Commissioned image alternate version with QR code. That was the back of my Gamescom t-shirts!

Originally I thought to post this just here, but then I thought "this is a cautionary tale for /r/gamedev". So, posted it there and got some nice feedback to boot!

So, here's a Gamescom tale of a low-risk, low-reward attempt at marketing, which ended up being no-reward. At least, I think I wisened up a little bit!

Background

I'd go to Gamescom for work (I'm a lecturer by day, and I was part of a research project that had a VR demo at Gamescom). Blissfully unaware of business and what conventions the hip kids attend these days, it was brought to my attention that Gamescom is pretty big! OK cool, we'll be busy at the booth. About two months before the event, I had the fine idea: "Hey! I can advertise my game there, passively! I'm going to print a t-shirt, showing some game art, and plaster a QR code on there for the curious, that leads to my steam page. Brilliant idea!" (I'm literally laughing as I'm writing this)

Preparation

I "photobashed" an idea (it's this one -- 1337 art skillz I know) and sent some requests to artists on Fiverr. One artist replied with an example image, that I loved and thought it fits the vibe perfectly. Ok, sweet monies, I bid you farewell. The timing was perfect, and after several iterations, lo and behold, I got my lovely art full with layers and all.

After that I thought "why be prompt and look around local shops for a t-shirt when I can stress last minute and buy from Amazon?". And I did exactly that. Got three t-shirts from 3 dubious sounding companies, hoping that at least one is ok. Almost ready!

Interlude: Holidays, sun! And anticipation and curiosity about the event

Gamescom

Our booth apparently was quite near the indie and retro areas. How cool! (they were the best areas by far). So, after the event started, I dutifully wore my t-shirts every day. Having three of them helped on the "don't be a bum" front. After each day, I was curious to see if there was any change in the wishlists, if anybody got curious enough to just snap a picture and click through that code.

Well, the results speak for themselves!. On the day that was the busiest, I got 0 wishlists! I usually get a trickle daily, but zero??? Then I put that grey matter at work, for a bit of ...

Reflection

Here are my thoughts:

  • While I was at the event, I was not active sharing videos/screenshots on Reddit/Twitter/Mastodon/Youtube. That's where the trickle comes from!
  • Everyone at the event was saturated with game imagery. Especially at the indie area, the density of game imagery was very, very high. This means, that game imagery is a drop in the ocean
  • Many people were wearing game t-shirts or dressing funky or cosplaying. So, the t-shirt didn't stand out on that front either!
  • I don't think tame passive advertising like that works there, since there's so much active advertising.
  • Even game booths have a hard time standing out. Animation is important! (I'm getting ideas, mind you, for next event, maybe GodotCon next year). Some people had christmas lights around the screens to attract attention. Sounds silly, but they did attract mine (or maybe I'm weird?)
  • Showcasing the game is very important. Not sure what the demo scope would be for that, but this is something to figure out on another day (feel free to share wisdom!) in a way that showcases the strengths of what's already there, hiding what's missing. And obviously, go to more places where the game can be showcased.

On the bright side, I quite like the art so I cropped it and put it on Steam, replacing my previous horrible one. So, money definitely not wasted!

That's all folks -- maybe some of that sounds "Duh", but thought I'd share in case it's not!

TLDR: I printed t-shirts with my game's art and a QR code, wore them at Gamescom and I got a whopping 9 wishlists.

PS. A single guy came on the last day and asked if he could take a photo of my back. Thanks man! :D

In other news, I'm halfway through a big refactor on items, that started with just items, but it's expanding to equipment enchantments, anything that can be picked up and also anything that we can interact with in the environment. So ... a lot of things. More information next time.