Contactics: Bringing the game to the players

Without a player, there is no game. Following up on my last article, here’s how I brought my game to the players.

EGX REZZED: ONE MORE GAME ON THE SHOW FLOOR

Other than the #Contactics hashtag and posting the game on Twitter, Facebookand Reddit, I didn’t have any plans for its distribution.

“I’ll improvise. It will be fun!”

The official twitter account for Rezzed was talking about all the cool games that would be playable on the show floor, and I mentioned mine. People asked for copies, so I made sure to meet these people and hand them some.

I didn’t want to take the game developer’s hard earned space, so I placed some cards around the food hall and tweeted about it.

There were so many Nintendo 3DS consoles around, I changed my Streetpass greeting to mention the game!

It was a great chance to meet game developers I admire: Rami Ismail (Vlambeer),Mike Bithell (Thomas Was Alone), Dean Hall (DayZ), Ed Stern (Splash Damage),Paul Dean (Shut Up & Sit Down), Team 17, Creative Assembly, Destructoid andBoneloaf to name a few!

I handed each a copy and their faces lit up once they realized what it was!

“I brought home invaluable amounts of motivation.”

GAMASUTRA: THE FIRST ARTICLE

After coming back, I published my first article on Gamasutra. It got featured, and stayed on the front page for two days! The readers shared it, which lead to the game popping up in a lot of websites.

If anyone mentioned the game on twitter, I thanked them!

This was a big milestone for me. Having learned a lot from reading articles on Gamasutra over the years, it was my chance to help other aspiring game designers.

MCM DUBLIN COMIC CONTACTICS

Next up, I brought it to the first MCM Dublin Comic Con!

CANADA PHOTO CONVENTION

I left the coolest one for last! One of the organizers for the Canada Photo Convention saw my game online and thought it would be a great way to break the ice and get people networking.

She asked me for some adjustments to better suit photographer’s business cards, I looked up Creative Commons and, starting from April 22, the game will be at Canada Photo Convention 2014!

“Suddenly I have players on the other side of the world!”

Better yet: every person who registers will get a copy of the game and the one who collects the most business cards during the event will get a prize!

Designing the game is just the start. Don’t overlook the marketing aspect! Without a player there is no game.