Chip Beauvais (Universal Rule, Smoke & Mirrors, Chroma Cubes) helped us out at Pax Unplugged for the entire show. He was a huge help before, during and after the event. He made it back home safe and sound, rested up and wrote up his top five moments from the perspective of a designer working at his publisher's booth.
Pax Unplugged was awesome. I split my time between demoing games (mostly, but not exclusively, my own designs) and meeting people. Here are some of my favorite moments.
Meeting other designers
One of the things I love about twitter is the opportunity to interact with other board game designers. I’ve had a ton of really interesting discussions with people that, for geographical reasons, I’ve never met before. A convention is a great opportunity to meet them in person.
It’s hard to single out any one individual, but I was really excited to meet Chris Chung (@CChungGames), designer of Lanterns. I had just learned his micro-game, Little White Lie, and taught it to a bunch of people over the weekend.
Demoing Smoke and Mirrors
My favorite moment in the Smoke and Mirrors demo when I look the players in the eyes and say, “I’ve been lying to you.” I make sure they understand the basics of the game before introducing the twist of the mirror cards.
Meeting industry folk
I didn’t spend a lot of time walking around the exhibit hall until Sunday, but I got to meet people from game stores (@TheCastleBev), podcasts (@boardgamerpinup), websites (@FamilyGamersAA), and more.
We even arranged for Flip Florey (@gameknight) to run some demos at the booth (:
Demoing Universal Rule
My favorite part of the Universal Rule demo is the initial look of disbelief when I describe the 18 cards as a 4X game. I then teach them the basics of the game to convince them. While it took me five months to believe that a 4X game could be stuffed into a wallet, it now takes me just five minutes to bring someone new on that journey.
Meeting new designers
I was really happy to see how busy the UnPub area was. There were a lot of designers showing off their latest ideas, and I’m pleased to see they aren’t all white guys like me.
One of the games I played had us drawing on dry-erase boards like cavemen. Trying to decipher other player’s drawings is a lot of fun! I was especially proud of my depiction of a wasp (e.g. a dot). I have no idea why the other players couldn’t figure it out (: