Goodman Games and BackerKit put on a good show.

Despite the initial outcry over representation on social media in December of 2023, the Indie RPG Creator Summit went off without a hitch. (*Disclaimer: I didn’t get to attend every session.) The sessions I attended were very positive, offered good advice, and were very well organized. The presenters were knowledgeable, had great camera presence, and took care of most of the questions presented in the time they had. In many cases presenters even made themselves available for further questions after their presentation.

Days one and two covered a lot of the topics I think most creators wanted to see. Topics ranged from crowdfunding creation to online publishing help. There were also sessions on building a product, project management, and finishing the crowdfunding effort. I’m glad there was a session on bringing it all together on social media along with other advertising venues.

Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.

I have two minor gripes about the whole thing.

It seems like every time I turn around these days, someone is trying to get $50 out of my pocket. My income is pretty fixed and sometimes it’s tough scrounging up that kind of cash. Maybe it’s the nature of the hobby being oriented more toward luxury goods or maybe the third day of the summit was just aimed at an audience of larger companies/creators. I would have loved access to the recordings for the sessions I missed, and all of the links provided for certain sessions. (They said the links would only be available to Day 3 attendees.)

That’s my other small beef with the summit is the timing. I don’t think dropping something like this on the first three days of the week was the best way to do it. I would have done this Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, and wrap-up on Sunday- just like a regular gaming convention. I think a lot of indie creators, especially artists and writers, probably have day jobs outside of the TTRPG industry. 8:00AM and 9:00AM sessions on a Monday or a Tuesday. I was trying to listen in on a Zoom meeting while I was getting the kids to school. (Confession: I got lucky on Day 2 because it was a snow day at school.) 3:00PM-5:00PM on a weekday is a lot to ask of most people with kids, too.

Minor beefs aside, I had a great time.

I don’t remember enough of the Day 3 schedule to know if I really missed out on anything major. I’m sure there was some pretty cool stuff for the people who could afford to shell out the cash. It seemed like Days 1 and 2 had all of the luminaries listed on the social media ads. There were some pretty notable industry veterans on there from companies such as Goodman Games, West End Games, Bloat Games, and others most of us in the TTRPG hobby have likely heard of.

It looked as if the summit had good turnout overall. People were asking good questions. The chat was clean. There didn’t seem to be any of the disgruntlement we had on social media before signups started. I think the summit was an overall success.

Thanks for stopping by today. Embrace the things that bring you joy. See you tomorrow.