PAX West has concluded and, holy moly, was it a blast. I played some games (video and board), playtested board games still in development, and got the opportunity to sell my board game at a PAX event. I wanted to take some time to jot down my thoughts about the whole ordeal while everything is still fresh in the ol’ noodle. So here I am, jotting.
Community! Friendship! Fun!
First off, everyone was absolutely amazing: excited to be there, thrilled by the various activities, and looking to make new friends. I felt included and a part of any group, even when merely existing next to people for a short duration.
PAX West has something for every gamer
I was worried that PAX might’ve gotten so big that only the monied companies had a chance to showcase their games, not true. While you do need to shill out some moolah to have your own booth, the coordinators at PAX worked hard to make sure that even if you were a fledgling game maker, such as myself, you had a place to show and tell (and sell) your game.
Here are some photos I took over the course of my wandering about the convention.
Don’t sleep on the panels and workshops!
If you go to PAX, I recommend attending at least one panel event and/or workshop. They have so many on board games, TTRPGs, and video games. There has to be at least one thing for you.
I attended a workshop on building a 1-page TTRPG, which I definitely have something in the works for, and it was a great experience just to have an atmosphere to get organized thoughts down on paper. I felt that I already had the know-how to make a 1-pager, but I needed the tactics to organize my ideas and focus my core theme into a single experience.
Indie Tabletop Night Market™, success or huge success?
Okay, it’s not actually trademarked but it should be. This was the reason I attended PAX in the first place, a chance to sell my board game, Color Space. Boy, did I sell it! I don’t want to get into details on numbers here because to me, that’s not the point. Let’s just say that I made money on the endeavor, selling more than enough copies of the game needed to break even.
Take a look at the photos from the event; we had a line that swung all the way around the booth!
Here’s a video of the line!
Financial success is great, but attending this market for me was more about letting people know that I exist. It was also a test. I needed to see if I could mass produce and sell things in a physical, brick and mortar atmosphere. And I could! Yay!
I got a lot of fun games!
Everyone else at the indie market was so nice they indulged me in a super elite, VIP, high-end people only board gamer trade. I can’t wait to play these awesome games! (One’s called Hot Dog and it’s about hot dogs.)
Learning experiences from the Indie Market
Well, first, it’s great to have a partner to help with selling the game, especially in the dense sea of people. I’m so lucky that my spouse came with me and helped me out. I couldn’t have done this without them.
I also learned that even though I nearly had multiple panic attacks, as I’m not good in crowds, I can do this! I can stand there and smile at people and demo my game. It was great to demo Color Space for people, even if it wasn’t the game for them.
I think helping people figure out whether Color Space was right for them was a key learning experience for me.
It was pointed out to me — too late to do anything about it — that I accidentally removed a bullet point from the rules articualting a behavior in the game. I plan on releasing a new PDF on the Mutant Pizza site with updated rules, but that has taught me that sometimes you can double- and triple- and quadruple-check things and still miss something. Whoops! To err is human, or something.
Most importantly, I learned that my game was good enough for people to be excited about. I am constantly filled with self doubt about whether my games will be fun, or my fiction stories will be entertaining or compelling. I keep writing and designing these things anyway, simply because I don’t know what else to do with myself. This is what gets me out of bed. But that doesn’t mean I’m good at it. I needed a sign, some stranger who doesn’t owe me anything to tell me this is worthy of their time. At PAX, I found that.
What’s next?
I’m going to take a short break, but after that, I’ve got some webcomics to illustrate. But after that, I’ve got a couple of short stories to edit. But after THAT, I’m going to continue work on the next games in my queue, inclduing the 2nd Edition of Nine Muses, of which I’m still working on the revamped artwork.
Selling a board game at PAX was a career milestone for me, and I want more. MORE! I want to find more indie markets, maybe even in other states, and sell more games!
And, last but not least, I’m working on a centralized online store to sell all of my games at, including Color Space. I’m learning how the shipping process works, so it’ll take a bit of time, but I’m eager to have a storefront for games, books, and whatever else I think would be neat to make.
I’m still planning on dishing out an actual Monthly Crust some time next week after a bit o’ rest, as well as one final Color Space Design Journal recap/learnings article. Then, it’s on to the next thing! (Or things, I have so many irons in the fire, and a fire lit under my ass, and when you assume you make an ass out of you and me…wait, that last one doesn’t apply here. Anyway, this parenthetical thought nugget has dragged on for too long and I don’t really know how to end it, so, bye!)
Mutant Pizza 
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