no signal News

San Japan is an anime and gaming convention in San Antonio, Texas that I showed no signal at on August 30th to September 1st.

Although San Japan advertises itself as the largest anime and gaming convention, I would say that the event is catered to anime fans more than gaming fans. It's also a very big event that happens to provide applications for free tables to indie game developers. It's an event not too far away from Austin, so I applied and I got in.



As the event was local, I was able to drive down on the day of the event and be there for the entirety of the event. I had forgotten to bring a second monitor on the first day, but thankfully a friend who came later on the first day provided a monitor for me. I also had enough space to occasionally have three people playing the game at once, as I brought two Steam Decks and one laptop.

Despite being a much bigger event (at an attendance of 28,033 people, five times bigger than 2D Con's ticket cap) and my ability to be present for the entire event, about the same number of people played the game as at 2D Con:



I also received 34 wishlists on Steam that week:



I also did a stream on the official Godot Engine Twitch channel on the Thursday before the event though, which might account for some of the wishlist activity in the following week.

On the Thursday following the event, no signal had a total of 322 wishlists.



Unfortunately, placement at the event suffered from some familiar issues that I had previously run into at Delta H Con. Namely, the indie game dev space was not in the electronic games space for some reason. The video game hall at San Japan had arcade cabinets, a VR arcade, Pachinko, and something like 70 itashas. However, apparently there was not enough space for us, and we were placed in the adjacent hall next to the entrance for the electronic games space.

There were also a significant number of no-show tables, including a paid corner table, resulting in attendees not being able to recognize what the space was for and foot traffic generally passing by on their way to the video game room instead of being drawn in. Thankfully, staff/volunteers recognized that this presented a problem for attracting attendees to our space and I am very thankful to my point of contact for taking steps to mitigate this issue.

We were also not allowed to sell items at the event, so I decided to give out free physical copies of Gender Dysphoria to some of the people who played the game. It would be nice if we were allowed to sell, but I can't complain too much since the table was free.



I think that despite some of the issues at the event, I had a pretty good showing. It is kind of funny to me that between 2D Con and San Japan, the amount of reach I get is about the same despite their sizes being completely different as I had 40 and 44 plays respectively. Indeed, even after considering STAPLE!, where only 20 people played the game, it seems important to me now that I simply show up to as many events as possible regardless of size.

2D Con is a gaming convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota that I feel fortunate to show no signal at, which occurred on August 23rd to 25th. I had a really good experience there, which was quite a contrast compared to my previous convention experience.

One thing I was particularly surprised by was how proactive the 2D Con staff and volunteers were. After I posted about Delta H Con, I was contacted in order to address any concerns I might have. Power was provided. I was able to borrow a monitor and headphones to use (which was very nice, especially as someone flying in from out of state). And, while not strictly necessary, I was also offered free wifi, which made it much easier for me to keep in touch with friends while I was there.



2D Con let indies sell at the event, but I didn't realize that in order for me to sell at the event I also had a legal obligation to register for a sales tax in the state I was selling in (I only had one for Texas and naively believed that was all I needed). Fortunately, applying was easy and I was quickly approved, so I was able to start selling on the second day of the event.




I didn't really advertise that I was selling copies of my game Gender Dysphoria and many other tables didn't participate in selling, so the low numbers don't really surprise me. Nonetheless, I did give away a few free copies to other game devs and staff.



The only direct flight between Minneapolis and Austin was during the middle of the day. This meant that I was unable to be present for the full day on both Friday and Sunday. Despite that, about 40 people played my game:



...frankly, I lost count on Saturday. I also received about 10 wishlists on Steam that week:



* I did a stream on the official Godot Engine Twitch channel on Thursday, which probably increased wishlist numbers on that day.

On the Thursday following the event, no signal had a total of 288 wishlists.

I was really happy to see attendees arrive to the room keyed in to the fact that it was a room for indie game developers and interested in learning more about the games and earnestly giving them a try. I received a lot of great feedback from the people who played the game and I am very thankful for the enthusiasm people have expressed for it. I also met a lot of other game developers there, many of whom were from the local Minneapolis IGDA chapter. It was nice to talk about what the scene is like in the Twin Cities and talk about games.



The only complaint I have is related to the venue. The venue was entirely too warm. Normally, conventions are cold and I had brought a sweater in anticipation of that, but I never had to use it. Instead, at the end of every warm and noisy day, I headed back up to my hotel room feeling like my clothes were damp with sweat.

Unfortunately, I doubt this is anything that 2D can address directly. After talking to other locals, I've learned that other conventions held at that venue have also experienced the same problem over the last few years.



I wish I was able to stay for the entire event as an attendee. I was bummed to miss out on so many things to do, from pinball, to arcade games, to rhythm games, to board games. I even missed out on the hentai game show on Friday because I had lost track of time after exploring the event after Indie Island had closed for the day!

Fortunately, I did manage to play a few new things:
- Mine Storm (Vectrex)
- Battletoads (Arcade Cabinet, 1994)
- Godzilla 70th Anniversary Pinball
- Enter the Gungeon: House of the Gundead
- Deep Rock Galactic: The Board Game

I really hope that I'm able to attend 2D Con again next year, either as an exhibitor or an attendee. I had a great time.

Changes:

• Add button for opening log location
  
• Add link to license
  

Changes:

• Fixed glove duplication bug.
  
• Fixed audio sources not using the correct audio buses, which caused the audio settings to not work.
  
• Added a screen linking to support forums.
  
• The orbit button acknowledge button flashes now.
  

This update contains exactly one bugfix:
- Drive bays in the wrong order in the elevator room