Retrospelsmässan in Göteborg (26/5 2018)

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Sumez
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Retrospelsmässan in Göteborg (26/5 2018)

Post by Sumez »

I know it's a long shot, but I know we do at least a few Swedes hanging around here. Is anyone else planning on going to Retrospelsmässan in Göteborg (Gothenburg) this year?

I'm going with a friend, to stay at his brother's place over the entire weekend. I loved it there last year, so I'm really looking forward to coming back this year.
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Re: Retrospelsmässan in Göteborg (26/5 2018)

Post by FrankenGraphics »

Unfortunately, retrospelsmässan is always on the same date as a gig out of town, every year and without fail :cry: . I've considered taking leave a couple of years, but this year is probably not going to be it. Some friends will surely be there.

Once project blue is finished, the deal might be different. So maybe next year...
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Re: Retrospelsmässan in Göteborg (26/5 2018)

Post by FrankenGraphics »

While at it, this is the english contact page for the expo, in case any euro people on here from abroad want to participate or visit:

http://www.retrospelsmassan.se/contact/


unfortunately most of the rest of the site needs google translation.
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Re: Retrospelsmässan in Göteborg (26/5 2018)

Post by Sumez »

Yeah the information is pretty sparse this year, even in Swedish.

Like how do the concerts work? Are they just using the same venue? Will be a challenge considering how overcrowded the place was last year. And what about the contests? Judging by the shoddy performance last year, I'd wager I have a pretty good stab at the SMB speedrun competition, but there's no information about which version of the game is being played.

You also have to really dig just to find ticket information... seems you just buy entrance at the venue this time, so I'm expecting to end up spending a few hours in that line :(
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Re: Retrospelsmässan in Göteborg (26/5 2018)

Post by FrankenGraphics »

Yup, they say all tickets are bought on site. Only way around that is if you're an exhibitor, press, or volunteer. They also state they have addressed queuing time problems with a new system. It's unclear but it seems to me they mean they came up with a new system on the go last year to help resolve a queuing crisis which they intend to use all-out this year. I'm not sure as everything is kind of vagueposted. :O

The site seems a bit rushed, but at least they tend to be good with advertising in the physical world.
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Re: Retrospelsmässan in Göteborg (26/5 2018)

Post by Sumez »

When you live outside of Sweden though, that is pretty much invisible.
The queue was huge last year, but very very fast (because they had a special entrance for people who bought in advance, which you can't do this year). Not that it mattered to me, as I helped manage a booth there and had a free pass.

Unless they are planning to have a shitton of people manning the entrance to let in lots of people simultaneously, I don't see any way they could make it fast. There will always be a lot of people who are super slow when it comes to handling payments.
.... So I'm hoping that's what they'll do. :)
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Re: Retrospelsmässan in Göteborg (26/5 2018)

Post by FrankenGraphics »

I think it is maybe a little off/incomplete that their twitter is in swedish only, given that in the english language sphere, everyone and their dog seems to be actively tweeting (not least indie game devs) while over here, it's more just the official politicians, journalists, bloggers and lifestyle stars from tv doing it for a more or less half-passive audience. Sure, they keep a lot of their audience updated that way, but if they want to reach out further, i think it'd make sense to at least keep an international counterpart, since they claim (maybe rightly so) to be scandinavias' largest retro games expo. That in itself ought to attract people from all locales with good communications if they had a chance at knowing enough details about it.
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Re: Retrospelsmässan in Göteborg (26/5 2018)

Post by Sumez »

FrankenGraphics wrote:I think it is maybe a little off/incomplete that their twitter is in swedish only, given that in the english language sphere, everyone and their dog seems to be actively tweeting (not least indie game devs) while over here, it's more just the official politicians, journalists, bloggers and lifestyle stars from tv doing it for a more or less half-passive audience. Sure, they keep a lot of their audience updated that way, but if they want to reach out further, i think it'd make sense to at least keep an international counterpart, since they claim (maybe rightly so) to be scandinavias' largest retro games expo. That in itself ought to attract people from all locales with good communications if they had a chance at knowing enough details about it.

I had no idea they even had a Twitter. I have a Twitter account myself, but I have absolutely no idea how to use it right (I post an update around once a month, I don't think that's the intended dosage). If they post all relevant information there that seems really unintuitive to me, as opposed to using their website or at least their Facebook event which makes it possible to gather relevant information as opposed to spreading it out over random announcements that only reach people in the same moment.
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Re: Retrospelsmässan in Göteborg (26/5 2018)

Post by Nioreh »

I'll be going.
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Re: Retrospelsmässan in Göteborg (26/5 2018)

Post by Sumez »

Bunch of pictures from this year:
https://imgur.com/a/sXvG9KE

Amazing experience this time, and even better than last year. They really went out of their way to improve the experience, and the live symphonic orchestra was an incredible addition (the other concerts not so much). An extra venue (bordering the existing one, separated only by chilling areas and food stands) was added for pinball setups, speedrunners and indie developers, which helped alleviate the crowds and make the place much more nice to hang out, even though there were 4000 participants.

I also won the Tetris competition. :)
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Re: Retrospelsmässan in Göteborg (26/5 2018)

Post by FrankenGraphics »

Cool! Congratulations on the tetris compo. :) Nice to see some pictures, and i'm glad that they've made it an even better experience. Makes me eager to maybe have different priorities next year (such a bummer that this expo and another event i'm working on is happening on the same weekend every year!)

The location is pretty optimal, there's a public outdoor bath just a stones' throw away. :)
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Re: Retrospelsmässan in Göteborg (26/5 2018)

Post by Sumez »

You really need to push for a reschedule of your stuff next year then. :P Not sure why this particular weekend is chosen though. Is it always the one following pentecost?

It would be really cool to go there with an NES game to show off, but that would require me to actually start, you know, making something...
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