Detour! Playcrafting NYC Summer Expo

A wonderful friend of mine showed me an email for an upcoming event for playtesting video games a few weeks ago. The tag line for Playcrafting NYC was certainly appealing!

100 games. 700 players. 1 night. And pizza.

“How do I sign up?” I think to myself. Fast-forward a couple weeks, I found the wind in my sails, and I built some long-awaited features, including:

  • Extra lives for co-op survival
  • Co-op players respawn with an EXPLOSION
  • Rebalanced monster spawn rates
  • The leader(s) of versus round-based matches wear a crown!
  • Stat tracking code cleaned up
  • Stat screen updated to reflect all characters

Playcrafting NYC Summer Expo

Two of my closest friends joined me, and we survived the biggest show this game (and I) have been to yet. I learned quite a few things about expos, namely:

  • Don’t set up in the hallway unless you’re okay with less traffic, as counterintuitive as that sounds
  • Especially don’t set up next to the hip-hop drinking game, hosted by someone who shouldn’t be allowed to have an airhorn
  • If you do set up in the hallway, snag a table and as many chairs as possible
  • Bring a big screen, possibly even a projector
  • Bring takeaway trinkets, people will ask for them
  • If you don’t have takeaways, improvise.
  • Having simple 8.5 x 11″ signs with game and media details was extremely handy
  • Inform your helpers with the answers to common questions
  • Take lots of pictures and videos, and as the developer, be in those photos

Here’s the photos from the event we did manage to snag:

I will definitely show the game at the next Playcrafting NYC event, which I believe close to Halloween! Perhaps by then I’ll have added some more spooky monsters and environments. Until then, this was a great stepping stone, and my next goal is to take what I’ve learned to A Video Game Con in September. See you there!

P.S. Happy one year anniversary of Kingdom Bash development! I’ll write a proper post about that soon I swear…