I know no one asked but I feel a lot of this needs to be said.
Before I begin I’d like to explain that I love the idea of the Games Expo and I’m glad you’re doing it. My criticism comes from a place of love, I only want the best for it and OTK. I very much hope to see it continue, as I think it’s a very good thing for indie devs.
Below will be formatted as such
Criticism: Suggestions
Games Expo is too long: The expo should only be 1 - 1.5hrs MAX. You didn’t have enough games to deserve a 3.5 hour expo.
No need for the entire OTK cast: Over half the OTK crew brought nothing to the table and the event was worse for it. The expo only needs 1-2 hosts who are knowledgeable in the games that they are presenting. I personally think Soda brought the most to the table while Esfand and Asmon were tied for second. Everyone else may as well have not been there. It sucks that Rich turned out to be a shit head because, despite his failings, he was great at this.
Shorter/Less scene transition slides: This is a minor thing but fuck me man, for every minor thing you had to show a 5 second transition slide. Its just so unnecessary.
Dress casual but not sloppy: Most of you are proud degenerates but you’re not just representing yourselves, you’re representing hard working devs and people. Cmon Tectone a wife beater?
Be knowledgeable about the games you’re presenting: Stop shuffling papers, bantering with each other, rambling or taking guesses as to what the game was about. Its embarrassing to watch and insulting to the devs. Editing here: When I mean bantering, I don’t mean that bantering as a whole shouldn’t exist. I mean the awkward repetitive bantering they were doing because they lacked anything relevant to say so they resorted to quirky banter. Its distracting and shows a lack of care for the game you’re showcasing
Let the game speak for itself: You don’t need to have a 10 minute table discussion on every game. Your viewers have played video games before. If you MUST have a table discussion have the developers present.
Get better at presenting the game: Show the games trailer - Show a quick 1-2 minute gameplay clip - This would be an appropriate time to have the entire OTK cast involved. In a clip, playing the game, not discussing it.
Show gameplay during dev talks: Cohh’s suggestion but it’s a good one. Everyone alt-tabs during dev talks as it is, so if you’re going to do it at least show game footage.
The Expo, quite often, felt like it cared more about advertising OTK/Starforge than it did about games.: It was so bad that you all were even joking about it. I understand you have to make money but you guys have to remember what the event’s about.
Bring in the community: This would have been a great opportunity to bring in fellow twitch streamers to discuss their games and events. You have VideoGameDunkey with BIGMODE company. You have Jirard “The Completionist” Khalil who has done Indieland, a twitch indie game showcase/charity drive, for years. Jesse Cox who invests into and promotes indie games like Monster Prom. These are just the people that I know off the top of my head, there’s probably a ton more.
My personal minor gripe that probably doesnt bother anyone else but me. But while I’m here bitching I may as well say it.
OTK’s style is awful: What the fuck are you all thinking?
Your stage looks like someone vomited a fallguys level all over it. Its too bright and burning my old ass retinas. Stick to your colors Black Yellow White. Quit modeling your events after these 3 styles. All 3 are worse stylistic choices than Asmon’s hairline beanie.
That said the new 2023 merch actually looks good for once. Maybe you all are already working on it. Stick to it.
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Couldn’t agree more. It was really awkward when they sometimes talked about the games in an unprepared, almost disrespectful way. I get that one of the “themes” of OTK is not caring about professionalism and doing stuff on the spot to be more relatable, but it doesn’t fit in an event where other peoples work are being presented. It kind of felt like “here’s a game we don’t care about at all, that we force you to watch, because they paid for a spot” most of the time. Even if all similar events technically work exactly the same way, it just makes it awkward to watch.
Point 4 really stuck out to me. Tectone wearing a wife beater with his arm stretched out while a professional game dev is being interviewed directly next to him came off as completely disrespectful. You could see his armpit hair and I swear I could smell it through the screen. That and his giggling and smirking that kept distracting the poor guy during the interview really bothered me.
People don’t need to be in a full suit but man… dicktone was on another level.
and yeah, having 6+ people give their thoughts and takes on every game can be a bit much. Sometimes less is more. They can still have every OTK member on the show but maybe take turns so there’s like 2-3 people talking about a game at most.
I think the main issue is that the expo is way too long. It was as long as the extended edition of return of the king. No normal person can sit through the entire thing without feeling exhausted at the end of it.
Some great points here, I also feel like Soda should have a bigger role, Asmon tries but lets be real, he has very surface level knowledge on games, he only knows Fall Guys, Vampire Survivors and Valheim. If there is someone that should be talking about the games the most, its Soda.
I liked the colors, the art not so much, but I do agree with your points. Especially point 4 and 8. I just fazed out of what the dev was talking about when I saw how Tectone was dressed, I forgot for a that moment that I was watching a games expo where developers present and try to sell you their game. And by the time I focused back on his words I forgot what game he was talking about.
Streamers who have pretty much zero game knowledge should not even be on the stage. There are only three people needed in OTK to host the show imo :Asmon, Soda, and Esfand.
You do not need personalities with zero gaming background and knowledge there doing quirky stuff or spitting random lines commenting on games, faking excitment. This is very time-wasting and comes off as disingenuous.
Just let the game expo be the game expo, man. Know what your audience are, people there are just for the game trailers/annoucements.
Games should always be the main focus for a game event. If anything else there that could take away the attention and focus from the games in a game expo, then this game expo is not a good game expo.
I think most devs submit kinda knowing what to expect so I doubt anybody would have felt particularly disrespected wrt attire and banter, I do agree with many points you make though. I think sodapoppin and esfand were the only people that really know what they were talking about, soda because he actually plays a variety of games, and esfand because he seems to have read up on all of them, with some of the others being insightful now and then based on games that they have played. I did find the show too long, and because of that it felt like there were too many ads. I think the general format was okay.
For example: Asmongold, being knowledgable in gaming should have talked/commented on games. While Emily took his spot. She clearly doesnt know shit about gaming, and just read some buzz words. As an IRL streamer tho, doing the interviews would have been her thing.
I agree with your list and it felt really cringe to watch the other OTK members pull something out of their asses when asked “what do you think?”, “yeah thats what this expo is all about, im really excited, blablabla”. They all gave the feeling of “oh god please don’t ask me next” like they were in a test at school and just had to please teacher Asmon with anything.
This feeling of “what the fuck am i even doing here?” transfered to the viewers and the people in question trying to hype themselves up in order to cover for the lack of interest/preparation made it even worse.
On top of that, there is no need to mention the wishlist button 20 times in 30sec, i heard it once, i got it.
Otherwise i appreciate what OTK is doing and i think it’s important to highlight Indie games in order to get gameplay AAA companies would never even think about.
I think MadMushroom is a genuine approach because it is spearheaded by Soda (this dude is really all about it, i watched him try out indie games from this well curated excel list for hours) and Asmon who is passionate about gaming and smart enough to know what he can and can’t do.
Besides that i think that Emily or Cyr could have been better general hosts so Asmon can talk at the panels.
Also fuck Tectone, like seriously. Loud, disrespectful and full of bad takes.
My big problem with the last one was people interrupting each other to talk. I remember Asmon asked Emiru what she thought about a game of some sort. She was seated next to another OTK member but I can’t remember who. The dude interrupted her when she barely got her opinion out and took over. If someone is asked to talk, freaking let them talk and wait your damn turn!
I do agree with OP having Jesse Cox as an addition to the OTK production would be a huge asset to the show. He has his own successful indie game, good reputation, knows how to promote games, a gamer’s advocate and experienced as hell in the video game industry.
Another thing I’d add is the amount of scripted and repeated jokes/dialog.
And most of the otk members were clearly nervous at the beginning (I’d be dying of anxiety in their place). So I think having an experienced host would help them. The otk member would be free to be themselves and let the host do the scripted text
It was genuinely one of the most cringe worthy and embarrassing shows I’ve seen in awhile. Too long. Most of OTK didn’t need to be there, especially tectone and miz. They were an embarrassment. I felt bad for the developers who had these shmucks of hosts revealing and discussing their game.
