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Dylan Birtolo

Gen Con postmortem

8/18/2016

3 Comments

 
I know that this postmortem is overdue, but life has been busy. The largest thing is the fact that I returned from Gen Con only to have to hit the ground running since the Seattle Knights were in the middle of the Midsummer Renaissance Faire. It is our largest show in the year and is three solid weekends of fighting, riding, jousting, and entertaining the patrons. For me, this was the debut of my new armor. I acquired a set of Polish Winged Hussar armor, and the wings made quite an entrance. For those who are so inclined, there are several pictures up and connected to my Facebook account. Although here is one of my favorites.



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But I digress. I merely wanted to explain part of the reason why this postmortem is so long in coming. The convention was extremely busy, even more so than usual. Gen Con is always my busy convention, usually because I am splitting my time between working a table, talking on panels, spending time with friends I only see a couple of times a year, and of course talking with other professionals to see if there are more writing opportunities. This year, added to that mix, I had my board game that I wanted to put in front of any publishers who might possibly express an interest.

In summary, it was absolutely amazing, and I have more work to do than I have ever had on my plate before when it comes to my creative endeavors! This is very exciting and a wonderful problem to have. First off, I was able to talk with several companies about my game. For most of the companies, it was very short since these were cold calls. I would talk about the game briefly and drop off a one-sheet of information. I have yet to hear from any of those, but there is still time.

More directly, I was able to present my game to a couple of companies. Both of the ones that I spoke to in detail about it acknowledged that it was very well designed and expressed an interest in playing it. Considering that these were professional game publishers, I was very excited to get that reaction! One of the companies did admit that the game was not for them because of some of the mechanics, but they told me that they thought it would only be a matter of time and finding the right publisher. The other publisher said they might be interested in it and we would talk further.

Considering this is the first time I have ever attempted designing a board game, I am ecstatic at the reviews and feedback I am receiving. I also pulled it out for a few other writers and friends at a writing get together, and while we didn’t get to play the entire game before last call, they did very much like what they played and said they would like to play a full game sometime. So now I am starting to believe that it is only a matter of time until I can officially add game designer to my resume!

As far as the writing is concerned, I had some very good meetings with people who want to see work that isn’t created yet! I don’t want to speak about such things in too much detail until we see what happens, but I do want to say that I have a heck of a lot of work to do! As I mentioned before, this is a very good problem to have. No I just need to find the time to create it all.

Outside of business, it was great to see old friends and meet some new ones. As per usual, we did our annual True Dungeon run. It was fun, but for the first time in many years, we did not survive the final room. We thought we had a final solution, but we ran out of time to test it. It did not help that someone (yes, me) suddenly got a bloody nose in the last minute of the puzzle. I honestly don’t know what happened, but my nose literally started running blood in the darkness. I think I freaked out the DMs in the room more than myself or anyone in my group! Needless to say, there was no real damage; it was just a random freak accident. It definitely added something different to the adventure!

As always, I stayed until Sunday to enjoy some peace and quiet before having to brave the airport once again. Thankfully, I was not flying Delta, so was not affected by that insanity on my trip home. It was uneventful, for which I am extremely grateful.

All in all, it was a wonderfully productive convention, even if it was even more exhausting than normal. Many positive things came out of it, and I am excited about the prospects laying before me. Now it is time to get back to all that writing I mentioned!
3 Comments
Thomas Ballard
8/19/2016 04:17:05 am

Instead of adding game designer to your list of titles. I would change it to published game designer. Of course after you game is picked up.

Reply
Dylan Birtolo
8/19/2016 07:28:08 am

Totally valid point!

Reply
Gay Club Utah link
2/20/2021 05:17:21 am

Hi nice reading your blogg

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    Who am I?

    I'm a fiction writer, a game designer, a computer programmer, a hardcore gamer, and a professional sword swinger. I have a thirst for adventure and am a bit of an adrenaline junkie. I try to put a bit of that into all of my stories, and I do love telling stories!

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