What can you expect when showing a game at a convention?

"There's some nervous anticipation because of how people are gonna take it—because you're working on something in isolation, it's easy to lose perspective. But one of the interesting things about how the industry's evolved is that we're now more involved with the media, and the fans, and the community."

- Playtonic Games art director Mark Stevenson remarks on showing Yooka-Laylee at EGX. 

Bringing a game to a convention can be an overwhelming experience, but according to many developers interviewed by Vice at the annual European video game convention EGX, it can also be an invaluable opportunity. The full piece gathers experiences from a variety of developers and is well worth a read for anyone curious about the process of showing a game at a major convention. 

The interview reaches out to developers on games like Dishonored 2, Overcooked, Little Nightmares, Yooka-Laylee, Endless Space, and The Bunker to talk about the process of creating a convention demo, the struggles of fixing bugs on the showfloor, and the benefits of showing a game at events. 

“Sometimes the fans know the games better than we do.” said Playtonic Games’ Steve Mayles. “It's great to see it when a player says that something they've seen in Yooka-Laylee is better than a comparable thing in a previous game we worked on, Banjo-Kazooie. It's great to read that level of detail.”