Retrieved from magwest.org.
That’s right, we submitted “Game 2” to the Indie Showcase at MAGWest a few months ago and were selected to attend. Let’s go.
Why go to a show?
With XING I had always felt this great pressure to get something tangible out of “investing” in going to a show. After all, just physically attending is expensive - running a booth even more so, both in terms of capital and time. I would always seek out media coverage, “high profile” contacts, or anything I thought would get more eyes on our game to make the investment “worth it”. Through this lens we managed to net some very real wins, probably most notably a relationship with Sony that more or less turned the entire project profitable.
In retrospect, however, this approach was a disaster for my mental health. The real benefit of shows is intangible. In an industry that pivots around working in front of a screen day in day out, shows give us a rare opportunity to actually connect with people. It gives us a “barn raising ceremony” to finally put something together that we can admire (briefly, before we start to criticize everything we put in the build). It is the “touch grass” moment for game devs.
With this lens, I have put together a set of goals for the show.
- Have fun.
- Playtest.
- Meet some people.
That’s it.
Why MAGWest?
Taylor and I went to Super MAGFest in 2025 as attendees and had an amazing time. I’ve heard it described more as a burn than a typical convention. There is an electric anti-capitalist / egalitarian flair on most of the show - no traditional sponsors, a volunteer panels, donated equipment. Anyone can go and do more or less anything. It is refreshing.
MAGWest promises to be the baby sibling show, attracting a tenth of the crowd at a smaller venue on the west coast. Looks to be a good place to have fun, playtest, and meet some people. We can also drive to it (barely).
But you haven’t announced the game yet.
That’s right, we haven’t, at least not online. MAGWest will be the first time we will “publicly” show the title, and while this will be my first time personally attending the event I gather that it is a strictly non-commercial event with no media coverage - just enthusiasts, makers, gamers and musicians.
Honestly it is a bit strange. The general vibe of online interactions, or at least my relationship with it, has shifted significantly since I last showed my work. I will readily admit I really don’t keep up with this shit, but the short answer is I’m just not quite ready yet.
Most of the advice online extolls posting about your project as early as possible. We certainly did that with XING - there are posts from 2012 about the project, when it was a random UDK student project that has very little DNA in common with the 2017 commercial release. We ran a Kickstarter in 2013 with very little to show for it, and over the next four years spent some time and a lot of mental energy managing expectations and desperately trying to appear like we knew what we were doing.
We know what we are doing
The inevitably of truly publicly revealing our latest endeavor draws near. We are taking some steps towards opening up our online presence, and will fully reveal when the time is right. One of those steps is gathering feedback from a limited audience - that time is now!
In the meantime, if you are interested feel free to reach out to me at john@whitelotusinteractive.com, or come visit us in person August 14 - 16th at MAGWest!