I sold one of my 20 Three Sixteens before the con opened and the stall was set-up, so that's why I only had 19 to sell through the booth.

:-)

So, arguably we made another tenner on the booth. Anyway, over a grand is more than we have ever made before.

Very well done.

Those numbers look to bear out the theory that new stuff sells.

Tim Gray
Silver Branch Games
www.silverbranch.co.uk

...with the caveat that Cold City did twice the number of the newer Hot War, while Best Friends and Dead of Night were both on a par with Hot War.

If anything I'm a little disappointed in the lack of Contenders sales and Piledrivers & Powerbombs. Maybe it's the perception of them being Sports RPGs?

Solipsist did OK too, I thought. I gather that the excellent session of it had players who were already owners of the books, so it's existing sales did depress the sales to people playing the game at the con slightly.

Needless to say, I had a wonderful time on Saturday. I can only echo what Iain said regarding the set-up and running of the stalls. We definitely hit a very sweet spot with the exact number and chemistry and set-up where nothing really needed to be said. We just did stuff and it worked perfectly.

Rather than basking in my own limelight or commenting on the out-and-out sales war that erupted between me and Gregor the Hutt , you can look further into those numbers. Older games like Dead of Night sold. RotBM was being played in and around the convention for everyone to see. The Pulp! ashcan flew off the stall. It wasn't just the D&H/3:16 show - everyone got a little bit of the pie.

The stall also had a really positive feel about it all day. There were people who recognised the stall and the brand and felt confident in being part of that, hanging around, talking and comparing notes - it was good stuff. The Endeavour really felt like a component of a larger UK gaming 'entity' (I hate the word 'movement' to describe these things). It made me very proud of what we were doing.

It was knackering though! Those seats were so welcoming at the end of the session.

Neil

Take the King's shilling at http://www.omnihedron.co.uk/dutyandhonour/

From the punters perspective, the stall looked far more proffessional this year, the layout was nice with just the right amount of people manning it. Instead of just being a stall to sell books there was a positive 'got half hour to kill come hang with us vibe' and that is IMO what made the difference. Stokemon was hanging at the front with one or two other pimping the games. The only improvement i can see is ditch the pointless 15 min demo's and move to hourly ones, you had Oreso offering a demo that got zero sign ups had he been at your table he could have run a decent demo of say Cold City, 3:16 and Solipist, this is how i think you should employ the guys that offer to run your stuff.

I think it was the name badges that did it.

That and the absolutely bursting positive atmosphere you got when standing within 10 metres of the stall.

Bravo.

Those are some great nmbers and some excellent feedback, well done guys. The positive atmosphere created by the CE presence is getting commented on in many places, which gladdens my misanthropic heart.

To comment on the CGS sales (I have a longer post regarding this, so I'll keep it brief here), Cold City has an easy hook, it's a very 'grabby' game. Fight zombies in Cold War Berlin? Playing quasi-occult CIA officers? There's lots of stuff to hook people and drag them in.

Hot War is far, far more niche. The setting, tone and premise are very different from Cold City and less immediately attractive to a broad spectrum of people.

I do love the fact, though, that a|state continues to sell a copy at every single con. Life in the old dog yet!

Cheers
Malc

Contested Ground Studios

I think Mick is right about the demos for Dragonmeet, and other cons might benefit from the same format. 15 minute demos work at the very sales heavy cons like Gencon and Games Expo, but Dragonmeet feels like a con where people want to spend a bit of time playing games they don't know.

I will spin this off into another thread so we can have a proper chat about it.

Cheers

Iain

'The Giant Brain': 'Revenge of the B-Movie' out now!

Mob Justice now available!

I think Mick is right about the demos for Dragonmeet, and other cons might benefit from the same format. 15 minute demos work at the very sales heavy cons like Gencon and Games Expo, but Dragonmeet feels like a con where people want to spend a bit of time playing games they don't know.

I will spin this off into another thread so we can have a proper chat about it.

Cheers

Iain

'The Giant Brain': 'Revenge of the B-Movie' out now!

Mob Justice now available!

I had planned to do 30 minute demos but I was given hour slots so I let them run on for the full period.

As it was it worked pretty well although by the end of the hour I was well past teaching the system and into running a proper game.

It's difficult to judge how long the should be. I don't have a metric. Indie games tend to be very focused so you can get across the main points in 15 minutes. Trail is a bigger game so I like to give it 30 minutes.

But with Hot War and Cold City, for example, it's nicer to explore the background a bit and that's hard in 15 minutes, but such an important part of the game.

It's funny you should say that Iain, as traditionally (well, in our first year there) Dragonmeet was _the_ con to come and play 15 minute demos at - I've always viewed it as just as much a sales con as Games Expo, rather than a games con. Maybe that's changed?

Fantastic sales figures! I guessed it might be something like that from the pile of money on the table. Great to see Duty and Honor doing so well, and of course 3:16 continues it's usual runaway success level.

Yep that's true. I'd hoped to do some conversion sales from the game, but it wasn't needed. The only person who hadn't bought the book already was someone who'd got a free PDF from Games Expo and he was in no hurry to pay for something he'd read already. The same was true of the demo I did later, the guy I was doing it for had already picked up the book.

I also didn't sell many Eekamouse Ashcans, but I think that was totally my fault. I didn't think to give the guys on the stall any blurb about it, and I wasn't there myself to punt it to people. I probably should have taken some of the copies off the stall in the afternoon and wandered around showing them to people. I would have if it had been a full game, but it never occurred to me. I don't know if there was a lot of interest in it on the day or not (though I do know someone who said they wanted a copy didn't get one ... I'm looking at you Walmsley :P)

http://www.solipsist-rpg.com/ - http://cubicle-7.com/starblazer/

The Pelgrane stall did hour-long demos throughout the day. We had them on the front desk, for people to sign up.

They all signed up: I forget whether they all signed up fully, but many did. I understand that this hasn't always been the case in previous years, so the difference was presumably that I was there. It may also be that three of the demos were Trail of Cthulhu, which is popular.

Anyway, it does suggest that hour-long demos are something people want to do.

Sales-wise, I understand that Pelgrane did well, which tentatively suggests a general doing-quite-well thing. I'm surprised: I thought sales would be down this year. I sold out of Play Unsafe, selling 10 copies, which surprised me.

Graham

Well done, all.

Congratulations on having such a successful dragonmeet!

The fact you could talk to the authors of many of the games and you had people at the front of the stall grabbing my attention when I walked through the hall, was the reason I bought more from you than any other stall!

Plus the games are fantastic and all very different to anything else I run.

I would have liked to have seen some half hour demos though.

Hope is good, but what we need is caffeine!
http://www.phoenixgamesclub.org.uk/

Big congratz, was good to see people selling, see the new products and buy your stuff.

I really like what you're doing and how you're doing it.

We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams...

Sorry we didn't get more of a chance to catch up Civi, at least you got to chat to Victoria :) Like the beard by the way :)

http://www.solipsist-rpg.com/ - http://cubicle-7.com/starblazer/

Yeah, would have been nice to catch up more. Maybe around Conpulsion time?
The beard is a work in progress, have to grow it out before I can shape it into something classical ;)

Will definitely grab a copy of Solipsist when next we meet...

********
We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams...

This thread seems to be drifting off topic about sales at Dragonmeet - there's a more general Dragonmeet review thread if you want to talk about the con (and our presence at it) specifically.

Andrew

I think the idea for next year might be to use one table for the improptu, unscheduled 15 min demos we all know and love and use the other for 1 hour demos which have sign-up sheet plonked down on the main desk. Basically, what Gregor was doing at Gaelcon last year.

You could be prepared to swap on the fly. If, in the morning, nobody seems to be doing 15-minute demos, you could put some hour-long ones up for the afternoon.

Equally, if nobody signs up for the hour-long ones in the morning, but the 15-minute ones are full, switch to those.

Graham

I think the presence of actual games next to the stall might be a draw, although the noise of the main hall might prove problematic.

Running the fifteen minute games near the stall would be cool, means people would be able to see the games in action or join an impromptu demo.

But if I'm to play in any 1hour session games, I would prefer to play them in the designated gaming areas, as it is slightly less chaotic and disrupting, and there are less distractions.

********
We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams...

The only 15 minute demo I did was right in front of the stall, were the others further away?

http://www.solipsist-rpg.com/ - http://cubicle-7.com/starblazer/

No, they were all on that table - I think that's just a miscommunication. I really think there's an advantage to be had for keeping as many demos as possible there - you maximise the follow-up sales if a player comes straight out of the demo and back to your stall.