Last month, we packed our bags and headed to Cologne for Gamescom!
This was a pretty big milestone for PlayIndies. Keith and I live on opposite sides of the world, so while we spend a lot of time working together, almost all of that happens online. Gamescom was the first convention we’ve ever attended together as business partners, and we were also joined by Antonio, our Head of Product and the web developer responsible for actually bringing a lot of our PlayIndies ideas to life.
So, for the first time, the PlayIndies team was in the same place at the same time. And we definitely picked a big one for our first.
Gamescom is HUGE
Obviously, we knew Gamescom was big. But knowing that and actually walking into it are two very different things.
The event is absolutely massive. There are seemingly endless halls packed with games, booths, meetings, events, and thousands upon thousands of people. Even after several days, there were entire parts of the show we never managed to see. It was overwhelming at times, but we're very glad we went.
We spent the week meeting developers, creators, and other people from across the industry, having some great conversations and making a ton of new connections. We also got to catch up with plenty of people we already knew but rarely get the chance to see in person. That was easily the most valuable part of the trip.
Our first PlayIndies article!
One of the more unexpected things to come out of Gamescom was our first-ever piece of press coverage for PlayIndies.
We were interviewed by games industry journalist Harrison Polites while we were at the event, who wanted to learn more about PlayIndies, what we're building, and why we decided to build it.
That interview turned into the first article ever written about PlayIndies, which was a pretty cool milestone for us.
We've spent so much time being the people talking about PlayIndies that it was a little surreal seeing someone else write about us for a change.
Talking about PlayIndies in person
We also had a lot of opportunities to talk about PlayIndies with developers and creators throughout the week.
We've obviously had plenty of feedback since we started building the platform, but there's something different about explaining it to someone face-to-face and getting their immediate reaction. And the reactions were really positive.
People seemed to genuinely understand what we're trying to do with PlayIndies and, more importantly, why we think something like this needs to exist. We had developers interested in getting their games onto the platform, creators excited to sign up, and a lot of conversations about features they'd like to see us add in the future.
Having Antonio there for those conversations was great too. Instead of Keith and I coming home with a giant list of things to tell him about, he was right there hearing the feedback, ideas, and questions directly from the developers and creators we're building PlayIndies for.
We went into Gamescom excited about what we're building. We left even more confident that we're heading in the right direction.
So, was Gamescom worth it?
Absolutely!
It was busy, exhausting and occasionally overwhelming. By the end of the week, our voices and bodies were destroyed, and we were very ready for a break from convention halls. Unfortunately for Keith, that break didn't last very long. He attended PAX West in Seattle soon after getting back from Germany.
Despite the exhaustion, we met a lot of great people, had some really useful conversations, and came home with plenty of ideas for PlayIndies. More than anything, the response we got from developers and creators gave us a huge boost of motivation to keep going and make the platform the best it can be.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to meet with us, hear us ramble about PlayIndies, give us feedback, or just stop for a chat.
