I recently occupied a booth over a weekend at GDX for the second year in a row. I brought three games; Legumi, Edmontonian Slapp, and Spritz the Happy Onion. Over the course of three days, I’ve spent about 30 hours explaining these games to hundreds of people. My voice is coarse, and I was really not excited about going to work on Monday, but I had a blast and I can’t wait for next year.

GDX was a bit different than last year. In 2023, GDX took place in two of the Expo centre ballrooms which were a bit out of the way, and this year it took place in Hall F, between the shopping halls. This meant that while it was a bit darker, and a lot louder, it was also much much busier. And these weren’t gamer people who decided to go to the video game show, these were just regular people passing through. I could spend a million dollars on playtesting and not get the amount of valuable feedback I got this weekend. There was a bit of confusion I think; a lot of people had to be convinced that the games were free to play, (nothing is free at KDays,) and they seemed less into gaming in general, but I think if GDX stays in hall F (and I hope they do,) it’ll gain familiarity over time, and become something people look forward to. 

Everyone did seem to have a good time once they knew what was going on. The three flavours of good time were: “Oh neat! I’m supporting local art!”, “Oh neat! Video games!”, and “Oh neat! Something to occupy my kids for five minutes!” The sourpusses who weren’t into any of these things were rare.

This year, rather than being three days long, the exhibition covered a week and two weekends, and the indie booths were split into three “waves”. It seemed like there was enough flexibility and wiggle room here that anyone could have as many of any waves as they wanted. Some booths covered two waves, or even all of them. (I only asked for one wave, and let them choose which one.)

I think this was great. Obviously it’s great for GDX to be running that long. It’s also great for the patrons coming through, as it gives them an opportunity to come back to see the fresh batches of games and developers over the coming days. Last year, I was too busy to play many of the games at the other booths. But this year, since my exhibitor pass let me in during the whole thing, I was able to pop by during the other waves and play games and network for hours. I’m 99% sure I played every game demonstrated, and had a conversation with almost all the developers. The amount of work on my part wasn’t really any more or less than it was last year, unless I wanted it to be. The only downside to this approach, I think, is that it takes a bit of explaining. If people wanted to drop by to support me in particular, they have to read my posts carefully: GDX is from then to then, but I’LL be there from THEN to then. I didn’t see a few people who told me they would drop by, and I’m not sure if it was confusion or if it just slipped their minds. Very minor issue, though! If the show were still only three days long, we’d all be at the whim of when they decide to go to KDays anyways. If my friends accidentally had to endure a show floor full of OTHER excellent games, and then have their regularly scheduled fun in the sun, and then arrange a time with me to play them at another time, I might consider that a minor win.

Things I’ve always loved about GDX and are now tradition: 

• Enthusiastic volunteers that give out snacks, water, and bathroom breaks to people hanging out on their own! 
• A welcoming and passionate community of indie game devs that feels like a passionate community of any other kind of indie artist.
• Meeting out-of-towners! 

My experience specific things:

I brought Eden this year. She helped a tonne, bringing snacks and buying dinners and teaching people how to play when i was busy teaching people how to play and letting me pee and resetting games and honestly I’m not sure I can go back to doing it on my own.

I was going to bring a CRT TV to hook up Spritz the Happy Onion to, but I was talked out of it. It would have just been too unwieldy. I had enough stuff that Eden and I could easily carry the laptop, stands, print material, food, etc. on the bus. Maybe I’ll bring it next year, it really would have been a great gimmick. 

The reception of my games vs. expectations

Last year, I brought Edmontonian Slapp and Legumi, this year I brought those same two games and a prototype of Spritz the Happy Onion. Legumi is my exploration adventure game, certainly my meatiest quest, Spritz the Happy Onion is a momentum-based platform game akin to Mario (the faster you’re running the higher you jump, the challenge comes less from exploration and combat and more from jumping from thing to thing,) and Edmontonian Slapp is a goofy hockey-sortof-game for 2-4 people in which all the selectable characters are Edmonton stuff like Cosmo and Burger Baron. 

The following is what people thought!

Legumi

Legumi got the same reception it did last year and every other time I’ve ever demoed it live. You have to fall in love with it, and you might have a frustrating first date. You either play it for a few moments and decide it’s not your thing, or you sit there drooling for twenty minutes as the bean-time-pip-memorisation-preparedness loop takes your mind as intended. Interestingly, I think all three of my games drew people in equally this year, and that might be due to the character art I had printed for each game. (The heroes all peeked out from behind the monitors.)  I noticed that typically if little girls were going to pick one to try, they wanted to try Legumi. Possibly because it looked a bit more chill than the others, possibly because he’s cute as heck.

I feel like I talk about Legumi a lot, but that might not be the case. Something I’ll say for it here that I told a couple people over the weekend is I’m not sure anyone has actually beaten the game, but I think the ending is very satisfying. Leading up to GDX I was trying to think of a prize I could offer for anyone who could prove they’ve beaten it, but couldn’t really think of anything good enough. 

Edmontonian Slapp

Edmontonian Slapp was originally created for GDX 2023. It was something quick and silly I thought I could throw together in time to draw people in, and I did, and it worked. However, the characters controlled like the spaceships in Astroids, (left and right rotated, and then there was a button to “thrust” forward.) A lot of people needed a minute to wrap their head around it, and not everyone had the patience. In the intervening year I’ve done very little to it; I replaced Bill Benson with Wop May because no one knew who Bill Benson was, I made a nicer character selection menu, I fixed some bugs, and I had Madi make some music for it. One other little tweak: I made it so that you could move simply by pointing the analog stick the direction you want to go. This last little edit elevated Edmontonian Slapp from a funny conversation starter into a genuinely excellent party game. EVERYONE got it. Grandparents. Little tiny children. Slightly larger children. Teenagers. Moms. Dads. University students. Boys, girls, everything in between. Experienced gamers. Casual gamers. “I love hockey,” good, go for it. “I don’t really like hockey,” neither do I, this isn’t really anything like it. At least one kid who’s “never played video games before” got pretty good at it. Parents would drop their kids off with me for a break, and then join in for round two. Nobody, and I was watching for it, nobody wasn’t smiling by the end of their first match*. One mom asked if I did birthday parties. It was a huge hit. I can’t believe I’m giving it away for free. Somebody hire me before I starve to death.

*There was one little boy who wanted to play Legumi, but his older brother made him play Edmontonian Slapp. The little brother proceeded to beat the big brother at it, and so the big brother decided he did not like the game. He is the exception to the smiling thing.

Spritz the Happy Onion

Spritz the Happy Onion surprised me. I’d made it to sort of show off as my next big thing, coming this December, but the buzz around it was kindof lukewarm. Generally people thought the character design was cute, and liked the mechanic of jumping off the background, but had a tough time with it. Surprisingly tough. So tough that after day one, I reduced the gravity to make things a little easier the rest of the weekend. That did seem to help. 

I worry that maybe the game came off as a bit of a dog’s breakfast of ideas, because it is. Simple, intuitive, interesting ideas, but a dog’s breakfast nonetheless. It’s also possible that the game is in a very early state, and just needs polish. Whatever the case, more so than anything else I’ve made, it’s going to be very important to playtest this game. I am also a bit more worried about a Mid-december release than I was a week ago. I already paid the Steam listing fee, so time to focus, I guess! 

But these new, pessimistic thoughts are necessary for the creative process and I don’t know where I would have gotten them if not GDX. So, thank you, GDX!

Final Thoughts

GDX is one of my favourite conventions to be a part of. It is comfortable, welcoming, flexible, busy, likes having me around, free, and is on an upwards trajectory. I never had a concern that wasn’t addressed, or a moment of stress that wasn’t dealt with. It is a superbly organised event and I can’t wait until next year.