UKGE 21: a few thoughts from UK Games Expo

TL;DR
Overall, I was glad to have attended UKGE 2021. It was well run and a welcome return to ‘normal’. I post this because it might help others to weigh up the pros and cons of attending other conventions in the coming months. It is really hard to know how much of this experience is transferable to other conventions in other countries, but UKGE 2021 was a great event for playtesting and for small indie publishers, in no large part because there was less of a draw to external events; or big flashy games or larger publishers attracting all the attention.
If considering attending as a smaller designer or publisher, then do not let the news of larger publishers not attending put you off. If it goes ahead then punters will show up, and they will likely have more time to devote to booths that they would otherwise barely glance at.
For larger publishers; even with considerably reduced footfall, gamers turned up and were keen to engage. It did not feel quiet in any way, and tables – even on the few larger booths were always full.    

 Here are a few of my thoughts in greater depth.

1. I think the event was a tremendous success. I know the organisers are in mutual discussions with organisers of similar events internationally, and none of them were envious of UKGE’s position at having to be the first to go ahead.

2. The Covid pass checks at the door were pretty seamless and the requirement to wear masks in public areas was largely observed and not overly demanding. It was good to put half a face to so many names after interacting online for so long.

EDIT: The UK has a Covid App linked to individual NHS records. This automatically updates the vaccination status of individuals – and double vaccination allows you to produce a bar code giving you a Covid Pass.
You can also take a home test and register the result through the app.
UKGE required a person to show a Covid Pass generated through double vaccination, or proof of a negative test within 48 hours of entry on Thursday (or Friday) and again on Saturday (or Sunday).
These were checked by venue security rather than UKGE staff, and the staff were not particularly rigorous in terms of what they were actually checking (not checking date or what the barcode actually was on all occasions) but I think the fact that attendees knew that there would be checks meant that the vast majority did their due diligence before arrival.
If people turned up with none of this then I heard that attendees were also able to conduct a Lateral Flow Test on the door before being allowed in. There was also the opportunity to actually get a vaccination, in a mobile unit just outside.

3. In the open play area in Hall 3 there were loads of tables, and again though it felt busy-ish at times it was never packed. Groups were able to comfortably distance themselves from others. Where people were sat down in groups then masks were sometimes removed. These open play areas closed at 11pm on Friday and Saturday, and 6pm on Sunday – but with no Hilton or obvious other place to gather, late night gaming if it happened, tended to be wherever people were staying.

4. I’d estimate the amount of space taken up by the trade area (Hall 2 as opposed to Hall 1 and Hall 2)  to be about 40% of 2019. The width of aisles was generous. The hall had a buzz within minutes of the doors opening and it felt busy but not crowded. I noted a few times, that it did feel like a proper convention. I heard others compare it to 2016 – which might have been the first time in the NEC.
    
5. The booths that showed up, showed up. It did not feel like an event where  booths were lacking in any way or they had only made half the effort. The notable absences were some (many?) of the oversees publishers and some of the larger publishers who might usually bring lots of staff. The necessity to isolate upon arrival to the UK made travel from abroad unrealistic and it is a very different equation bringing your staff to a potentially risky situation for an unknown financial return, compared to making a decision to attend for yourself to promote your own work.

6. Overall, this meant that for many indie publishers it was a very successful event. With fewer of the big publishers drawing the attention of the punters, and little to do outside the halls other than play games, they were encouraged to give their attention to the many smaller booths. I know many were very busy and were able to keep their own demo tables occupied almost all the time. 

7. We felt this in the ‘Playtest UK’ playtest area. While it can often be a challenge to fill tables; and designers can sometimes sit dolefully alone waiting for someone to play their game, this was certainly not the case. Despite being in a far corner of the hall; requiring punters to walk round 3 sides of the Z-man play area to walk past us, and the aisles being significantly less busy, we never had a designer sit without players for longer than 5 minutes.

8. Running the playtest area, I also enjoyed having the freedom to offer tables to returning designers, or designers who had missed out on booking a playtest slot, as we did not allow all the tables to be booked before the event. We had about 12 tables (compared to about 20 two years ago I think) and they were full nearly all the time. Several designers who had booked in advance did not make it to the con- which also freed up slots for others to drop into.

9. Having playtested 200 or more different games through Virtual Playtesting it was good to get back to face to face testing. Especially with a design which makes use of the physicality of Rock, Paper, Scissors (Fight, Flight, Bite); that had to be simulated in the virtual environment (creating downtime and reducing engagement). It was incredibly encouraging to find my belief validated that IRL the game would play in half the time and really start to sing. 

10. Although the event was great for playtesting, there were not as many opportunities to pitch games to publishers as there have been on previous years. Larger publishers simply weren’t there and the opportunities for pitching new games was limited.

11. The Speed Dating event had 14 games pitched to 8 or 9 publishers. I was not present, but a thought was shared by one of the publishers that was receiving pitches. While there was a level of representation amongst the designers pitching games, all those representing publishers were white men.
    While this is not entirely representative of the industry, and several of the publishers present could potentially have put women front and centre, it raises the question whether UKGE, rather than the individual publishers could have done anything to increase representation.
    It was telling when we asked one of the lady designers who was completely new to the industry whether she had clocked the fact that the publishers were all men. “Oh yes. Of course!”
    White male gatekeeping was almost assumed. We could do better.      

12. There was a notable drop off in punters in the trade hall by 4pm. We put this down to several factors;

• This is always the case, but when the halls are crowded it is less obvious. 
• It was very possible to see everything that you wanted to see in a few hours and my purely subjective opinion was that there were more people attending for just 1 day as opposed to the whole weekend, compared to the beforetimes.
• There wasn’t as much to do outside the trade halls so once punters had completed a few laps they may have decided to just go home a bit early.
• Fewer events outside the halls also meant that fewer folk were attending events and then returning to the halls later in the day.

13. The Hilton Bar – the traditional after hours venue for all networking – was closed throughout (as was the whole hotel). I am pretty sure that while many people will have reconnected with old friends, less ‘business’ was done. I missed the opportunity to walk the open play areas and just catch up with folks that I haven’t seen for 2 years. 

13. The Dark Room show went ahead at least twice and though I was not there myself, judging by the sound coming from the room it was the usual success. I don’t know the extent to which the humour is peculiarly British or Gamer/Nerd but overseas cons could consider inviting John Robertson.