Gamescom 2019 – Pen & Paper 2.0

You might be wondering – A Tabltop Roleplaying-Game (Pen & Paper) and Gamescom? Gamescom’s current focus is very much on PC and console games. Yora Adventures is a completely digitalized Pen & Paper, which can be understood much more as a parlour game and would therefore be quite exotic at the fair. Since we have visited the Gamescom regularly in the last years, we had exactly this feeling.

“Prejudices are what fools use for reason.”

Voltaire

And we were prejudiced …

A letter from “Hogwarts”

Then in June a mail from the “Mediennetzwerk NRW” landed in our mailbox. In this mail Indie-Game Devs were asked to apply for a complete package including paid coaching and a small booth at Gamescom 2019 in Cologne.

Five teams had a chance to win:

• A holistic mentoring program on several days in the period prior to Gamescom
• Coaching on PR and press work and pitching to investors and publishers
• At least one matchmaking interview with a relevant contact in each case
• A place on the “Medien Digital Land NRW” area at the Indie Arena Booth
• Hardware, catering and a separate contact person for the teams
• Loop of the projects on the “NRW Talents Arcade Machine” in the lounge area
• Presentation of the teams in the livestream Indie Arena Booth at Gamescom
• Press release with all winners
• Participation in all events of the Indie Arena Booth
• Access to the IAB headquarters and the publishing lounge for networking with relevant contacts

okay… maybe we should just give it a try?
But as a very wise man once said:

If experts choose our game for Gamescom, it will make sense! You can probably imagine what happened then …

YEAH! We’ve made it!

We were very happy that we could convince experts from the gaming world with this project. And so it was now set! Yora Adventures is at Gamescom 2019! At this time not only the preparations had begun, but Yora Adventures was not even playable at this time. Until the start of Gamescom, we have set ourselves the goal of releasing Yora Adventures as a playable open beta version to the iOS App and Google PlayStore.

Besides, we started to create and organize all preparations for the fair. 

Stuff which we created and provided:

• Design for the exhibition booth
• Yora Adventures team shirts
• 3D printed objects such as mounts for smartphones
• Smartphones to present the Yora Adventures app
• Anti-theft devices – so that smartphones cannot be stolen
• Twelve-page press kit to provide investors and the press with detailed information.
• Flyer to explain the app in a few words and to encourage interested parties to try it out.
• A sweepstake
• Pitch for potential partners and investors

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For our small team this was a big challenge and a lot of work to do besides the development of the Yora Adventures app.

Let’s talk about the time at Gamescom!

We had a pretty small booth in the Indie-Arena-Booth (Hall 10.2). Fortunately, our booth was very close to one of the passages, so you could see us while passing by. 

On Tuesday the 20th of August it started for the trade visitors and the press. Around the clock we were involved in exciting conversations and were interviewed by various press people. It’s also impressive how many people seem to be familiar with Tabletop RPGs and how happy these people are to share their knowledge about this hobby with others.

After the first day we already clearly sensed how exhausting it is to stay at an exhibition stand for a good 12 hours and to pitch your own idea over and over again or answer a huge amount of individual questions without long breaks. Fortunately for us, it quickly turned out that the feedback was extremely positive regarding to our project. These constant motivational injections have made a tremendous contribution to the fact that time flew by day for day.

On Wednesdays Gamescom opened its doors to private visitors. The result was a significant increase of the visitor stream. From many conversations we have learned that our claim “Pen & Paper 2.0” was a strong trigger point for many interested people to come exactly to our booth. This gave us the advantage of attracting exactly those people from the crowd we wanted to reach. During the week we hardly had time to take a deep breath, because one conversation followed the other. The great thing about it is that we almost never had to explain what Pen & Paper or Tabletop RPG is and why this complex hobby has so much value.

One of the biggest highlights of the week was that a group of DSA (Das Schwarze Auge / The Dark Eye – Most Famous German Pen & Paper System) players including game masters, with many years of experience in mastering adventures, took a flyer with them and showed up at our booth the next day around noon. Full of enthusiasm and with a big grin on their faces they told us that they had played for 13 hours straight and had a lot of fun. 

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It was unbelievable! There were so many of those moments for us at Gamescom. 

We think everyone who has created their own project under sweat, blood and tears knows that there is no better reward than to provide a happy moment to your community.

Almost every evening our voices failed us and we could hardly formulate a clear sentence. On Saturday (last day) it was clearly to be recognized that each of us mobilized its last energy reserves, in order to complete Gamescom with good conscience. We are very grateful that the Mediennetzwerk NRW made it possible for us to present ourselves at the world’s largest games fair. It has once again been shown that a jump into cold water was exactly the right choice.

Conclusion:

Gamescom 2019 has brought us a big step forward. We have clearly recognized that Yora Adventures is not an illusion. There are so many people out there who, just like us, recognize the potential behind an “all-in-one” digitalized version for pen & paper games. Not only did we get to know many exceptionally great people, but we also had interesting conversations that could possibly become cooperations and partnerships. The gaming industry and its huge community have once again proven how openly and positively they accept courageous indie ideas. We hope very much that we can be part of this industry for a long time and are very curious where this project will lead us.

To all of you who visited us at Gamescom and share our enthusiasm: We hope that this adventure will be told for centuries!