Recap: Game Feedback and Information Flow

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.

Recap: The Challenge of Secrecy

I got some feedback that secret information about games had leaked onto the internet.  I want to discuss that in this post and propose some mitigation measures.

Unpub and Protospiel are by design open events.  Game designers are coming to promote their games, to spread the word, to get players to try the game, and to show their games to publishers.  These events are meant to be a public beta of your game. If your game needs to be a secret, that can be done, but you will need to take some additional measures.

Based on the conversations I had with players on Saturday, somewhere around 30-50% found the event and showed up without ever looking at BoardGameBuilders.com.  Many people found the event on Meetup.com (thanks Joy!), heard about it through Grant Rodiek tweeting (thanks Grant!), found out through Richard Bliss & Aldo Ghiozzi podcasting (thanks guys!), saw a flyer at Game Kastle, or had a friend/co-worker/family member bring them.  We were also listed on Unpub.net, BoardGameGeek, the Board Game Designers Forum (bgdf.com), Yahoo Groups, Reddit and a variety of other places.  I did have a post about secrecy on the website by request, but given how people find the event, the website is of limited effectiveness in reaching players. 

As I mentioned in the attendance post, I did not have enough staff to always talk to the waves of people walking in. Many people wound up playing games without ever checking in at the registration desk or getting a name tag.  I didn’t have the time, staff, or capacity to give each person a speech about certain games being secret.

Here is what I suggest we do next time:

1. Make a request for secrecy when you explain the rules.
If your game is secret and can’t be mentioned on the internet, please clearly state that as part of your rules set up for each and every game. Ted Alpach of Bezier games is a pro at this.  Many times I’ve heard Ted explain the rules for his games and then state “By the way, this has not been announced yet and we are still making changes.  Please don’t post anything about this game on the internet.”

2. Put a large notice ON your game.
Put a big sticker or sign on the board of your game that says “Secret - Please do not post online.”  That way if somebody takes a photo without you noticing, they at least have the chance to see your label.

3. Have a stand up sign on the table.
Have a stand up sign on the table that states in large letters “Secret - Please do not post online.”  This is where I can help.  I can factor into the budget for the event some stand up signs and make those signs available to designers concerned with secrecy.  There were only three designers who expressed concern with secrecy, so we should only need a few signs.

Lessons Learned:
People will find the event from a wide variety of sources.  If you want to boost attendance, cast a wide net.

A great deal of people with will enter the event with minimal contact with the website and registration desk.  

There is no effective way to enforce secrecy at the event level.  If your game is secret, that needs to be enforced at the game/table level.

Recap: Game Kastle Location and Thanks

The Raffle Prizes table on Friday.

First of all, I want to thank Game Kastle for being a fantastic and supportive host.  They made the event possible. All the hotels I talked to wanted $1000 a day (for less space) and the schools I contacted wanted $40+ per hour to rent their cafeteria.

Initially my agreement with the store had three rules:
1. I could provide meals, but snacks should be purchased through the store.
2. I would not provide drinks.  Drinks should be purchased from the store.
3. Friday Night Magic could not be bumped.  We need to clear out by 6 PM Friday.

This contract was based on that I thinking I could get 10-20 designers and 40-80 people over the weekend.  The store was rightly concerned that the revenue they would lose by booting out Pokemon/Net Runner/Minis/RPGs/Etc.  I thought $20 per designer plus these three rules was more than fair.  

Any concerns about the store losing money compared to a normal weekend went away when we had 37 paid designers and 200+ people.  

Game Kastle has been encouraging and flexible through the entire process.  After talking to them, they are willing to host Unpub Protospiel again.   Next time I have no obligation do food or drinks through the store.  We also get to bump Magic out on Friday.  

I had at least a dozen people ask me if I was providing drinks.  I explained that there were not drinks provided but the store sells a variety of beverages.  It surprised me how many people were unwilling to pay for a cheap drink at a free event.  Next time, I plan to have jugs of filtered drinking water in an ice chest. 

Thanks to Tiffany Ralph for bringing a big container of coffee to share.

The plan is to keep the rule that cards against humanity style adult games are not allowed.  I want the event to be family friendly to maximize player attendance.  Restricting adult games is also in line with Game Kastle’s game room policies. 

Lessons Learned:
There is enough demand for Unpub Protospiel to warrant taking over Game Kastle for three full days.

Provide some form of water.

Continue the family friendly restriction to maximize attendance. 

Thanks to:

Franklin Kenter for providing $100 to subsidize the game design kits.
Ted and Toni of Bezier Games for funding Pizza Saturday night.
Seth Jaffe and Tasty Minstrel Games for funding Lunch Saturday and Sunday.
Thanks to Pizza My Heart for brining Pizzas on Saturday.
Aldo Ghiozzi and Impressions Distribution for providing the raffle prizes.

Herman Chan and Richard New for driving guests, manning the check in table, helping with Costco runs and a lot more.

Ting Chow and Joy Wright for helping with manning the front desk and Costco runs.

Payton Lee for helping get industry guests to the airport on time.

Grant Rodiek for being the first designer to sign up, for contributing to the industry guest panel and for making great efforts to promote the event and recruit more players.

Tiffany Ralph for helping to promote the event, for bringing coffee and for committing a great deal of her time playing prototype games.

Thank you to the industry guests:
Josh Neiman, Victory Point Games
Barry Pike III, Victory Point Games
Jeff Cornelius, Cosmic Wombat Games
Sam Waller, SlugFest Games
Seth Jaffe, Tasty Minstrel Games
Eric Vogel, representing Evil Hat

Aldo Ghiozzi, Impressions Distribution
Richard Bliss, Funding the Dream Podcast

Kevin G Nunn
Grant Rodiek
David Sirlin, Sirlin Games
Ted and Toni Alspach, Bezier Games

Thank you the people who took an hour out of their busy day to serve as judges for the game design contest:
Aldo Ghiozzi, Jeff Cornelius, Kevin G Nunn, Franklin Kenter, Seth Jaffe, Rob Daviau, Josh Neiman and Barry Pike III of Victory Point Games.

Thank you to the players who paid $1 in advance and let me know they were coming.  It may not seem like a big deal, but it helped me out a lot.  
Aaron Arutunian, Amy Hernandez, Andrew Hoskins, Callan McNamara, Charles Pearson, Christopher Fraasch, Eric Felice, Imran Pirani, Jodi Soares, Ken Tidwell, Lauren Hanf, Michael “Firefly” Perry, Nathaniel Chambers, Roy Zemlicka, Sean Washington, Steve Caires, Tiffany Ralph

Recap: Attendance Numbers

Originally, I told Game Kastle that based on the local prototype nights that I run, I thought I could get 40-80 people over the course of a weekend to attend Unpub Protospiel San Jose.

We wound up clearing 200+ unique people.  I had intended to try and register each and every person as they came in to make sure they all got a raffle entry and name tag.  However, I was overwhelmed with the amount of things people were asking me for, the food runs and trying to man the registration table.  Saturday night, I counted 177 unique raffle tickets (each ticket has the person’s name on it) + 9 people still in the building that slipped past me without a name tag or raffle ticket.  Keep in mind that designers also got a raffle ticket.  On Sunday, I got 20+ more unique players who had not attended Friday or Saturday.

Many people told me that they had taken their raffle ticket home after winning something, and thus they were not in my count.  I can’t estimate how many people I missed counting, so I’m going to stick with unique names that I have documented on paper. 

That puts our total count at:
38 Designers (not counting myself)
8 Industry Guests not counted as designers
167+ Counted Play Testers
___________________
213+ Documented Unique People

For comparison, here are some Protospiel 2013 Attendance Numbers: 
30-40 people - Protospiel South - Austin, Texas 
15 people - Unpub Sacramento, CA.
50-75 people - Protospiel Milwaukee 
80 people - Protospiel - Ann Arbor, Michigan
52 Designers, 253 Play Testers - Unpub 4 (2014) 

That makes Unpub Protospiel San Jose the second largest prototype event in history.  Only Unpub 4 was bigger.

Attendance lessons learned:
I definitely need more volunteer help to keep a more accurate count next time.  Volunteers Herman Chan and Richard New were fantastic help, but the three of us were not enough to cleanly manage 200+ people, panels, registration, the raffle and food.

One of the two rooms on Saturday.

Please don't post prototype photos without permission.

Greetings,

Some of the designers and game companies attending Unpub Protospiel asked what the policy is regarding taking and posting photos online.

Please do NOT post any photos of prototype games online without the permission of the designer.  Many of the games we will be hosting reflect licensees, expansions and artwork that is not yet public knowledge.  Games changes during the prototype process, and there are trolls on the internet that love to criticize prototype photos versus final production copies. 

We get a special privileges of seeing this stuff first.  Please be respectful and ask before you post any photos online.