Locally Crafted Games Fair - October Recap

Recently, a local game store allowed a bunch of us local game designers a chance to rent some tables from them and sell the games we all have made. We call it the Locally Crafted Games Fair (LCG Fair). So, how did we do? Eh....

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Who's Who of the Fair

We did a Locally Crafted Games Fair in July. Back then, there were 6 vendors then. This time, there were a total of 9 vendors at the LCG Fair, including us. In addition, TheGameCrafter.com was kind enough to send us game bits and coupons for people to be able to make their own games. It was awesome seeing people go over to their table (the unofficial 10th vendor), pick up pieces with dreams of making their own games in their eyes.

We were set inside the game-play area of the Miniature Market Superstore in St. Louis, MO. This place is really big compared to a lot of other game stores, and can hold a lot of people. This particular Saturday, Miniature Market had an RPG Demo Day, a Miniatures Game Club, and a huge garage sale going on in the store. So, this place was packed this Saturday.

Sales and Successes

For AnSR Games, we had a pretty rough day of game sales. Our goal was to sell $500 worth of product. We did not make that goal, and it was disappointing. So what went right? 

• ​We focused on 2 products to demo, the Promise suite of games and Drop Racer Battles.
• We used some of the lessons learned from the last LCG Fair to make our 5-table booth space better organized. The 2 Demo tables were set long-ways to fit more people at them. The Cashier table and a table to displayed products were near the front. The Game Crafter table we were directing people was in the corner/middle.
• There were a lot of people in the store for other events besides our own. Traffic was up, for sure.
• The organizer of the RPG Demo Day in the store was actually running one of our games: the ConEx RPG. That was really amazing and flattering. Plus it was almost like having another Demo table. (Thank you, Joe!)
• We had a Digital Contingency Plan in place for any games we ran out of. That gave us confidence that we could make everyone happy, even if we ran out of products on hand.
• We actually had business cards to hand out to people. This let people know we were more than a here today, gone tomorrow group selling out of the back of a van or something. Plus, if they did not buy today, they could get games form us later. That's worth it.
• Miniature Market was kind enough to sponsor a raffle for anyone demoing games and buying games at the LCG Fair. They had products, tickets, a place to place the tickets, and everything. It was really cool to have such support form our host-store. Such a great group of people to work with there.

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Lessons Learned

There is always something that we look back at and say "what were we thinking". So, what could we have done better this time? A few things.

• A better layout of the tables would have been beneficial. We had a good layout that allowed for more of what we wanted, but we could have figured out a better way to show more games. 
• We need less tables. We have 3 people setting up and taking down 5 tables. We can knock that down to 3. ​
• Less product to sell. We really need to bring less product to sell. It is great to have a library of games, but it is a lot to tell people about all at once. Unless there's a way to show/demo each one somehow, we need to focus on 2 games with a place to buy them.
• Make the event less hours. 8+ hours at a game store sounds fun... until you are not playing games in it. It was a long day. 4 hours should be fine next time.
• If a store is having a garage sale, customers are looking for deals, not to pay full price for a product. Try not to have a Fair on days when people are shopping for deals.
• People at a store to play a specific event all day may not purchase anything; they are there for the fun. Try not to have a Fair with a ton of other events going on in the store.

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What's Next for the LCG Fair?

This is a great question. We are successful running these events at Miniature Market once in a while. One in July and one in October seemed to work for us this year. There is interest from others who could not make it this Fair. The other vendors seem to want to do more of these from time to time. So, what's next? Here's some ideas.

• Do 2 Fairs a year, like we did this year. Maybe May and October
• Do a co-op table at a convention like Geekway to the West where everyone gets slots to come and demo/sell their games.
• Branch out to other venues?

If you have any ideas, let us know.

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