AGS booth for PAX Australia 2013

[Sughly]

Hey peoples of AGS! After a brief spark of twitter genius, a few of us considered the idea off getting a booth at PAX Australia in 2013 for the purpose of showing of any and all AGS games. The idea came up since, as booths are hella expensive - I was quoted $1800 just for an 'indie desk', which is the bare minimum, or $3,118.50 for the smallest of the regular showroom booths - we figured it could be a wise option to pool our resources and join forces to host a single booth for all AGSers interested.

Now, the first obvious thing is price. I'm not really sure what to suggest, I know that a lot of people have already pooled in money recently for AdventureX, and furthermore there would be some more inclined to pay up since they have commercial titles (like myself) and would be gaining more out of it through sales. Here's a copy of the sales doc that was sent out to me, which outlines all the different booths and sizes, the smallest that I mentioned earlier being 6 total meters for $3,118.50. This would most likely be more than enough for what we need I would think. I highly doubt an 'indie desk' would be ideal, I was told it would be basically a one by three meter table. Or maybe that could be enough? I don't know!

Anyway, this idea is still in it's infancy, so I was more or less putting it up here to start a discussion for it, start getting an idea for who might be interested in participating, and start throwing ideas around for funding it and so forth if enough people are keen! I for one am pretty excited about it, not only to be able to show off my own work at PAX, but to meet other Aus AGSers, and share some of the great stuff in these forums with the PAX folk. Soooo peoples, brainstorm away!

[Wonkyth]

I love how the price goes down to the half dollar.

Also, for what it's worth, I'm definitely gonna be there, and would LOVE to see this happen!

[m0ds]

Indeed, I looked into the Eurogamer expo in London and was quoted £2000 for a one metre by one metre piece of floor per day. It's a lot easier and cheaper to take some business cards and be an individual representative for what you want to promote and just walk about and get talking The public exhibition side is very, very cool but it's so expensive at these larger conventions.

There's also the fact that "AGS" has no donations page and so doesn't have anything to contribute to a pot for its own promotion. Having AGS at a show instead of say Krams design, screen 7 or WEG etc - is an interesting idea. For now a kickstarter may just work to get such a thing at PAX, and it's certainly worth trying for. But AGS is widespread and well known already, in the long run it would be great if AGS could support the funding to go out and promote itself (with people like yourselves as representatives) but when money is tight it's good to go there on the cheap promoting yourself and your games.

You've also got to remember that normally when you buy BOOTH space, you then have to buy or rent the boothing, and that is NOT cheap. The $3000 pays for your piece of floor, but then you add all the extras like a table for $500 a day and boothing for $10,000 a minute. So the single table at a cheaper price is, IMO, the one to aim for! If you're getting table in the price, you're doing well... The reason you don't see AGS and AGS companies on the main floors is because the pricing is ridonkulous, and such is why they introduce the indie area at a cheaper (but still mean) price. It's worth getting on the floor if you're a big, BIG name - and that's really what it's reserved for.

So I say shoot for the $1800 space with a Kickstarter or something, I'd certainly chip in a little - whether it was space for you as Krams Design or for some sort of representation of AGS - it's all good!

My one word of warning: Kickstarter it and you'll introduce perks, which could be difficult for someone just trying to 'exhibit' at a show. Heck knows what you would offer. A donations system (ie if AGS site had one) would be soooooo much easier. Perks add a lot of strain onto a project developer, it's catch 22 - you start a campaign to try and alleviate some of the problems/stress behind a project only to create 20 new ones at different pricing tiers.

Following the alternative even cheaper route - we could spend $30 on 500 business cars with "AGS" on them, to handout and such. I still have some of the business cards I got at ECTS in 2002, so it's cheap promotion that works... Or I'm just a hoarder 

[Duzz]

I love the idea!  I've seen http://www.pozible.com used to raise funds for events (like the IGDAM bbq) in melbourne.

I wouldn't be able to participate directly, since I work for EA and I'm not technically supposed to work on projects outside work... But I'd totally back it, and come hang out.

[AGA]

A donations system (ie if AGS site had one) would be soooooo much easier. Perks add a lot of strain onto a project developer, it's catch 22 - you start a campaign to try and alleviate some of the problems/stress behind a project only to create 20 new ones at different pricing tiers.

If the AGS site had a donations page it's unlikely it would earn enough to go towards something like this.  First and foremost it would go towards paying hosting costs!

[Kweepa]

I wouldn't be able to participate directly, since I work for EA and I'm not technically supposed to work on projects outside work...

Jeez, talk about shortsighted. They should be encouraging hobby projects, not quashing them.

[Stee]

I wouldn't be able to participate directly, since I work for EA and I'm not technically supposed to work on projects outside work...

Jeez, talk about shortsighted. They should be encouraging hobby projects, not quashing them.

It's actually more common than you think.

These expo prices are way too expensive for a true indie

[amateurhour]

They're not really that high considering the space they have to work with. I mean they're not really there to cater to indie game makers in the "one guy, one game" category, there's smaller shows and distribution methods there (I.E. the people here that make games that get interviewed on Indie blogs, etc.)

Shows like PAX that have indie booth prices are more for new studios looking to make a full time career in the gaming industry, or get their products name out there.

[Sughly]

Thanks for putting in some feedback guys! It looks to be a bit of a troublesome endeavour though - I managed to get through to one of the reps in charge of the booths, and he pretty much said that if we went as a group under the AGS name, we'd only be able to promote games and such purely as AGS, and would kind of need to strip all the games of their logos and brand identities. Which... seems a little redundant. I mean, the games would still be getting recognition, sure, but not really towards the developers. Also it seems the indie table idea is not on for this idea, it's a single dev thing that goes through a selection process to even be allowed.

So, poop. Might not be that great of an idea after all :/

[CaptainD]

Ah well, maybe it won't work so well then... it certainly wasn't a bad idea though   , just that their rules are a bit too strict!

I did email Andrew at Brawsome Games about this just in case we could do some sort of tie-in (I presume he'll be there), but with the one booth, one developer rule that probably wouldn't work either. 

[Sughly]

I did email Andrew at Brawsome Games about this just in case we could do some sort of tie-in (I presume he'll be there), but with the one booth, one developer rule that probably wouldn't work either. 

Ah thanks for that! I had thought of him as someone to talk to about it. But yeah, I think it is a bit lame and overly strict really, the whole one identity allowed thing.