A Late Summer Tragedy

This past weekend was 2D Con - Minnesota's largest gaming event. All types of gaming are present - Arcade, RPG, Rhythm, Pinball, PC, Classic Consoles, Tabletop, and of course, TCG. I've been a volunteer staff member for 2D Con for a few years now, but this year was especially important to me because I had a booth to demo Yor as an Indie title. I had been working for a couple months now to make this event as amazing as it could be - printing signs, designing new beginners decks, reworking mechanics, ordering business cards and promo material, prepping the discord and website, etc. I was so ready to show off Yor to a bunch of super cool people, as well as hang out with dozens of friends and acquaintances I've met over the years, plus network with other game designers, publishers, LGS operators, etc.

And then Friday morning, after spending most of my Wednesday and Thursday helping to set up as a volunteer, disaster struck - I tested positive for Covid-19. I had to skip my favorite and most important event of the year.

I'll be honest, I was heartbroken. It took me a few hours to really come to grips with it. I stared at the pirate costume I had laid out the night before, I couldn't will myself to get up and put it away. I'm thankful that my symptoms were very mild, but in some ways I think that being physically unable to get out of bed would have made it easier to accept that I would be unable to attend this amazing event happening for the next 72 hours just a block away from my house.

Under normal circumstances, I'm already a "checks discord way too often" kind of person. Now - it was all I could do. And since I have the staff designation in the 2D Con server - I saw all of it. The FOMO was unreal. The first thing I noticed people were hyped about the 2DCon trading card game where attendees could collect trading cards featuring the staff, and some folks were already on their quest to collect all 55. One problem - I had a card with my name on it, and wasn't there to give it out. So, I was able to send my awesome spouse over the the con with a hastily made sign, explaining that I got Covid and couldn't be there, and to please take a card if you've played any of the other indie games there. They also set out a few business cards and marketing materials for anyone interested in the game.

Saturday, an idea struck me. My mom was bringing me some soup since I was sick. My mom wasn't doing anything all afternoon. I quickly hatched a plan - have my mom take my laptop over to the convention along with my game, and set it up for me to give demos over Zoom! It was certainly not ideal, but it was much better and more productive than sitting there and feeling sorry for myself. So, that's what I did. Despite struggles with wifi and battery, I was able to give demos to 10+ people over the weekend with the help of my Mom on Saturday and my Dad doing the same thing on Sunday. If you were one of those people, thank you for bearing with the goofy setup and trying my game.

And the feedback I got from this event was everything I could have hoped for. Unlike past demo events where the game was not as polished, every player had enough fun that they wanted to stay and play a whole game after getting a 10-15 minute demo. Every player seemed to understand exactly what was going on and the overall strategy and gameplay without getting stuck almost at all. Many players who had previous experience with TCGs were even able to guess certain rules before I explained them. If you were one of the people that tried that game, thank you very much. If you are reading this and want to try the game, and want to support me as a try to eventually publish Yor, here's your opportunity: I will be holding In-Person playtest events in September and going forward. I will also be holding Digital playtests via Tabletop Simulator as soon as I can finish polishing the TTS mod and get some scripting and deck construction features working. In order to get involved in these events please join the discord and get the playtester role. While it has been difficult, I am very proud of the progress I have made on the game, and I can't wait for everyone to get to see it in its completed form.