Running an Indie Tabletop Game Demo

How to Run your Indie Game Demo

So you’ve made your own indie tabletop game, congratulations! You’ve taken an important step as a creator and now you’re ready to get your game out there. This can be a daunting step. Online promotion is 100% a way to get the word out, but doing an in-person game demo is a great way as well.

Finding a Demo Spot

The first thing you’ll need to do for your demo is find a place to host it. I’ve found local game shops to be the best in my experience. I was able to get into mine because one of my friends friend is an owner of a game shop. However, talking to a few different shops, most are really nice about it. Not everyone will be interested in having you do a demo, but show up with a positive attitude and you’ll get further than you think even if you get a few rejections.

Start looking in your hometown if you have a local game store. A lot of indie shops seem to want to support local if they are able. Be honest about your game and your intentions about the demo. Do you plan to do any sales from it? Will you have links for your social media? Are you charging for the demo? How will it benefit the shop? Make a plan for these types of questions.

If they say “yes” to hosting your demo, thank them and ask if they or any of their employees would like to join in. Look at scheduling and see when they have an open table. Work around their schedule. Remember, you are using their space.

Reserve a certain number of spots for the table, and let the shop know how many people and for how long you plan to use the space.

Promoting Your Demo

Once you have the demo scheduled, it’s time to promote it. Work on making posters and flyers for the event. Make social media posts and ask friends and family to spread the word. Hype the event up as much as you can, and try to fill the slots for your target number of players.

Have a decision with the game shop if they will do any promotion. Some will post to their social media for the event. In my demo of Beast Slayer, The Art Dungeon has been kind enough to make occasional posts on their social media to promote the game demo.

You want this to be the event of the week or month. Having some game artwork on promotional items is very important and make sure to share some with the game shop so they can showoff what you’ve done too!

The Game Demo Itself

Ok, you’ve set up the space.You’ve done your promotions. Now it’s time to run your demo. First off you’ll want to make sure you have everything. When I run Beast Slayer here’s what I make sure to have:

• Multiple copies of the game
• Multiple character sheets
• A bag full of D8s and D4s
• Minis
• A game screen
• Game module
• A box of pencils
• A pencil sharpener
• A square grid map
• Wet erase markers
• Water
• Paper Towels
• A speaker

What you need may be different from what I’ve listed, but this should give you a rough idea on what to bring. Bring more than you think you’ll need. It is better to be over prepared than under.

I like to have some background music going during my demos as it makes the experience more immersive. It can really set the mood, and I typically select a playlist off of YouTube. For Beast Slayer, a combat playlist is often useful. If your running a tabletop rpg, many playlists will have D&D listed in their name, but this is just helpful for the flavor you should be going for.

Before play, explain the rules of the game and make sure the players have a basic grasp over what is going to be done. Players can and will have questions throughout the course of play so make sure you are prepared to answer those questions. You should know your game inside and out.

The most important thing is to make sure your players are having fun, you are having fun, and the game shop is having fun. What does this look like? At the end of the game your players should be enthusiastic about their experience playing your game demo. They should want more. You yourself should also feel a sense of accomplishment, you just demoed your game! That’s awesome! Finally, the game shop should see how respectful you have been of their space and happy you were able to show your game at their shop.

Post Game Demo

Once you’ve finished everything and got it packed up, talk with your contact at the game shop. Thank them for letting you do your demo. If they seem happy about the experience, ask if you’d be able to do it again sometime. Given everything went well, they should be more than happy to have you back.

For yourself, reflect off of your experience. How did it go? Did you learn anything about your indie tabletop game? How could you improve your demo for next time? Would you change anything? These are all important questions to ask.

Once you have this first demo under your belt, you will be ready for more. Keep at the same place for a while if you can and look into other game shops, conventions, and game hobbyist events for other opportunities. If you have questions about a space, it never hurts to ask about any rules or guidelines a space has.

You got this! It might not always be easy, but keep at it. This can be a rewarding experience, and at the very least it can be fun.

Happy gaming 🙂