I’ve somehow managed to miss Metatopia year after year. I’d have a vague idea of when it was coming up, but would hear “Did you go last week?” the weekend after it happened.

This year, a friend reminded me of it ahead of time and I finally attended (though only on Saturday).

Metatopia, or “The Game Design Festival” as it calls itself, is largely centered around play testing games, either as a play tester or as a designer. I didn’t have anything in the right state for this (also, you have to register ahead of time – who knew?), so I went to catch up with folks I don’t get to see too often and attend some of the sessions listed on the site.

For an event that’s run as long as Metatopia has, I was a little surprised by how disorganized it seemed — twice I was given incorrect instructions on how to find specific rooms I was looking for, and this made me miss the first session I wanted to attend. I went to inform the staff at the registration desk and overheard someone who seemed to be part of the Metatopia management telling the registration desk that they’d had multiple reports of wrong directions being given out, so the disorganization seemed to be a larger problem.

Once I figured out where things were, I did get to attend several sessions. I enjoyed all of them, even if they weren’t always directly relevant to my needs, but a few really stood out.

I’d love to see them be a little more organized (and modernize the site please!). For my older eyes, the small font on the handout had me referring to the web site on my phone to look up some information, but then I still had to consult a tiny chart to figure out which room a session was in. I’d love to see a searchable, indexed version of the sessions online.

Jellybean Games

Three of the sessions I went to featured Peter Heywood and Nicole Perry of Jellybean Games. I enjoyed all three of these. Each was a bit different, but all three were very informative.

We Want to Sign Your Game

The first, which also had Curt Covert of Smirk & Dagger Games, was fairly straightforward, with both Jellybean Games and Smirk & Dagger Games explaining that you should understand who you’re pitching to when pitching games to publishers.

For example, Jellybean Games, who’s slogan is Kid-Friendly Games (That Grownups Love), is not where you should pitch your six-hour long Diplomacy styled backstabbing game.

Similarly, don’t pitch your goofy-silly game to Smirk & Dagger, with their slogan cause games are a lot more fun when you can stab a friend in the back (though maybe it’s ok for Curt’s new line of games under the Smirk & Laughter banner).

Curt also brought up research and being forthcoming with your game, explaining that he’d get a great proposal, really enjoy the game, and after 30 seconds or research discover another game that was just like it, meaning either the designer didn’t do any research or just thought Curt wouldn’t.

Likewise, if a publisher says “Oh like insert name of giant, well known game” and you don’t know it, that’s a sign that you haven’t done your research, especially if it’s one published by the publisher you’re meeting.

Both publishers stressed that you should check a publisher’s web site for any submission guidelines.

Most publishers get so many submissions (hundreds to thousands) that they cannot take the time to review them all, so ignoring the guidelines is a quick way to end up on the bottom of the pile, or just in the trash.

One went so far as to say that if it was clear that a submitter has not read the guidelines, they often just deleted the email.

If you’re looking to submit game offerings to Smirk & Dagger/Laughter, the guidelines are on their contact pages (Dagger / Laughter).

For Jellybean Games, there’s a very detailed submissions page.

Both publishers also mentioned that they’ll often recommend another publisher to talk to, when your pitch fits other publishers better.

How to Lose Money with a Kickstarter Success

This panel, co-hosted by Peter and Nicole, was a great panel. They were open and honest, with Peter discussing the mistakes he made in Jellybean Games’ first three Kickstarters, Scuttle!, Dracula’s Feast, and The Lady and the Tiger (if these titles sound familiar, see my last post).

From the outside, these three Kickstarters look like huge successes:

3,696 backers pledged $87,796 to help bring this project to life. Scuttle! 3,910 backers pledged $89,188 to help bring this project to life. Dracula’s Feast 2,720 backers pledged $56,848 to help bring this project to life. The Lady and the Tiger

But, Peter pointed out, he simply didn’t have the information needed and each of his $9 games (+$5 for shipping) cost him closer to $21 dollars to get made and delivered, leading to him being nearly $50,000 in debt.

Peter and Nicole talked about the unexpected costs, and sometimes unrealistic expectations, that come with Kickstarters.

Shipping adds up quickly, and some countries have a VAT (value added tax) that’s also added. Even shipping from one country in the EU to the next country over can surprise you with extra costs. Sometimes there are unexpected delays, or your shipment spends an extra few days in a warehouse — that extra time needs to be paid for.

Then the unrealistic expectations, which put pressure on a project creator.

• If another Kickstarter can run with free shipping, why can’t yours?
• You only have 40 cards, that other game has 60 and costs less than yours!
• etc …

Fortunately for Peter, he met Nicole, who brought some business sense to his creative whimsey.

The last couple of Kickstarters look less exciting:

714 backers pledged $19,062 to help bring this project to life. Hidden Panda 836 backers pledged $24,160 to help bring this project to life. Brains

But appearances can be deceiving, as these are apparently … profitable!

According to Peter, he’d ask Nicole if they could do something and she’d have to remind him that they could, but only if they didn’t want to succeed at their actual goals.

This is why Peter proposed another talk, their third, called “Why you need a Nicole.”

Why You Need a Business Partner

One of the first things Peter mentioned in this talk was that his initial title was “Why you need a Nicole” but that it had been by changed by Metatopia.

In this talk, Peter talks about how he often just wants to do the crazy won’t-this-be-awesome stuff, and previous to working with Nicole, he would (see $50,000 in debt with 3 successful Kickstarters, above). Nicole keeps him from harming himself with these crazier ideas, as well as meeting logistic needs.

They again opened it up to questions and answers, discussing how Peter found Nicole, other women in the industry, and more.

One thing I didn’t like was Peter not giving himself the credit for actually listening to Nicole. It’s one thing to have someone to be a business partner and help keep your crazier ideas in check, but part of the reason this can work is because Peter is willing to listen. I’ve had people I work for tell me they’re always willing to talk only to learn they didn’t expect anyone to actually take them up on it.

All three talks were great, but I didn’t realize how generous they were with their time until I stumbled into the bonus talk:

Bonus Talk

After one of these (I’m fairly certain it was the second talk, but it was a long day and I need to improve my note taking skills), I wandered off to explore a little and after about 20-25 minutes, I found the room with soda and snacks. There I found Peter and Nicole still talking to about a dozen folks, answering questions.

Sure, maybe they were feeling snack-y themselves, but to take this extra time, beyond what they’d already offered to Metatopia and its guests, shows that they’re just genuinely kind people. The type of people I’d like to work with, once I have a game that makes sense for their line, and the type of people I was happy to purchase games from when I came across the Jellybeans Games booth at BGG.CON.

Wrap up

There are other great folks out there in the board game industry, of course, and I’m lucky enough to know some of them, but I wanted to write up a little more about these two because I was just impressed with the level of honesty and generosity I saw in them.

Their honesty continues — in my previous post (since updated) I pointed to their newest Kickstarter – for a game titled Jabberwocky – a 1-7 player collection of games for all ages! I’ve updated that post because they’ve since cancelled the Kickstarter and left a lengthy and detailed post about why.

Send a little generosity back their way if you get the chance. Their website is Jellybean.games and you can purchase their games there.

You can also try out a print and play version of Jabberwocky and spread the word about this great team.

Addendum: Jellybean Games is also at PAX Unplugged, booth 2853. Go say hi!