E3 was an incredible experience. Our booth had nonstop attention from both the media and fans. We finally also had our first two people beat the game! To celebrate we gave out some of Gonzalo’s artwork for the project.
However, as incredible as E3 was I did have some reservations. For one it was almost too busy, neither Gonzalo nor I ever really had the chance to leave the booth and explore the conference ourselves. This meant that we never had the opportunity to network with other developers or try out any of the demos. My only other second reservation was the inclusion of general fans this year; while it’s great to show off to fans there are already plenty of other conventions, such as PAX, which were made for that. It made us more swamped and distracted than we would have been otherwise.
For anyone else planning to go to the conference I have a few strong suggestions. First of all be sure to have any networking materials, such as business cards or your portfolio, prepared well ahead of time; it is incredibly time consuming and expensive to get them day of. Second, be sure to bring enough members of your team to the conference so that you can rotate out. This will keep people from getting too burned out and will also give you all time to actually enjoy the conference. Finally, have an elevator pitch prepared for your game; it makes getting people’s attention and interviews much easier.
Aside from my few complaints, it was an amazing experience that was well worth the flight from Japan.
Jonathan DiGiacomo 