One of the best parts about indie development is the ability to participate with the community. There are many conventions and events every year throughout the world that celebrate video games, anime, comics, television, and geek culture in general, perfect opportunities to promote yourself. However, I noticed that most major game events in North America are on the West, East and South sides of the United States, central North America (specifically Ontario, Canada) has very little for indie games. Comics and tabletop games, sure, but indie games don’t really have much to be at. Its also really difficult to find any reviews or information outside the events’ homepages, so its hard to know what to expect.

If I Want To See Indie Games in this “Dead Zone,” Where Do I Go?

The following is a list of events I’ve been to, with my impressions of what type of atmosphere they provide. I hope the following information will be useful to developers in the Ontario area. This comes from me being in Windsor, Ontario, depending on your location you might have other better options.

• EVENTS I’VE BEEN TO:
  • PAX PRIME (August 2014):
    • Website: http://prime.paxsite.com/
    • Where: Seattle, USA
    • Many Exhibitors of: AAA games, indie games, technology/software, geek-culture items
    • How I Went: I exhibited with a table.
    • Cost: Minimum $1500 USD minimum for table (actual table, chairs and other equipment cost extra), not including travel
    • What I Thought:
      • Only listed here as comparison to other events. I wrote a poorly-written but detailed write-up here. Interestingly, our game wasn’t the worst at the event: the place has games of all kinds, from polished indie winners to student projects to made-in-a-day demos. Chances are, you ARE good enough for PAX, if you can afford it.
      • Generally, it was huge with over 100,000 visitors, although I was one floor above the main space, which probably got 10% of the crowd, reduced to maybe 5% of the total who walked past my table. Evidence shows little to no sales and press that came directly from PAX for me, but a handful of lucky indies got mentions on major websites. It’s a fantastic event, but better to attend then to exhibit at, the cost of the table wasn’t worth it and I wanted to leave the table throughout the day. PAX tickets sell within hours now, so this might be the one and only time I ever go. If you live within driving distance of the event, that saves a lot on cost and might make it more worthwhile, but out of town-ers should avoid. From Ontario, PAX EAST is closer, but plane travel costs would be similar, again driving is better.
  • DigiFest (May 2015)
    • Website: http://torontodigifest.ca/2015/
    • Where: Toronto, Canada
    • Many Exhibitors of: students, local start-up app/software/hardware companies
    • How I Went: I exhibited with a table.
    • Cost: Free to exhibit, only paid hotel and travel.
    • What I Thought:
      • Not to be confused with “DigiTour’s DigiFest” (which seems to be a teen’s music festival, there’s nothing “digi” about it). The website lists this as “three days of digital creativity,” but the theme this year was “Privacy, Money and Pleasure” (?). Sure enough, the event seemed garnered more towards entrepreneurship and technology and students, not games and art like the motto would suggest. Even still, for students this seems a great opportunity to send work for their contest and showcase, and in the “Startup Market” there were a couple other game developers alongside me.
      • I didn’t get a chance to look around much, the event is spread across multiple rooms. But what I did see was small: the attendance was probably only a few hundred people. I suspect this is largely due to it trying to be too much, such that most people don’t know exactly what it was and assumed their interests wouldn’t be there. Overall, even my University has hosted larger events. Since it was free, if you live locally it couldn’t hurt.
  • Bit Bazaar – Spring (May 2015):
    • Website: http://thebitbazaar.com/spring-2015
    • Where: Toronto, Canada
    • Many Exhibitors of: indie games, comics, music, fan-zines, artists, crafts, food
    • How I Went: I exhibited with a table.
    • Cost: Free to exhibit, only paid hotel and travel.
    • What I Thought:
      • I found out two weeks before the event that I was accepted with a table, so maybe organization isn’t as good as it should be. The event is as indie as you can get, showcasing games, comics, art and music in a rundown un-air-conditioned apartment structure called “Bento Miso,” literally down an alleyway in a inconspicuous suburban street. But with some of Toronto’s biggest players taking part, the event has garnered a reputation among the hipsters of the city, and hold multiple Bazaars each year.
      • I suspect this was the first time the event stretched to two floors, showing its growth. They estimate over a thousand people came, but on our floor, I can’t imagine more than a few hundred at most. The difficulty to find it means only those in the know will know about it. But these people love supporting indie culture: I actually sold a couple copies of my game, rare for me.
  • Toronto Comic Arts Festival – TCAF (May 2015):
    • Website: http://torontocomics.com/ and http://handeyesociety.com/comicsvsgames/
    • Where: Toronto, Canada
    • Many Exhibitors of: comics, artists, fan-zines, indie games
    • How I Went: I exhibited with a table.
    • Cost: Free to exhibit, only paid hotel and travel.
    • What I Thought:
      • Organized by the Hand-Eye Society, “Comics vs Games” is a somewhat new initiative that has partnered with Bit Bazaar and TCAF in the past. Only recently have they been open to public submissions, so whether it remains free or open remains to be seen. Some of Toronto’s biggest and smallest indie developers took part, a wide variety of visual and storytelling interactive projects.
      • This year it was on the second floor of TCAF, bringing roughly a thousand out of over 10,000 comic fans who came to see independent graphic artists from around the world. What really made the difference for me was the short talks session, which was the first time I publically spoke about my techniques and inspirations of the unique 2D/3D animation I use in my games. After my talk, about a dozen people came by my table specifically complementing my ideas and talking about animation. That talk probably got me more attention and interest directly for my games then I got the whole weekend. For unusual games like mine, this is one of my favorite events.
  • Ottawa International Game Conference – OIGC (May 2015):
    • Website: http://oigconf.com/
    • Where: Ottawa, Canada
    • Many Exhibitors of: AAA games, indie games, artists (no one was selling anything, and audience for exhibitors limited to other developers, event is really meant for talks and networking)
    • How I Went: attendee.
    • Cost: roughly $200 CDN for early student ticket to attend, plus travel and hotel. Developer table extra, but then you miss the talks.
    • What I Thought:
      • More for developers than fans, this is a professional conference with talks and demos from big and small developers in the area. There was an option to show a game in a demo spot, but (due to apologized poor organization this year) these were last minute and I didn’t know until it was too late. Additionally, these demos would take you away from the talks, and the audience is too small to make it worthwhile. No way to submit a talk either, I assume session speakers were invited. Estimated over 600 attendees, maybe 300 actual people during each day.
      • I admit the talks had a lot of useful information from big companies and stories from small startup developers, and is a great place to network and ask questions. Hopefully the event grows to allow a “free public day” for showcasing and selling work. Also found it strange that the organizers kept talking about promoting and growing the Ottawa gaming industry, with the same lack of confidence that Windsor has, out of place for the capital of Canada less than four hours away from two of the biggest gaming communities in the continent. Ottawa is a great hub for every type of festival you can imagine, but like most of their “international” festivals, OIGC was interesting but ultimately underwhelming.
  • Stage Select Gaming Expo (June 2015):
    • Website: http://stageselect.ca/
    • Where: Toronto, Canada
    • Many Exhibitors of: indie games, table-top games, artists, crafts, game dealers and game souvenirs
    • How I Went: I exhibited with a table.
    • Cost: roughly $80 CDN plus travel and hotel.
    • What I Thought:
      • The closest I’ve seen to the type of event I wanted. Indie games, talks, cosplay, artist alley, and multiplayer events make a fun day. Strangely, many local podcasters were walking around to get interviews to cover the event (small audience reach, but still interesting). Organization to book was somewhat unorganized, and not well supported – I remember only a handful of developers being listed a month before the event, which eventually doubled to 15 by the event’s day.
      • The only issue is attendance and support: while growing, there might have been about a thousand people at the whole event, which many developers told me at the event was disappointing. I suspect charging at the door and not having bigger companies on the floor are reason for that. I hope people continue to support this one, and especially developers.
  • ConBravo (July 2015):
    • Website: http://conbravo.com/
    • Where: Hamilton, Canada
    • Many Exhibitors of: indie games, table-top games, artists, crafts, game dealers and game souvenirs, comics, anime items, cosplay materials
    • How I Went: I exhibited with a table.
    • Cost: roughly $120 CDN plus travel and hotel. Less if you are only booking a table for one day. Electricity costs extra.
    • What I Thought:
      • ConBravo is awesome. Really awesome. Cosplay everywhere. The marketplace has a ton of anime/game/comic memorabilia to buy. There are many panels and talks with experts in comics, animation, and a few Youtube/web celebrities. I haven’t heard of any of the “special guests” that came, but was happy to see them. The entire event has around 10,000 visitors, the size of ConBravo is big enough to matter but not overcrowded. As far as conventions go, this is as close to perfect as it gets.
      • The biggest issue is indie developer support. Indie devs get their own section of tables in the marketplace, and only 9 attended, less than most events listed here, such that many of our tables were given to last minute artists on a wait list. I don’t know exactly why. This is the perfect audience for supporting indies with feedback and money. ConBravo easily got me the most sales (not much, but more than other events) at the table, and my other convention friend admitted selling out faster here than any other show on this list, INCLUDING PAX PRIME. So its a no-brainer: go to ConBravo.
  • FAN EXPO (September 2015):
    • Website: http://fanexpocanada.com/
    • Where: Toronto, Canada
    • Many Exhibitors of: AAA games, artists, comics, celebrities, dealers, anime items, films, horror/scifi/geek stuff, collectables
    • How I Went: I went as a tourist
    • Cost: roughly $40 to attend, between $500 and $1,500 CDN for table, equipment and electricity extra
    • What I Thought:
      • Yikes, FaxExpo is big. I walked around for 6 hours in the marketplace, and I’m still not sure I saw all the dealers. I completely missed the hundreds of panels and workshops. There were also nearly a hundred celebrities from television, film, comics, and voice-acting lined up across a 100+ meter-long wall waiting to sell autographs and photos. FanExpo organizes events across North America, and Toronto’s event is one of their biggest. With over 120,000 attendees over 4 days, maybe its too big: I could barely move in between alleys, and I walked outside the building for an hour just trying to find the entrance. It seems artificial too, since many of the marketplace dealers had 2-3 booths that were copies of each other spread out in different rooms. They could have easily cut the convention size by 25%, and dividing it into two separate events would have made the perfect size.
      • FanExpo’s website says it covers comics, anime, horror, sci-fi and gaming. Gaming had about 5% of the floor space and panel programming. However, this was almost entirely from AAA games by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, making it one of the only events in Canada to have games people have heard of. For indie games? I saw 3 in the entire show floor, plus a couple Xbox/PlayStation-sponsored titles. Based on this and ConBravo, indie attendance seems to correspond to exhibitor cost, which is a huge mistake. The cost is more than other local events, but coming from a guy who exhibited at PAX, FanExpo is reasonable for the attendance, despite virtually no news/press coverage. I still think its better to avoid in exchange for some of the other events on this list, but if you want to go big, this is one of the best and only options in the area. If only someone were to book a large space at FanExpo exclusively for indie games…
  • Other events worth looking up: Unplugged (Toronto, July 2015, games and cosplay, no indie games), Youmacon (Detroit, October 2015, anime and fandom, no indie games), Midwest Media Expo (Detroit, April 2015, anime and fandom, no indie games), Windsor Comic Con (Windsor, several throughout the year, comics and fandom, no indie games). If I missed any, please let me know.

“Stage Select Gaming Expo” near the end of the day.

“ConBravo” feels just the right size – plenty of things, but also plenty of space to move.

This is about 1/4 of the “Fan Expo” vendors.

• TIPS FOR PREPARING:
  • Plan Early: most of these events ask for submission and payment months in advance. Booking electricity/equipment has its own deadlines. Making sure you have printed materials ready can also take more time than expected. So be aware of deadlines, and meet them as early as possible to be prepared. If unsure, wait until the next year.
  • Don’t Go Alone: if possible, have at least 2-3 people per table. Give each other a break to eat/walk around. It is possible to exhibit alone, but this obviously causes restrictions.
  • Don’t Overbook Yourself: some of the events above happened on exactly the same days. I did go to them all, only possible with the help of some friends. But not all friends were reliable, and the results were chaotic and stressful for all involved, and ultimately not worth it given how small the events were to begin with. It sounds obvious, but don’t book yourself at two places at once.
  • Don’t Always Count On Next Year: I’ve seen multiple conventions and festivals die before I had the chance to go. If you’ve never been, and don’t think you can make it to exhibit, at least go to see what it’s like. Don’t take it for granted.
  • Go Local: most of the events listed here I didn’t know about without some research. Chances are there is a similar event near you that you don’t know about, and even with a small audience its better than paying travel expenses going elsewhere.
  • Have Something To Sell, But Don’t Expect Big Payoff: be sure to bring something to sell, even if its just postcards or posters, to help recoup some of the exhibitor costs. Keep in mind that most exhibitors won’t make their money back, especially indie games where the free demo is the attraction. You probably won’t see a big boost in sales or press afterwards either, no matter how big or small the event. The purpose to go is to have fun, get real feedback from many people, to gain a handful of fans who wouldn’t have seen you otherwise. Go to a few, get in their head you exist, and grow your fanbase.
  • Phone with Data: using Square-credit-card-readers for your phone or something similar is a great idea. But not all events have wi-fi, let alone good wi-fi. Even with minimal sales, one-time usage of data on your phone plan will probably be worth it, just make sure your plan allows you to have access to it during the event.
  • CON-ORGANIZERS – Where and When: most of the above conventions were in Toronto, and I’ve been to multiple similar events occurring on the same day. When preparing a convention, please try to choose a city that doesn’t have similar events, its less competition and fans from smaller cities might get a local option from you. And no convention should ever be the same day as another, especially in the same city, so please do your research and avoid that. If you are too similar to something, try adding something unique… like an indie-game section… we don’t need any more comic-cons just for comics, it seems like every city has one now.
  • CON-ORGANIZERS – Exhibitors are visitors too: When I go to conventions like these, I like to walk around, meet people, buy stuff and support the industry. Most conventions don’t give exhibitors the ability to do that. Ideally, a booth will have multiple people to allow for breaks, but it feels like the convention should do more to allow for this. Other friends with me didn’t seem as interested as I was to see other tables, so maybe its just me. It’s not unusual to have tables be empty while the exhibitor is on a lunch break, so if you think it’s worth it you can bail on the table for up to 1/4 of the event’s schedule, but obviously this is recommended as a last resort and organizers wouldn’t appreciate it.