Hi there, Steven here! This weekend I showcased To-Tum at Dare Protoplay, the UK’s biggest Indie games festival taking place at Dundee’s Caird Hall and City Square! As well as showcasing the games produced by the student teams on Dare to be Digital, the festival also showcases many other indie games from local, national and international developers and offers a varied educational programme for the public.
During Dare 2014, we showcased Kuria, the successor to To-Tum. We had a truly brilliant experience last year, and this allowed us to bond as a team and the starting point of our company! We met loads of great players, some fantastic Developers and games!
Showcasing to the public has that personal feel you just don't get with other forms of PR. Being able to talk to people, connect with people and watch people play and enjoy your game brings with it that real feel of community involvement. This is such an important part of indie development: without a solid community a small game will not take off. Showcasing also brings with it the opportunity to meet and experience the art of other game devs. The community is so much smaller than you'd think and it is not uncommon to see familiar faces and old friends at showcase events.
This year we took part as an Indie Developers, showcasing both the iOS and Android version of the game, as well as showing a development video of To-Tum!
I had a truly brilliant experience at Protoplay! Throughout the two days I met so many people, and the feedback we had was incredible! It was great to see people playing a more polished build than the one we showcased at Xpo North, with more levels for people to experience.
There were several moments over the course of the weekend, such as several players who had experienced Kuria last year! This was great to see players see the new game, and to get their feedback on To-Tum and see what they now thought of the game! One of the greatest moments during the weekend where the number of young children, from 5 years old up over playing the game!
Even with several bugs, most players completed all of the levels we had in our build, it was great to have people enjoy the game, take flyers, and ask about the game and its development. The number of kids who were interested in developing games was fantastic, and living in Dundee they have a lot of opportunities in the city!
Thank you everyone for checking out my blog! Check out To-Tum on Twitter (Twitter.com) and Facebok (Facebook.com)
Please check out Observitorium (Twitter.com, Indiedb.com) and the team Clive Lawrence (Twitter.com) Jonathan McEnroe (Twitter.com) and Peter Satera (Twitter.com).
Great article Steven! I had alot of fun playing To-Tum at Dare this year; the new controls worked really well but you still managed to retain that simple-yet-deep gameplay from Kuria. I love that feeling of having to rotate my brain each time I play. Can't wait to see the finished product!
Clive.