This GAMA was a weird one for a variety of reasons!
First, it was the last GAMA at Reno. It’s moving to Louisville, Kentucky. This means that the people that go to GAMA will most likely change to be more Midwestern and less people from the West. GAMA was the only big convention in the West, which made it different and increased the value in it, as it was the only time you could see some people at a convention. Hopefully a good portion of people will still go to GAMA, but this GAMA was definitely a bit bigger due to the fact that it was moving in 2024.
Second, I was recovering from surgery and not able to do as much. I didn’t run a booth or a table at game night and had to take breaks every day. Maybe I was pushing too close to having surgery! But I did clear it with my doctor, so there’s that! At least I’m being somewhat responsible.
In addition to the surgery, my last year has definitely been non-ideal. I had gotten COVID last June, then again in July and ended up with brain fog for most of 2022, so while I did go to some conventions, I mostly slept through them and didn’t end up interacting as much as I otherwise would have, so GAMA took a bit of learning again how to be human and to interact with other people, as I couldn’t rely on Justin, Jess, or Chelsea (WGG staff) to handle things like I did at previous conventions.
Basically, I was not at my best for GAMA, I knew it, and simply had to deal with the reality of the situation.
Leveling Up the Marketing Materials
I’ve slowly been upgrading all the visuals for Weird Giraffe Games for the past few conventions, trying to get at least one new thing updated each time.
For example, at Gen Con 2022, we updated the banners to all have the green swoop thing that is now on all the things! At Pax Unplugged, we added in the green swoop to small table price markers. A previous convention’s level up was getting the green tablecloths for the demo tables, so you can easily see where the WGG tables are.
For GAMA 2023, I made a New and Upcoming Games handout, updated my business cards, and did an overhaul of the WGG catalog (it has the swoop now!), in addition to some website updates.
First, the handouts. I ordered these from Vistaprint and they came out great! There’s some weirdness with shadows, as nothing can go entirely right the first time, but that’s ok! I also planned on having a QR code for retailers and forgot that. It simply means it’ll be easy to upgrade the materials for next GAMA! And now these aren’t specifically for GAMA, either.
I recommend having images that make it easy to add a logo, tagline, and some sort of company related color or something else, like the green swoop, to bring all the banners and such together.
I moved a few months ago and had no idea where my business cards went, so those also got reprinted. I do have a back to my business card and that was actually helpful, as some retailers didn’t know my company name initially, but after handing them my business card or the handouts, they recognized a game, so then knew the company. Having a blank side to the business card is nice for note taking, so that’s always a good (and cheaper) choice as well.
Having someone recognize a game I made resulted in way easier social interactions! Which is what GAMA is all about.
Next, I made a way more official WGG catalog and order form! The catalog is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11amT10IGFzBMcj2zUx5typPXXGhVEtZV/view?usp=sharing and order form is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a7h93EOE9vDvyuXruFxWL3t_c-rWCoF4/view?usp=share_link.
The catalog is a work in progress, as I did run out of time and the games that were older didn’t end up on their own pages, but the most recent games did. It was also laid out by me, so not perfect, but not perfect and existing is way better than something that doesn’t exist.
For the order form, it was nice to have something that I could print out and hand to the retailers who expected that. While I don’t anticipate too many people using it, again, it now exists and can be there for the people that want it.
Overall
One major thing about conventions and getting ready for them is the fact that you’ll run out of time, things won’t be perfect, and you can’t do everything for the first one. I’ve been going to conventions for years and I’m still trying to do at least something new or better for each one. If you’re open with your approach and willing to go with the flow, you’ll be much happier and less stressed than if you want everything to be entirely perfect all the time. (Is any aspect every entirely perfect? It usually isn’t for me!)
