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Chronicles of the Overlord – Exponential Expo Expeditions!
Commencing operation . . .
Overview
The past month has been incredibly busy for me. I attended not one but two UK Expo events. The first was the UK Martial Arts Show (UKMAS) and the second was the UK Games Expo (UKGE). This post will be a report detailing my experience throughout both of those shows.
UK Martial Arts Show
My Sensei has created a revolutionary new combat helmet for all styles of martial arts to use for training and/or competition fighting.
It was debuted at UKMAS and a team of five of us travelled to the Dome in Doncaster from Surrey.
It was an early start on Saturday morning, where I met two of the team for 6am at The Dojo Woking to set off on our 3.5 hour drive. The journey was smooth however, and we united with the rest of the crew at roughly 9:30.
Throughout the day, there were martial arts performances by various styles from Tae Kwon Do, to Karate, even weapon demos with swords and nunchuku, among others.
Opro were one of our neighbours and they kindly gifted each of us with one of their prestigious mouth guards.
We went to the pub for a meal on Saturday evening, and then hit the town to check out the night scene. Not the sort of thing I would ordinarily get too involved with, but once in a blue moon is okay for me. The area we roamed looked pretty dodgy in all honesty but that’s where having a martial arts background serves as a saving grace and confidence booster.
We hit up a few bars, the third of which was very good, barring the occasional strobe lighting and refusal to serve tap water. It was quite a small shack type place but it was nice and warm and the tunes were decent. Unfortunately, our night out ends rather abruptly when one of our crew gets alcohol poisoning, serving a grim reminder as to why I stay away from it.
We were allowed a lie in on Sunday so after taking a picture of the outside view from my room, we meet up at 10:15 for breakfast, then made our way back to the stand for the final day.
Our stand did a demonstration on both days, but whereas Saturday was more kickboxing based, Sunday was my time to shine. I performed Koshiki Kusanku kata and then demonstrated some karate / kickboxing strikes against the head guard. After the demo, still feeling fired up having not done any exercise on Saturday, I decided to drop into one of the karate seminars that were taking place throughout the day. It was a great session, starting off with pretty exhaustive stretching, followed by various martial arts bunkai (kata applications).
By the time the seminar finished, the day had pretty much concluded. We packed away, went our separate ways and ended up getting back home for around 8pm.
UK Games Expo
My objectives for the UK Game Expo were to generate book sales, raise awareness of the project and get people to demo the game. One of the friends who is supporting the project gets to mine for about midday on Thursday and we set off to the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. Despite the Jubilee weekend approaching, our journey was smooth.
We checked in at the Hilton, and then start transporting the goods from our car to the venue. I unfortunately underestimated the distance and weight of the things to be transported, and it ended up being around four trips to get everything over. It was an exhaustive exercise and next time, I will be certain to procure a portable dolly or the like, to ease the burden.
The expo took place from Friday through to Sunday and during that time, I was busy drawing people in to conduct game demos which I also facilitated. My friends supported me in managing the store while I was conducting the demos and overall I was able to generate a tonne of interest in the game and project as a whole.
The game board itself is a master piece and drew the attention of many people throughout the expo. I only wish I had the game board image sooner so I could have added it to my promotional materials but alas, I can aim to do so for next time.
Sadly, I was unable to convert demos into book sales at this stage. Given that it is a games expo, people want to play games rather than read books. I am also a complete unknown entity so I didn’t have the momentum behind me on that front. I did however manage to sell one book to a couple, which marked the first book I have ever sold. So to Phill and Linda, I will never forget.
There were various events throughout each evening as well, such as publicity and networking events which were quite useful to generate some more media presence and meet like-minded individuals. I also joined in on a few drop in gaming sessions which were great fun.
We returned home on Monday which was fortunate as traffic on Sunday was apparently horrendous due to the conclusion of the Jubilee weekend. All in all, a very successful expo debut for Black Metro which should put me in good stead for the digital release of the board game end of year.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the UK Games Expo team for hosting an incredible event, my neighbouring expo stalls particularly unfringed.co for being such great people, and of course all of my friends who have helped support the project for the past couple of years, especially those of you who assisted me throughout the expo weekend – I do not know how I would have managed without you.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed reading through my expo expeditions. Onwards and upwards!
Mission complete – Overlord Drakow signing out.