I had a great time at BronyCon, but there was a little hurdle I tripped over that weekend...
I had a gamedev's worst nightmare on what I was building up as the most glorious day of my life. Technical issues... See how they destroyed me and/or made me stronger below the break.
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| I had friends in attendance keeping me updated on the crowd's perspective. |
I couldn't have asked for a better spotlight. I was in the afternoon on day one, exactly between lunch and dinner, in one of the primary panel halls, not overlapping any other major events, and on a day with great weather and peak BronyCon excitement. I may never get a chance like this again...
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| I had a line. A long line of people excited to see my game. Holy crap! |
I refused to believe it when a staff member said the room was going to be packed. My friends were sending me and Kari texts about how excited the crowd was and I was hyped! Ready to put on the show of a lifetime! Ready to make Yotes a horse famous name! When everyone was sat and ready, only 3 rows remained mostly empty, so I actually had a panelist room filled to near capacity (should've took a picture of that, but I was in no mood/position to take a glory shot of the crowd).
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| Not sure if this is me taking a deep psych-up breath before things got going or if this is me stressing over how long the file transfer is taking as the bronies take their seats. |
The game hit another Not Responding snag, but it corrected itself after a few moments and things were underway! Until Kari started a battle and the background sprite was missing... So the ponies where fighting in a void and none of the fancy special effects where showing up, making the battles look way more like a prototype than the polished build I spent all year on.
On top of that other little snags like dialogue box errors, freezing in place, and locking into infinite healing loops occurred and I eventually just stopped looking at the gameplay since it was driving me nuts and started the Q&A early. The Q&A was reassuring in that it confirmed I was the only one cringing about the game this hard. To everyone else this was a cool and kinda funny gameplay preview of a game they'd like.
Nerves returned towards the end of the Q&A when I saw some of the same people get back in line, a few people getting up for their next appointment, and one of my friends getting in the Q&A line to help me stall it out.
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| The audience sees a man thinking on his feet and presenting a game he understands inside and out. I see myself staring into the void and asking "Why? Why today?" |
Something has to be said for the feeling of building up to something for so long then having things out of your control go wrong. Like that self-doubt where you question every little thing that could've been done differently, wishing you had at least a few solid backup plans, or crying internally about never getting a chance this glorious ever again.
But despite everything, people loved it. A few may have left once they noticed the ship was sinking or that I wasn't the bigshot the lineup would have you think, but the 90% that stayed the whole time were just fine with the panel changing from an epic tone to a comical one.
And now I know what to do whenever this happens again. Roll with the punches, put on a comedy hat, and use that sharp wit. The show must go on.
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| Takeaways: People are really more forgiving of glitches than I am and people actually can like the Yotes behind the Games as much as the games themselves. |
Big thanks to those who came up and talked to me after the panel or waved throughout the con when spotting me. Another reason I love attending BronyCon is seeing the faces behind the statistics. Another follower or download means so much more when I can put a face behind the number. Seeing you all in person reminds me that I'm making a game that real people will play and get attached to.
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