Hello everyone,
Gamescom is over and I wanted to write a little review here for you. For everyone who couldn't/wouldn't attend or for everyone who would like to know something about the numbers.
Gamescom ran from Wednesday 21.08 to Sunday 25.08.
On Wednesday 21.08 the press and streamers were allowed to see everything (and private visitors who bought an extra ticket from 1 pm)
On 22.08 and 23.08 all halls were open
On 24.08 and 25.08 the business halls were closed. All other halls for private visitors were open.
The Indie Arena (Hall 10.2) is intended for an indie game like Summer Islands. There were several options here every year. The largest area is the Indie Arena Booth. You apply for this and a jury evaluates whether a game is selected or not. Then you pay a 4-digit amount fee according to how much space you want.
Alternatively, there is Home of Indies. Here you can simply buy a place as long as there is still room. This also costs a 4-digit amount of money, but you have to pay extra for many services (hardware, posters, etc.).
Another alternative is to be accommodated at another larger booth, e.g. each federal state always wants to show which games have been developed there and you can apply for that. Or you can do what we did and get a small area with another game developer in exchange for a sum of money. There were several small indie developers who were given the opportunity to show their games at Studio Bad Spiele.
Of course, this has advantages and disadvantages. Many people from the press, politicians, streamers or private individuals assume that the Indie Arena Booth is the place for indie games. Even if there are other large company booths right next to it that are not directly related to gaming. You could see it on some faces when there were smaller indie games on display elsewhere. So you had to generate a bit more attention here.
The advantage, on the other hand, is that you can get into Gamescom for a smaller amount of money and therefore also into all the additional displays, such as the Gamescom website and Steam Gamecom event. Don't get me wrong. A 4-digit sum of money was also due here, just not as high as for the others.
We provided the hardware ourselves because I had a computer at home and we only lived a 30-minute walk from the exhibition.
We had the following plan for the expected 300,000 visitors:
- 3,000 x business cards with QR code
- 12,000 x stickers (volcano, normal island, other island, bird with water, white bird, logo)
Everyone who walked by and took a look at Summer Islands or looked like a potentially interested person was offered a business card and stickers.
The aim was basically to make the game a little better known and we managed to do that.
Between the three of us, we were able to distribute some 1,800 business cards and 8,000 stickers. Many people love the stickers and especially the ones with the birds.
Over the days, around 1100 people added Summer Islands to their wishlists
With 5 days non-stop 12 hours on your feet, handing out stickers and explaining Summer Islands, you were a bit “exhausted” afterwards ;)
But I would like to thank everyone who came by, just to say hello, test or give feedback.
I was able to take some new ideas with me and am already working on integrating them.
But of course also a big thank you to everyone who sent feedback or bugs via mail or Steamforum.
To summarize, I have a positive feeling about our first Gamescom booth and I am excited to see if we will be there again with another game in the future.
As already mentioned, I'm working hard on the next update. The plan is to integrate a few more improvements in the next version and then release the full version at the end of the year 2024.
I.e. v0.9.5 should be released at the end of 09.2024. This leaves enough time to prepare the full version and inform the press and YouTube accordingly.
I don't want to give too much away about the next updates. In any case, the next update will already contain some of the wishes from the last few weeks ;)
Thank you for your support, feedback and patience.
P.S. If you ❤️ Summer Islands, we would be very 🤩 about a 👍 Review.
Have fun
