Lumote’s First Day Out

One thing devs are always worried about is showing their games to the world while still in the development cycle. You’re always afraid it’s too soon, and that first impression can really make or break the reputation of a game. Well, last week team Luminawesome threw caution to the wind and went to Full Indie Meetup Vancouver. We showed our game for the first time to people who aren’t bound to tell us nice things due to familial ties and it went great! Lumote was well received, people were really drawn in by the visuals and we were able to get some great feedback on how to improve the game. There were some issues we knew about but had yet to address. Watching people play helped us prioritize what needed to be done.

Full Indie gave us good training for “meeting the public” as it were. Kyle showed people the game and watched them play, while Michelle fielded observers and explained the game concept. Aside from ways to improve the game, here are some additional things we learned:

• Eat beforehand! Interacting with people while low on energy is no bueno.
• Have your stuff in an easy to reach place. We ran out of business cards and had to hurdle a table to get to the extras.
• Talk to all the people at the start of the night! At first we were shy and only talking to the people who were upfront and obviously interested. Later we noticed some people would glance at our game from afar but not come over, so we stepped up and started approaching them and had some great conversations. Now we fear nothing! 😉

The most important thing we got out of it was a boost of confidence. Watching people have fun and hearing their overall positive feedback really invigorated us. It’s easy to get discouraged when working in a void and things are slow-going.  We can’t wait to show off our new changes and improvements at the next Full Indie!