them keep going. Is this possible for games?

[Vivid Foundry]

Hey Wednesday,

It sounds like a fine idea, albeit that it takes a lot of effort, energy and coordination! But I think, with a good team working with you, it's certainly feasible and can be very rewarding.

I think this sort of thing always depends on your locality, and it's worthwhile to ask in an online community/forum for your city if there's interest, in addition to mentioning it here. Lasting and continued growth may sometimes depend on whether or not there's a strong video game industry presence in the city. In the case of grants, sometimes small showcases can gain these because they're for the betterment of the community, but there's usually a need to demonstrate why you and your team have the experience to take on such an exhibition project. Sometimes bars also encourage showcase or social nights (say, once a month) because it brings a lot of foot traffic and a unique point of interest to said bar, so it's worth asking them. These may work more in the form of showcases and demos for a night, rather than something more permanent like an exhibition however.

ETA: But the latter - a social night where devs can bring in their works in processes to finished games, that might be a great way to gauge what kind of demand you might have. My suggestion would be to build the community and demand for an exhibition first in the form of smaller events, rather than spend a lot of capital and energy before the demand is there.

[Canned Turkey]

I don't see why you couldn't with proper motivation and a few friends to help you out.
What city are you in?

[TamaraRyan]

Do it! My husband actually did exactly the same thing in San Francisco, and with pretty much almost no advertising (we submitted the even to SF.funcheap.com) we got about 100 people throughout the day that checked us out. That could also be because the venue was an art gallery that's in the back of a comic book store. http://www.indieape.com/indie-artcade-event/

I would say video games are popular no matter where you live. If you do enough advertising and marketing, people will come.

If it helps, I'll go through our process:

Venue: We were lucky in this aspect. My husband had been a loyal customer to a comic book store for awhile and they happened to also have an art gallery space in the back. So once he decided he was gonna do this Indie-artcade thing, he asked about how much the space would be for a day, but it was given to us for free! That helped a lot with the cost. I imagine for you, it doesn't have to be in an art gallery space. Ask your local coffee shops, maybe even comic book stores (if they have space), or wherever you think the owner would be willing to work with you on it.

The Games: For us, we contacted the devs of the games we wanted to be available to play. So we got permission from the people from Shovel Knight, Nidhogg, and Luftrausers. It was only three because the gallery space was small. Plus, we built tables and cabinets ourselves. I'm not sure if you plan on just inviting devs to come and showcase, or if you want to host them yourself. If you want the devs to come themselves, I would suggest finding your local game dev meetup. Go talk to the people there and see if they're interested. The other option is host the games yourself. You would have to get your own computers and whatnot though. You can ask to borrow friends, or rent them.

The Art:My husband himself is a graphic designer, so he did several pieces himself. But for others, he explored places like deviantart, or already was familiar with other artists that he liked. We also asked fellow art friends if they'd like to contribute. Basically he contacted the artists and explained what the event was about and if they'd like to contribute any of their art pieces. Most of them were happy to do so, as it's good exposure for them. We only asked that they mail their prints, but after we had to buy frames for all of them, we wished we would have asked them to supply a frame as well if they could. 

Advertising: Of course, social networking is going to be your best bet here. Does your town have a website that lists upcoming events? Get listed! Or maybe there's a facebook group dedicated to cool things happening in your town. Hang up flyers, get on twitter, have the game devs tweet out your event for you. With enough advertising in advance, you could probably get a good sized turnout. You can even make a website with a newsletter subscription so you can email people when it's closer to the event date.


All in all, I encourage you to try and put this together. We took a survey at the event, asking people if they have heard of these games or not, if they're familiar with indie games in general, and if the event made them more interested. It was all positive. Only a small handful of people were already familiar. So I think it's a fantastic way to help spread the word and culture of indie games!!

[bacon]

I'm actually helping to put on something like this in NYC this coming week (check it out http://www.culturehub.org/upcoming-events/). I'll be co-hosting a panel as well on the display and curation of games in a post-arcade world.

The way to do something like this is to basically say you're interested in doing it, say you can do it, find a space, and put the word out. After that, people then think of you as Someone Who Knows Games™, people of whom there are surprisingly few. Developers are often really cool about having their game be displayed as well, but there is a bigger problem of sustainability across time. Babycastles gets by but not only being a galley, but also by frequently running paid workshops, hosting paid concerts/shows, renting the space to other organizations (like SFPC), and other various things. Doing a one off event is pretty easy — you just need the games, space, and some outreach. However, like I just said, this is much more different than running a permanent space. Recently in NY, there was this place called Waka Waka that tried to do exactly what you are suggesting, but they collapsed because they couldn't find enough money and commitment from people for sustained help vs. single events.

There are models like Glitchcity in LA that do really well, but I suspect it's because they are on the fringes of Culver City and rent is very cheap. They also have the benefit of E3 coming through pretty often, as well as being close to SF.

So my biggest suggestion? Just do it! Message me if you want more info. But also know that making it a permanent space is very difficult depending on where you are.