Game companies can market their studio and games by attending to the events and conferences where they can showcase their games at a booth. Minimum tools to showcase games at a booth is efficient laptop, but it is better to show them on bigger screen, because it will attract more people. It is also important to brand the booth, for example with a banner of the game studio or game, so it will be more inviting. Anything that can be given to visitors at the booth is a crowd pleaser, but it is recommended to have at least business cards and flayers or printed QR codes, which helps visitors to get essential information quickly. Limiting demo sessions gives more people time to try the game and after testing it is good to clean all gaming equipment. (Bularca 2016.)
At GDC there is something for every game company
There are huge amounts of different game events and conferences worldwide and some of them are also free. Even if the event itself is free, travelling costs may end up high. Before attending game events, game companies should figure out which one of the events suits their needs. (Bularca 2016.)
Game Developers Conference (GDC) is a premier professional event for game industry, which brings the game development community together. It is a five-day-long event, where attendees can learn new things from the game industry, get inspiration and network with other game developers. The event includes The GDC Expo area, where game industry related companies can showcase their products or services. (GDC Staff 2022a.) GDC 2022 was held in San Francisco Moscone Convention Center in the 21st to 25th of March with 12 000 game industry professional visitors. There was also possibility to attend offline and 5000 people took advantage of the GDC virtual platform. (GDC Staff 2022b.)
Game companies showcasing their business at the Baltic Explorers booth
The Baltic Explorers game industry project in an EU funded project which goal is to help game companies from four Baltic Sea Region countries, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Sweden to grow their business in global game markets, especially in North American and Asian markets. The project helped a few of its participating game companies to travel San Francisco and attend GDC 2022. Game companies could show their business at the Baltic Explorers booth or by arranging meetings through MeetToMatch platform.
Author
Katri Putkonen works as a Project Expert in the Baltic Explorers game industry project at the LAB University of Applied Sciences. She is also Board Member of IGDA Finland Lahti Hub.
Sources
Bularca, L. 2016. How to show your indie game at any expo. Game Developer. Cited 22 Jun 2022. Available at https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/how-to-show-your-indie-game-at-any-expo
GDC Staff. 2022a. About GDC. Cited 22 Jun 2022. Available at https://gdconf.com/about
GDC Staff. 2022b. News – GDC 2022 Welcomed Over 17,000 Attendees to the In-Person and Virtual Event. Cited 22 Jun 2022. Available at https://gdconf.com/news/gdc-2022-welcomed-over-17000-attendees-person-and-virtual-event
Links
Link 1. Baltic Explorers. 2020. Project. Cited 15 Dec 2021. Available at https://balticexplorers.eu/
Link 2. IGDA Finland. 2021. About us. Cited 15 Dec 2021. Available at https://www.igda.fi/about-us
