It's an expo, it's about games, it's in the UK

Another UK Games Expo has come and gone, and if you are paying attention to analogue games news, you may well have seen the numbers, which are significantly up from last year, and almost double the pre-Covid peak attendance. The event now occupies all five of the main halls (though with some unused space in some of them) around the NEC's central piazza space as well as a load of smaller rooms and a significant portion of the nearby Hilton hotel. It's not the biggest event of its type in the world, but it is flipping huge. I played only a handful of games (all on Friday night as it happens), but that isn't the point for me...

As has been the case for the last few years, my involvement in Expo has centred on the Playtest Zone, which was in the same spot as it was last year, which is a great little area at the side of hall 2, alongside a load of stalls related to university game design programmes and the Panda GM area that provides spaces for ad hoc meetings to anyone who needs them, which is a great facility to have.

The Playtest Zone in full flow.

There were over 200 game designers with us over the three days of the show, with a huge variety of games, the prototypes varying from shiny, professionally printed ones, all the way down to cards hand-drawn in pencil. I can tell you that I have a real soft spot for the games that are closer to the basic end of that continuum. Unfortunately I didn't get to play any of the games, but the buzz around the place was amazing.

For big chunks of time, we actually had a queue of players wanting to test something, and they stood incredibly patiently for spaces to become available. It's a wonderful thing to see how many people want to play unpublished games, and how many come over specifically for the experience. And hanging out with such a wide range of game designers and other folks (especially the other volunteers) is always a pleasure and a privilege.

Time for a little rant, though... Every year we have a few designers (or even publishers) booking playtesting slots, where it is clear that their objective is to promote their crowdfunding project. The most egregious one of these I spotted this time was a very nice crew who finished their spot and as they were packing up I asked (as I often do) how things went and whether they had useful feedback. Their answer was that it was great, but they weren't looking for feedback because the game was done. I stepped away at that point and did some breathing exercises.

So what? Well, the objective of the playtest zone is to enable designers of all levels of experience to get feedback from "normal" gamers, while also providing something fun and interesting for those gamers. We explicitly aren't there to provide a free demo table for publishers. We don't really have the ability to stop this sort of stuff happening, but if you are reading this and are someone who is looking to promote your game, please know that I understand how hard it is to build up a buzz around your game and you just want to take opportunities, but you are preventing another designer having an opportunity.

Note: I am just a regular volunteer and opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of anyone who organises anything or is in any position of authority.

Magical Artifacts around the middle of the game.

Back on the main plotline, I had a playtesting slot, and this time it was Magical Artifacts, which was played by a group who had played some of my games in previous years (thanks folks!) and threw themselves right into the game. Unfortunately we didn't quite get to complete the game in the allotted time (an hour of play for four players and we had a couple of rounds left to go), but I got some useful notes. The key stuff is still to find ways to make some rules explanations clearer, and probably to tighten up cost and benefit balance a bit.

Something else I'd like to mention is the Indie Market, organised by the lovely folk who organise the Bastion convention that I have been to a few times in North Wales. This was a room with some 15 or 16 designers selling small print run games for a couple of hours, and this had a huge queue of those of us who wanted to buy stuff, which meant big delays to get into the room. It seemed to be a huge success overall, and I understand the Expo organisers are planning to allocate more space to this for next year. 

It has basically taken me a week to get myself into a state where I can think about or do anything much, but now I'm back, and I'm still buzzing about the amazing vibes from the event. I'm looking forward to next year already.

An ironic sign at the Hilton. To be fair, this was at the bar,
while they had a huge amount of other space for folk to play in.