CelestiCon is holding a prototype event within the con.
When: Labor Day Weekend (August 29-September 1, 2014)
Where: Fremont Marriott, Fremont, CA
Find additional details here:
http://celesticon.com/celestispiel.php
Or contact the organizer, Luke Laurie.
Greetings,
I promised full financial transparency for the event. I just paid the last bill, so I now I have a full accounting of every dollar (see below). After all is said and done, I wound up paying about $62 out of pocket to make Unpub Protospiel happen.
I want to thank Game Kastle for hosting the event and giving us a good deal on renting the required amount of space/tables/chairs. I appreciate Game Kastle's support.
A big thank you to Seth of Tasty Minstrel Games and Ted of Bezier games for sponsoring food. They made the sandwiches and pizza on Saturday and Sunday viable.
Thanks also to Franklin Kenter for contributing $100 to subsidize the Game Design Contest. You can drop him a line via his website here: http://www.caam.rice.edu/~fhk2/
I need to express my gratitude to Pizza My Heart for providing pizza on Saturday. Those pizzas showed up at just the right time.
Finally, thanks to Aldo Ghiozzi and Impressions Distribution for providing the raffle prizes.
Budget Lessons Learned:
I wound up spending too much on the game design contest kits. They wound up costing about $20 per kit. Next time I plan to keep the cost down to no more than $15 per kit.
After observing what/how the food was consumed I'm confident I can be more efficient in what is provided next time. We wound up with extra bread and meat, but ran out of jelly and cheese. With Pizza My Heart AND Costco pizza Saturday night we wound up with two leftover pizzas (out of 16). I'll get the Peanut Butter and Jelly going day one, provide water, and get more veggie platters.
I think I should charge $50 or $55 per designer badge so that we are not dependent on sponsors to provide food.
Costs and budget for Unpub Protospiel San Jose 2014
The winning game: Monster Hunter by (L to R) Chris Castagnetto, Antonio Romeo and Grant Rodiek.
Why even do the game design contest?
The game design contest is a good exercise for designers, and a fun activity for players. One of the primary goals of the contest is to attract players to the event. Roughly half of the people participating in the contest were players, not designers. The design contest provides another reason attend as a player.
Holding the contest in the larger room was loud, crowded and inconvenient. Next time we will hold the design contest in the smaller room, and put everybody there on notice that they will have to move out for duration of the design contest. Much like we did for the industry panel.
It was hard for some teams to field a team of three people. Next time we will likely allow to man teams.
Designating a winner and providing a certificate on site turned out to be a big plus. The winning game immediately generated interest from a publisher.
Thanks to Franklin Kenter for making the looping slideshow at the registration desk outlining how the games scored and announcing the winner. I would like to plan on doing a slideshow with a photo of each game and each team next time.
Teale Fristoe of Nothing Sacred Games has agreed to take on running the Game Design contest next time. Thank you Teale! Shadow Throne, which Teale tested at Unpub Protospiel is on Kickstarter now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/77978264/shadow-throne
Lessons Learned:
Hold the design contest in the smaller room at Game Kastle, or a designated area that is not so loud.
Limit the judge panel to five. Enough to break ties, but not enough to cause over crowding.
Use smaller, cheaper kits with less materials. The kits wound up costing $20 each and I got feedback that there was too much stuff in there. It was overwhelming for people.
We may add a theme, requirement or design restriction next time.
Provide recognition for the winner and the teams. A certificate for the top two games and a slideshow of all games and teams.
Game Design Contest Teams
I got a lot of feedback that the industry guest panel was too large and lacked moderation. That is true. This was my first time doing this kind of thing and I executed poorly. Despite the sloppy organization, the panel did provide a great deal of useful information. Several designers expressed that the content was very useful to them and will help prevent costly mistakes.
Next time I plan to do two panels, one Friday night and one Saturday night. They will be limited to 5 or so people each, including a moderator. I have two people who have volunteered to moderate.
It was suggested that we use NPR style written questions. People write out their questions and the moderator uses that bank of questions. Seems like a great idea.
I would like to do one panel titled “Everything but Kickstarter” where talking about Kickstarter is banned in order to focus on other topics. The second panel would be allowed to talk about Kickstarter, and thus would likely be all about Kickstarter. :-)
Lessons Learned:
Split the industry panel into two and limit each panel to no more than five people.
Designate a moderator for each panel.
Provide paper and pens for NPR style written questions collected in advance.
Designate one panel to not discuss Kickstarter at all so that other questions and areas can be addressed.
Thanks to our industry guests who took time to participate in the panel.
From left to right: Richard Bliss, Grant Rodiek, Kevin G. Nunn, Eric Vogel, Ted Alspach, Aldo Ghiozzi, Sam Waller, David Sirlin, Seth Jaffe and Jeff Cornelius.
From left to right: Richard Bliss, Grant Rodiek, Kevin G. Nunn, Eric Vogel, Ted Alspach, Aldo Ghiozzi, Sam Waller, David Sirlin, Seth Jaffe and Jeff Cornelius.
Boomtown Bandits by Isaac Epp had perhaps the best "curb appeal" in the house.
I wanted to address some questions and concerns I got after the event and provide some insight into the process.
Why didn’t you provide feedback forms?
Because not all designers use paper feedback forms. Many designers make their own forms with specific questions or custom metrics they are looking to measure. I had a half dozen printed feedback forms on hand just in case somebody forgot theirs or panicked and asked for help.
Why should I even bother to use paper feedback forms? Whats wrong with verbal feedback?
This is a great question. I’m going to quote Candy Webber here “I find that people are a lot more honest on paper they they are verbally.” This is true.
I highly suggest you use a paper feedback form. I personally like the Unpub form, it is great to start with. I would also encourage you to use your smart phone to record audio feedback or the discussion after your game. Being able to review comments, tone of voice, and suggestions in a less hectic environment is immensely useful.
Why didn’t you provide a public registry with names and contact info for designers and industry guests? Many academic conferences do this.
Some of our guests and designers are very guarded with their contact info. Many publishers don’t want to get spammed by a bunch of designs that they saw at the event and passed on. Several people asked me to keep their contact information private.
Next time, I will offer an opt in directory of names and contact info. This will give people the option of sharing their contact info, but contact info will remain private by default.
Why didn’t you provide a orientation email?
I just didn’t have enough time/help to pull that off. An orientation email is a good idea and I intend to do that next time.
The orientation email include:
1. How to opt-in to the public contact list.
2. A notice that Unpub and Protospiel are open by default. If you have a secret game, suggested steps to maintain secrecy.
3. A blurb about how to give your game Curb Appeal and prepare for the event.
4. Play other people’s games if you want them to play yours. That is just good manners in the world of Unpub and Protospiel. It is quite rude if you don’t play other designers games.
5. A link to the Unpub feedback form and a blurb about the value of written feedback.
Lessons Learned:
Providing an orientation email with basic tips would be very helpful.
There is some demand for an Opt In contact registry.
Designers have different processes and attitudes about feedback. Many don’t desire to use written or recorded feedback.
