As I mentioned, I spent the previous week exhibiting at TCAF! After the madness that was getting everything ready and then showing the game, I was totally beat. I’ve taken the week off to recharge so I don’t have a ton to report, but maybe you’re interested in hearing a little about the ups and downs of exhibiting from the perspective of a newbie like myself.

The Booth

Pros: Everything was hooked up to my laptop on the other side of the monitor, letting people see the game from either side of the booth. When not in use, the main menu would display action shots to try and get people interested in playing, which seemed to work! Sometimes passerby would seem to be on the fence, and in that case politely asking if they’d like to play was enough to tip them over. I also had a few little signs printed up at Kinkos, which helped tell people the name of the game and differentiate the first and second-player controllers.

Cons: I had no merch — not even postcards or buttons or whatever. I have some on order, but almost three weeks later and they still aren’t here — I guess the lesson is to order far in advance! Without them, people who were interested in my game and wanted to remember it had to take cellphone pictures and stuff. Not cool. Also, I didn’t have a tablecloth until I saw other booths looking mighty fancy with theirs. I rushed out to the Dollar Store to get one, but it would have been nice to be more prepared and have a bit better presentation.

The Game

Pros: I’m glad I implemented co-op in time — not only did it double the number of people who could try the game, but it was also really motivating to see people getting into it and shouting with excitement at each other. Having the tutorials in-game also helped people learn by playing, which was great. However…

Cons: …seeing this many people play Bleed 2 for the first time, I really got to see where I needed to be more clear. The two-weapon system confused a lot of people: It was fairly common for people to not understand that the attack began with a sword swipe, let alone that they could use it to reflect bullets. Some people didn’t realize they could hold the attack button down to shoot the pistols, and so only used the katana the whole game. Others assumed that pistol bullets wouldn’t hurt the bosses, and insisted on fighting them only by reflecting bullets back. Finally, everyone (EVERYONE) tried killing the innocent civilians. What up with that!!

 

Stats

All in all I’d say it was a success for my first exhibition. I learned a lot, both about exhibiting and about my game. I’ll end this with some stats:

Demo started: 104 times
Last boss reached: 81 times
Demo cleared: 63 times
Average clear time: 7 minutes
Average deaths: 4 per playthrough