With Storm Amy beating down on a grim promenade.  Hundreds of retro gaming fans gathered in the Norcalympia exhibition centre in Blackpool for the 15th annual play expo ran by replay events.  This is the UK's largest retro gaming show, with arcade cabinets, old consoles, LANs, shops, seminars, competitions, pinball machines, and indie developers such as myself

The aim of the weekend was to have fun and gain some experience and exposure for myself and the playdate.  I wasn't there to make money or increase downloads or sales, which took the pressure off.   

My stall

I had 2 laptops, one playing trailers and another one with mirror so others could see what people were playing on device.  I also had a chair with a powerful light (having a beautician for a wife helps) dedicated for people playing as the convention room was dark.  Having the chair made people comfortable whilst playing and they could put down their bags etc.  Also it meant people weren't walking around with my playdate in hand so I had constant visibility on it and them (I had brought security cable ties but didn't need to use them in the end). 

Copying other trade shows I'd been too, I had a prize spinner for the swag which made things more fun and interactive and paced the distribution.  I still had loads left on day 2 and was just giving things out then.  Tip to anyone doing an event, order merch as early as possible and have backup plans for if stuff doesn't show up or goes wrong or is poorly received.

Sweets and stickers  were also the easiest way to grab peoples attention as they were passing.  A few printouts "try the playdate here" etc. helped along with a pull up banner which featured the fantastic Top Binz ! cover art by Rae.

The plan was to have a setup that I could throw all the expensive items (laptops and playdate) into a backpack to easily nip to lunch or the bathroom in breaks (or in my case to play pinball and have a quick photo with legendary doom creator  John Romero).

Reception and feedback.

As expected the playdate was extremely popular and people really enjoyed it.  

It's fascinating seeing people who aren't used to the playdate interact with it and it definitely made me think about how I should be designing games and controls slightly differently.  I was amazed at how many people flick and swoosh the crank around very rapidly.  People really liked damos games titles and I definitely want to revisit some of my older games now I've seen them played in earnest.

Lots of good questions and conversation about the hardware and developing for playdate, hopefully I've inspired people to try pulp or something for the simulator at least.

As mentioned I was there as to show off the playdate generally as well as my own games.  The best way to do this was just put root bear on.  Simple popular concept, playable by everyone, good intro to the crank, with short play times so the line doesn't grow too big.  Then if people were more interested I showed off some other titles or more complicated games

The new 3.0 OS update the day before really helped as I created a folder dedicated to games to show off at the expo.

Common phrases heard throughout the weekend
"playdate!! I've never seen one in person before"
"been tempted to get one of these"
"that's the thing with the crank!"
"it's smaller than I thought it would be"
"that's built really well"
"where can I get one?  why doesn't panic have local distributors?"
"price point is a shame, but I will save up"
"do you work for panic"

Learnings and Future  

It was crazy for me as an individual who just messes around coding for playdate in his spare time, to feature alongside professional software houses and game studios at an expo I have attended before as a visitor.  Never thought I would do anything like this in my life.  All thanks to the way playdate makes development and distribution so accessible and fun.

There's a few different categories of playdate player, which you have to consider when making games.  I might write a separate article on this at some point.

I'm going to try and do more shows in the future with this experience and have even more of a focus on my own games. 

Overall the event was a huge success and massively enjoyable, it's these sorts of things that keep me going as a developer when burnout, scope creep and limited feedback can bring self doubt.

The show will be on again next year so I will be back. 

Info here:  Home - PLAY Expo Blackpool

Special thanks

• Rae - for the Top Binz ! cover art
• Xania lasagna - for helping with merch, promotion and constant support
• Hello playdate podcast - for promotion
• Arisa and the rest of Panic - for support and tips for the stall (and generally for the playdate)
• Ledbetter - for tips on how to run a successful playdate stall at a show
• My wife Ainhoa for helping run the stall and keeping me calm throughout
• Everyone who came to say hello and discuss playdate and gaming in general
• John Romero (obviously)

P.S

For those outside UK who may not be familiar with the phrase:

"go down a storm"
- be enthusiastically received by an audience.
- massively successful and enjoyable