For the first timers

These past months I attended my first two gaming festivals to present HITM3. What would it be like? Is it necessary? How strong do I need to be? These questions wandered in my mind.

First I attended IndieDevDay in Barcelona, Spain with the stand of ArsGames, where HITM3 participated in their Vòrtex incubator last year. Being next to the Larian Booth from Baldur's Gate 3 & Divinity, one of the biggest of the event, Nam and his pack did their best to crow control the convention and keep people flowing. 

In total, it was 27 hours showcasing the game during 3 days. As a first timer, it's really easy to loose yourself at the reactions of the people and forgot your basic needs. Please bring sweets and water to help you keep fuelled! I was prepared to sing "Sinceridad No Pedida" by Ojete Calor, a song about unsolicited sincerity, to battle any harsh opinion but I'm afraid people were much socially kinder that I expected. 

HITM3 was one of the few games that was already out, as most of the games were upcoming, looking for publishers, funds or feedback. So if you are not doing that what do you do? My goal was just to be present and share that HITM3 exists. Games don't vanish once they are out and I think it's necessary we start creating spaces where we can celebrate them. I printed some cards with Steam Codes for anyone who wanted to buy the game and I was surprised that we sold almost more than 40 keys. We got elected as the finalist for Best Narrative Game and even got the first official Spanish review for HITM3 at Nivel Oculto.

A few weeks after, it was time for the second festival, HITM3 was going to Australia, to SXSW Sydney! This time around the focus of the event was not so much on showcasing your game but more about meeting others developers. You had time to go to conferences, talks, events or even play another games! The badge also gave you access to the Music & Film festival that was happening at the same time. The first day I went to the premiere of  S/He is Still Her/e, a documentary about pioneer Genesis P-Orridge. This was the warmest welcome I could image as it made me feel at home remembering our journey with Genesis in Chile 10 years ago. 

This welcome was followed by another,  finally meeting Pete from Fuzzy Ghost. Their game Queering into a Rock Pool.jpg, as I told before, fundamentally changed how I saw games, so to finally meet was a big celebration. 

During both events I've got told many times how difficult is to showcase narrative stories in this high pace setting surrounded by action oriented games. I think it's pretty similar what we do, they jump you straight to the action and I jump you straight to the story, like a short film. One thing that really helped HITM3 was bringing a splitter and having two headphones for the game. Even it's a single player game, this made it possible for friends and couples to bond with the game together. 

Finally, I would like to thanks Víctor from Resitència VideoLúdica and Pete from Fuzzy Ghost for introducing me to many people. I'm sure this kind impression I've got in both events is thanks to you. You made something that could be draining, like being 27 hours standing or travelling to the other side of the world, something quite the opposite.