How to plan a trip for a game demo?

October 9, 2007 8:53 AM

I'm the co-creator of a new party game and my co-creators and I are stationed out of Madison. We've been invited to demo the game by an enthusiastic game store owner a few towns away, and so we've been wondering whether it makes sense to arrange a tour of the area metropolises (Minneapolis, Milwaukee, maybe Chicago). We're ramping up to the Christmas shopping season, and the game is going to start appearing at Barnes & Nobles soon, so on the one hand it seems like if we arrange something in advance with a store and simply show up there on the scheduled weekend, there's going to be a crowd, and we can try to attract shoppers' attention. But we can also perceive such a tour where we've planned it terribly, there's no store traffic and we've squandered our time and money. So: How to plan such a trip?

This idea has come to us sort of late in the game, and maybe it's silly to try to get a berth at any store at this point in the holiday season. But if that's not an impediment: What time of day do we want to angle for? Does that time of day change when considering a B&N vs. a mall store vs. an independent hobby store? How many stops should we plan in a day? (We plan to do this on weekends only.) How long should we expect to be there for? (I don't think we'll captivate any one shopper for more than 10 minutes, but obviously we want to see as much traffic as is practical at each stop.) For chain stores, do I want to contact the store directly, or talk to someone higher up the food chain? Any and all advice is welcome. We're also receptive to the answer that this is a bad idea, that "authors" should only do these things by request or via a publisher's initiative.

posted by blueshammer to sports, hobbies, & recreation (8 comments total)

You should be able to call a retail bookstore like Barnes & Noble (please note, not "Nobles") to get the appropriate contact info to set this kind of thing up. The average customer service person there probably won't know who you should talk to, but one of the store managers will. Call during a weekday early afternoon to get the best chance of catching the GM. They may have to pass you off to a regional events coordinator, or they may have the authority to host you in their store without further approval from the higher-ups. In any case, they'll know what needs to be done.

As for time of day, I think you're going to see the most people in a chain bookstore in the noon-5pm range on a weekend. I have no idea about hobby stores.
posted by vytae at 9:05 AM on October 9, 2007

Unless you can draw in people personally for the event (ie. you're good at going up to people you don't know and going "hey try playing this"), don't bother trying to do it at any of the BNs in the Milwaukee-area. In general, they don't promote events, and very rarely draw in many people unless it's an event that's gaurenteed to be successful.

That said, a mall BN has insane walkup, so, if you can get an event set up at the store and can interact with customers yourself, it might be fine.

At BN, the person you would want to talk to at the store level is called the Community Relations Manager. They handle events. In Milwaukee, as far as I know, only the Mayfair store and possibly the Brookfield store have CRMs.

For game stores in Milwaukee, try The Boardgame Barrister. They specialize in cool games and probably know people that might be interested in checking your game out. You might want to stop by Lost World of Wonders to "sell" the game to the owner. There's one other game store that I can think of, but it changed its name and I'm drawing a blank right now.
posted by drezdn at 10:23 AM on October 9, 2007

Re: Barnes & Noble specifically:
Yes, contact the store CRM, who's probably there on weekdays in general (since they deal with schools and business accounts). It may be possible, since your game will already be in store, to set it up as something like an author signing, including game demos. Getting into the holiday season, you'll probably see a decent amount of traffic on a weeknight as well as weekends. At the store where I work, weekends tend to be for big events like school bookfairs while smaller events tend to take place on weeknights. At our store, promotion would be a sign in the store for a couple weeks and a listing on our monthly calendar pages, so you'd mostly be relying on foot traffic. Local authors are fun, though, and not always set up through agents/publishers.

If you're looking at other chain stores, still contact the stores directly first; a manager there can direct you to the right contact.

Independent game stores might also be willing to set up a "game night" around your game and help you promote it; they'd know better than we would when they have traffic.
posted by Cricket at 11:17 AM on October 9, 2007

I know of one recent party game (Wits and Wagers) that has had success getting a local grad student/young professional-type bar to do a promo night - it needs to be a certain kind of game, though.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:21 AM on October 9, 2007

If I recall, we are talking about "Cineplexity" currently sold out at the publisher and going out to major retailers soon.

It is a party game. People are more likely to buy a part game if they know that it is easy and fun to play. A demo seems like a great Idea.

Alternately, you could arrange for people to demo the game for you in the coffee shops at the stores. trade a free game for an afternoon demo work.
posted by Megafly at 11:34 AM on October 9, 2007

How about looking into Go! The Game Shop inside Chicago's Navy Pier?

I would think Navy Pier would attract the right sort of crowd for a game demo — people on vacation, ready to have fun. :)
posted by limeswirltart at 12:15 PM on October 9, 2007

Thanks for the comments, everyone. It's all very helpful as we try to decide whether this is worth doing. drezdn, The Boardgame Barrister would be a definite Milwaukee stop -- we were there shortly before the game was released and they were very enthusiastic about its prospects.

And I only said "Barnes & Nobles" because I was referring to multiple Barnes & Noble stores.
posted by blueshammer at 2:30 PM on October 9, 2007

Sorry, didn't mean to snark. I know far too many people who use the plural or possessive when they're referring to one store, and for some reason it drives me batty.
posted by vytae at 3:00 PM on October 9, 2007