Post

Now that I've attended every (in-person) indie game market at least once, I wanted to share my thoughts on each of them. I sold Propaganda, Coupon Clipper, and/or Tricked Out at each market. Coupon Clipper is a more typical game, while Propaganda and Tricked Out are more out there.

8 reposts12 likes

Quick note to start with - I broadly divide customers into 2 types: Impulse Buyers who want a more typical gaming experience and are more price sensitive. Indie Buyers who are looking for more unique experiences. These are the buyers who're also more likely to have heard of your game beforehand.

Dice Tower West Smaller con so less overall sales. Mostly Impulse Buyers. Trick-takers and other cheap small box games do well since they're easy to pick up and play. Games that can be played immediately also do well due to the market being 2 nights (at least this year).

Game Market West A standalone event. Propaganda sold pretty poorly here, but I suspect more accessible games would do well. Downside is the event is longer than the night markets, and there's no attached con to partly justify the trip.

GenCon A lot of people, and jnterestingly more Indie Buyers than Impulse Buyers (I suspect due to the location). A lot of people who bought Tricked Out were looking for it, specifically. It being at GenCon wasn't the be all and end all though, sales were pretty comparable to the other markets.

I was also selling at the PAX West indie game market. I find your experience intriguing, I had the opposite. Color Space is decently complex and it clicked with a majority of people. It's asymmetric and abstract. This makes me wonder if the PNW crowd is more unfamiliar with tricktakers??

In fairness it was only a few groups of people. Tricked Out admittedly is more non-traditional than complicated (it's an expansion for ANY trick-taker which I think is weird for a lot of people). But I can see being wrong about complicated vs simple. (A good sales pitch goes a long way too.)