DigiGame Expo 2024

Arpaggers exhibited Japanese Style Tien-Gow, already released on Steam, at DigiGame Expo 2024.
DigiGame Expo is an event for doujin and indie games, welcoming a wide range of platforms including PC, smartphones, tablets, and dedicated game consoles.
It also accepts libraries and development tools in addition to games themselves.
For Arpaggers, this was our first time exhibiting a game at an event.

What We Showed

We had a single desk-sized booth with one laptop and one monitor,
where visitors could try the single-player mode and tutorial of Japanese Style Tien-Gow.
People who became interested could also purchase the game on the spot.

What We Learned

The response from visitors was generally positive.
Some people bought the game after trying it or hearing the explanation,
and a few even purchased it without much prior information at all.
There was a steady flow of people throughout the event,
and more visitors tried the game than we had expected for a first exhibition.

Next Steps

At the same time, a full explanation, tutorial, and one trial play of Tien-Gow takes around 30 minutes.
That means there is a physical limit to how many people we can handle at the booth,
and it became clear that this is not the kind of game that can easily convert large numbers of visitors on the spot.
Even so, the event gave us a clearer sense of both the game’s appeal and the practical limits of event-based sales.

The strongest takeaway for next time was that we should bring a real set of Tien-Gow tiles.
They would help not only with explaining the rules,
but also with visually communicating what kind of game this is before people even sit down.