The Fringes Of GDC

It always strikes me as odd, but it shouldn't. The detritus and hangers on that go on around professional conferences. At the GDC every year there are guys and gals on the streets surrounding the conference, handing out cards and flyers promoting this indie game or that. One year they were even passing out free boxed copies of the game.

The conference tables are littered with stacks of business cards, sometimes even demo cd's all begging, whispering, muttering on the fringes of the sanctioned events. It's like watching those groups at the end of the Rose Parade, the ones who declare THE END IS NIGH and that the government is using microwaves to scramble your brain.

What do you do with them? I mean, as a professional trying to starup a dev studio, I know how they feel, that desparate hope that the right person will notice their scattered offerings to the Gods of Game.

I pick up these scattered bits sometimes, check them out, but they never have what I need. Sometimes its just too vague, and I'd rather go to the Expo and find a proven quantity than spend the time digging through the detritus. The City must go nutz, on the way to the conference hall this morning I counted no fewer than seven stickers from indie game companies slapped on street-lights and other surfaces.

So I have to ask, does this work? Any of you indie devs out there, artists looking to break-in, people with a great idea? Have you gotten any play from this sort of ad-hoc advertising, or just a sense of satisfaction that you are moving forward, that you are doing *something* to get your name out and about?