Hi folks!
It's been now more than 2 weeks that I participated in the latest Madrid
Gamergy and I wanted to write a bit about it, mostly to give credits to all the people I met there.
So, Madrid's Gamergy is mainly an event built around e-Sports, with live competitions of LoL, COD, Starcraft 2, Fifa 14 and so on. But there were also lots of stands to try all the new games (damn I wish I've had the time to try Evolve...), a Mario Kart 8 tournament, a stage for live performances of famous gaming-related spanish youtubers and many more things. And there were a big space dedicated to Mediavida, a pretty huge spanish forum, who made an open call to any spanish dev to come and showcase their game.
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| Some poster I made for the event |
I hadn't heard of Mediavida until then but my dear friends of
Red Little House studios told me 3 days before the event that there were some remaining free space that I could happily use. So here I was, rushing to build a decent showable build and we went me and my girlfriend to Madrid's IFEMA convention center with my good old Mac Mini, a monitor and 4 controllers under the arm.
I had shown
Super Rocket Shootout before, but mainly to friends and game devs. This time was the first time I would show the game to a real live audience, with real live gamers expectations and raw uncut critics, not to some fellow gamedev that can empathetically see beyond bugs and placeholders.
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| Anguishly watching the first matches |
And hopefully the response was as high and as good as my pre-event's fear and stress were. From the opening on Saturday 10am to the closing on Sunday 9pm, my 4 valliant Logitech F310 controllers never went playerless more than 2 minutes. Kids were getting back to the game, kids were playing with their father and mother, people were playing with others. It was just amazing and incredibly rewarding to see. People were laughing and although it's a competitive game, people were reacting really good to each other, even when they didn't know each other. There were a really good overall ambiance and the people playing were always happy to let other persons try the game.
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| My lovely girlfriend explaining the controls |
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| Great kids playing the game |
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| Father and son VS Father and son |
It may be a bit presumptuous but I didn't receive any real critic about the game. People were just eager to playing more and I was asked a lot if it was already available to purchase, for what platforms/consoles it was available... One kid even went home and purchased a controller only to be able the play the game with his friends at home. Sadly I had to tell him that the demo were not available already but that it soon would be. So touching!
Besides connecting with the public I also got to meet a lot of great people evolving around the game industry.
First I've got to know some really cool spanish fellow devs:
- my valencian friends of Red Little House studios that are currently working on "Fleish & Cherry in Crazy Hotel"
- Mr Badger who was showcasing a nice Windwaker-like RPG made with Blender
- Pixelfan Games, that were showing some of their games and making some really cool live drawings
- Human Pride Games who definitely won the "longest waiting queue" award with their great Oculus Rift endless runner
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| The whole Mediavida sponsored indie dev team |
I also had the honor and opportunity to meet 2 of the most emblematic people in the spanish gamedev community: Ivan Fdez Lobo, creator and MD of the
Gamelab event (and all related events) and "Gonzo" Suarez, the creator of the Commandos series. Talking with them was such a blast and they offered me a lot of really useful insights and advices. The cool part was that that they enjoyed watching the game and they told me how they'd see it make it further.
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| Gonzo Suarez trying to impress my girlfriend. He clearly did! |
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| Explaining the game to Gonzo |
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| My friends of Red Little House and I surrounding the Man |
Here are more photos of the event:
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| Equally fun with only 3 players |
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| Kids playing the game on the main podium |
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| Commenting a live match between Raquel from Red Little House and some really skilled kids |
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| My valliant F310 controllers |
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| More people gathered around the game |
To sum up Madrid's Gamergy was really a great experience. I'm really thankful to Mediavida to let met participate because it has been so rewarding and uplifting. I'm now working on the public demo and thinking of all the ways (crowdfunding, finding a publisher, participating in other similar events ...) I have at my disposal to take the next step for
Super Rocket Shootout.
