A Dev-X has appeared. Adding to my ever-growing anxiety dragon list of things To Do is come up with a standard entrance greeting or sign-off. Like Stan Lee’s Excelsior or Casa Aryeto’s taino Mabrika, something I can throw up front or the back end and you all will just know pfft, that’s X. Preamble aside, thanks for being here.
Last week on July 25th, we had two representatives down at BrookLAN, a gaming and e-sport lounge @345 Troutman St in Brooklyn. Special Shout out and thanks to you guys @BrookLAN for this opportunity. It was quite the experience for them, some parts good, some parts bad and all parts enlightening.
Starting with the Bad parts so we can end this on strong and happy feelings. It was so loud, from the excited testers of the video games, the games themselves and the developers pushing to sell their idea to others. Our reps were overwhelmed by the sounds and the Narrator was screaming for so long that he lost his voice for a few days. On our end, we sent them with NOTHING! No pictures, no poster, nothing. They sat at the table with everything they would need to run the game, but nothing to advertise the game or themselves. The ability to balance and play with a full party wasn’t available and we’re looking forward to a better showing on our end. If I had to rate our first outing like this, it would be a NEEDS IMPROVEMENT.
Now, for the good parts! We made it out to play with others and be part of such a wonderful community. Talking to the other developers was so fulfilling and comforting in its own way. The Narrator was able to get a few people through the opening scene of our pre-made adventure.
Finally, the best saved for last:
Thank you to everyone who stopped at our bare table and spent time with Rolando the Narrator and Sam, the last named Dev standing. Matt, Nat, Joe and Alexis, you turned our moment of bitterness and lingering doubts into a moment of triumph and joy. Special thanks to Joe and Alexis. Joe, for being the first person to sit at the table and trying our game as his first ttrpg experience. Alexis, for being an experienced D&D player, really role-playing and not turning your nose at us for being too different from D&D.
I feel like I should be waxing poetic longer but I don’t want to ramble either. We’ve learned from the bad parts of this and hopefully we’ll provide a better look for our road team and we are celebrating the good and wonderful parts because it’s what moves us through the harder parts.
If you’re looking forward to seeing our road team, the Narrator/one-time dev Rolando or the last named Dev, Sam, then please keep an eye out for the (BIPOC Game Devs Locker Room on August 9th, 2024). Thank you for following us as we stumble through the winding road leading to our release.