miércoles, 17 de agosto de 2016

Mallorca Game and Gamelab 2016

I want to discuss today our experience during two videogames events that we had by the end of June: Mallorca Game and Gamelab. These two events are very different from each other, with the former being targeted at a broader audience, and the latter oriented towards professional game developers.

Mallorca Game

The fourth edition of this event brought a big deal of attention from gamers and cosplayers.  It was a two-days event where people could buy almost anything you can imagine from the videogames and manga worlds, and where we, the indie game developers, could showcase our game. We had a long table with enough space to set up everything we needed to present our game Breaking Fast. We hung some posters, prepared our monitor and four controllers, and laid some promotional material on the table, such as flyers and business cards.


We didn't expect such a big audience, and again like in Boston and Cartagena, the feedback was really valuable and positive. People from all ages played our game and especially some kids wouldn't let go the controller for a (too) long period of time.


As part of the event, there were three awards to the three best indie games that were presented at the so-called Mallorca Game Awards. In the gala ceremony, which was held during the last day, we were awarded with the second prize to the best indie game.


We were 'snatched' the first prize by Cubotrox, an amazing and innovative puzzle game created by two twin brothers from Valencia that we got to meet, coincidentally, at Gamelab.

As usual in our trips, we took some time off in order to visit Mallorca and enjoy really nice food.



Gamelab

As I mentioned before, whereas Mallorca Game was targeted at a broad audience, Gamelab was very focused on professional game developers. Actually, the number of attendants seemed to be lower than at Mallorca Game, and the quality of the conferences was amazing (e.g. John Romero...).

 
The feedback that we gained was more polished and concrete, although not so many people played Breaking Fast. David Mariscal, who is collaborating with us, came to help us out.


While in Mallorca we had a long table for us (actually more space than we actually needed), at Gamelab the space was too narrow. Being a multiplayer game, it was kind of annoying when four players wanted to play together, as they'd have to stand too close to each other and still they would take part of the space from the indie games to our right and left.


One of the main benefits of attending an event of recognized prestige like Gamelab (in addition to the feedback) is the possibility of networking with other important indie teams and professionals of different videogames-related areas. And this networking does not boil down to talking during the event, but also after the official time. In particular, a party was organized in a cottage with a big swimming-pool and free beer.
 

Two guys from Machinima SBOC, with whom we had the chance to talk, wanted to record the event live (but they finally couldn't because there was no Wi-Fi available). Yet they made a couple of videos about their experiencie at Gamepolis and they played our game, Breaking Fast! :D


As I said before, we met Cubotrox makers, and although we didn't know them by that time, we would meet them later at Gamepolis (more on this in the following post). You can take a look at other great indie games presented at Gamelab here.