Last week, from the 16 until the 19th of November, we showcased Ganbatte for the first time to the public. Mimicry was present at Lisboa Games Week, the biggest video games trade show in Portugal, as part of the Indie Dome, and as a finalist for Playstation Talents 2017 Portugal.

Overall, it was an amazing and intense experience. Ganbatte was presented in a 4-player local multiplayer VR setup with two HTC Vive and two Oculus Rift with Touch controllers.

In general, the public reacted very positively to Ganbatte, which meant our booth was always full (more than 500 people tried out our game!). We got amazing feedback and even ended up winning the “Most Fun Game” category of Indie Dome.

Now that we have recovered from the experience it’s time to analyse what went well, what could be improved and some possible suggestions for future game events.

What went well:

Preparation, preparation, preparation…

It’s no surprise that we started preparing for Lisboa Games Week well in advance (Preparing for Lisboa Games Week – Ganbatte’s First Game Event, Arcade Mode tales – Creating the spectator screen). This meant that by the time we arrived in the show floor we:

Had a stable demo version;

Knew exactly how to set-up our booth;

Had a healthy food plan.

Before Lisboa Games Week, some members of the team had already experience with the logistics involved in doing public VR demos. For example, we had a “hygiene plan” for the demonstration (more about that on a future article), and brought office supplies such as duct tape, which proved handy not only to us but to other indies who were exhibiting.

This preparation made us feel calm, even though we knew we were slightly understaffed.

Indie Dome

Being able to collaborate with the Indie Dome team with regards to the booth space was very important for our preparation. The communication wasn’t always smooth but was always very open. In the end, both teams shared the same objectives and weren’t afraid of working hard to deliver a high level of quality.

Interest of the visitors

The way we presented Ganbatte was a success. We developed an Arcade Mode, that is more streamlined, has an event leaderboard mode and a spectator screen.

Visitors were able to watch the spectator view of the game, giving an incentive to stick around the booth and wait for their turn.

Ganbatte has no violence which proved to be a good fit for the audience of the event since there were a lot of children at Lisboa Games Week. We loved having full families trying out the game together. And it was touching talking to grateful and happy parents that loved to be able to enjoy a competitive game that doesn’t involve shooting.

Sushi group dinner on day 1

From Artur showing the game to a very interested and engaged waitress, to the Kirin beers, eating Sushi on the evening of the first event day was a huge success 😉

Livestreaming

We live-streamed Ganbatte for the first time, and it was amazing! We learned a lot about streaming and we got a lot of engagement. Even though this was a national event, we managed to reach people in other countries by showing people playing the game, talking about what we are doing and interacting with the audience.

The entire development team on the show floor

Being able to take all the team to a tradeshow was an incredible opportunity. We managed to get direct feedback from players, were able to meet other developers and, most importantly, learned to pitch and showcase the game. In this sense, this was an amazing preparation for a large-scale event such as Gamescom.

What could be improved:

Staffing

We were understaffed with our booth set-up. Which meant that we worked ourselves very hard. The only moments of rest were tied to the Vive controllers being out of battery. For the next events, we should plan to have at least half the team in reserve.

Press outreach

In spite of the good preparation, we didn’t define a press strategy. There were no appointments made with journalists and the team was very busy during the event. There’s definitely room for improvement in this regard.

Merchandising

As in most tradeshows, at Lisboa Games Week you can’t sell merchandise at the booth. This is very unfortunate for indie teams. Even though we managed to get a merchandise corner at Weatherlight Workshop, the fact that the merchandise was physically separated from the booth meant that it was very difficult to get visitors to support us.

Analytics

There was a lot that could have been done with analytics, and it was in our planning to capture some anonymous gameplay data. However, we didn’t have time to implement analytics. However, we recorded event leaderboards which we’ll be using to analyse the game balance.

Lisboa Games Week provided a great learning experience at many levels. We are grateful to Indie Dome and Playstation Portugal for their logistic support.

Despite the intensity, there was a lot of team bonding and comradery. The public showed a lot of interest in Ganbatte, which left us super excited. Amidst the buzz, there was the opportunity to meet new people, and talk to old friends.

We can’t wait to improve Ganbatte with the feedback we got, and we look forward to the next opportunity to showcase our game.

I’ll close off by reminding you that Ganbatte is now set to “Coming soon” on Steam at http://store.steampowered.com/app/691680/Ganbatte/. So, you can now wishlist it! If you want to 🙂

Thanks for reading!

-Daniela

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