Fyndoria Games went to Salute 51 this year and we put on a game of The Last Drifters, and the game we put on was a destruction derby.
Salute this year looked busy although it still didn’t have that feeling of being packed or overcrowded, there was still lots of space in some areas and with around ninety games in the show was a little surprising.
As normal I only saw some of the games by looking at videos of show reports on the internet after the event, I am normally too busy working the show but this year I was just too busy helping run our game.
As you would have seen from some of the previous posts on here, I built the board over the few weeks leading up to the show and I must admit I had a lot of fun, I had never built a gaming board that big before so it was a good learning experience as well.
Well we got to the show nice and early and set up the table and board ready for when the doors opened, to be fair it didn’t take too long… this meant we had time to grab a quick coffee and a breakfast wrap form one of the outlets on the boulevard before we had to put out all the player stuff.
Once our coffee and food were gone, we went back in to do some final setting up of the game, we put out dice, vehicle datasheets with dry wipe markers for each player and placed the vehicles for each player in front of where they would be sitting.
Although we did eventually have to move the far banner as it kept falling over due to the breeze coming from the traffic doors that were open, we put it by the closer one which actually ended up being a good idea as it meant as they were single sided prints, we had one facing the game and one facing passers-by.
Once all the setting up was done I walked over to the main entrance of the show and had a quick look at the queuing hall, and it was looking good for the number of visitors waiting to come in, there was over 6,000 tickets sold for the show so hopefully this meant that the show had bounced back after the horrible time it faced during the COVID closures.
Once the show was open it didn’t take too long to find five eager players for our first game, plus several people watching (we found that this was how it was going to be all day)
Because of the problems I have with my back we decided that I would do the basic introduction to the games and a quick outline of the rules and my son would take over running the actual games, this we found worked well during the day.
It meant I could sit and rest and chat with the people milling around the table during the day, I did try and run a game or two during the day but my back wouldn’t allow for all the bending over and the standing.
It really felt like it was a family affair with my son and son-in-law and nephew all helping around the table during the day, without them I definitely wouldn’t have managed.
The games went well and everyone seemed really excited to get their prizes with the winners getting the paperback copy of the rules and the free PDF download for second place.
The players during the day like everyone that plays The Last Drifters all managed to get the rules by the end of the first turn or two, almost all of them didn’t need any help from us and were taking full control of their vehicles.
We received a lot of good feedback about the board and how it looked, and a few questions about how it was made, and of course questions about the vehicles used in the game.
I think the main response I got from players was that they couldn’t believe how simple the rules were and even though they are simple they actually allowed them to (almost) feel like they were driving the vehicles around the track, no silly dice rolls every time their vehicles moved.
And we also had a lot of good comments about the one turn template in the game, that seemed to go down really well with most people we spoke to on the day, and most players couldn’t believe what it controlled.
We spent a lot of time explaining that this one template controls all the turning and manoeuvring during the game and was also the fire arc template as well, I don’t think some people actually believed us until they saw it in action during the games.
We managed to get in five games during the day which left us about half an hour before the show closed to sit and relax and chat about the day.
Each game seemed to have a good level of excitement as the players drove around the track shooting and ramming their opponents, and everyone that passed by and stopped for a chat also seemed to like our game and seemed to be interested in the rules.
I think for the first event Fyndoria Games have ever attended it was a great success, hopefully we managed to get a few more people interested in playing The Last Drifters, I guess only time will tell.
For me on a personal level it felt really strange not being involved with the running of the show this year, but I have to say that the new committee have definitely put into the show some new good ideas and hopefully they can take the show onto bigger and better things in future years.
And hopefully next year we will be able to take Fyndoria Games back to the show with maybe some new games and who knows maybe even a trade stand!
Oh I nearly forgot, I did of course get collared by Justin (and Gerry on camera) from On Table Top (Beasts of War) and I did an interview with them about the game, I sort of hate doing interviews, I am always nervous that I am going to say something silly or embarrassing.
We spoke about the game at the show and I mentioned about the free Crystalline Wars: Arcane Battlegrounds wizard skirmish game and the hopeful release of the Crystalline Wars: the card game on Gamefound in June.
If you want to see how bad it was you can see it here –
Also pop over to the Fyndoria Games site and sign up for the news letter to keep up to date with our upcoming games – Home – Fyndoria.Games
Mac , just wanted your thoughts on an idea that is being banded around. What do you think of an idea whereby at Salute visitors could pre book spaces at games. You as the organiser would control the slots and manage the people . The SLW would manage the customer interface. Good points you would have customers who were interested in your game down side you would have pre determined slots. There are a number of points but just interested in your thoughts .Might be a rubbish idea .
Hi Martin, it might be something that we could look at, it is how things are done over the pond in the big cons over there.
People book in to all the games they want to play before they turn up at the shows, although their shows are normally more than one day, but it should work in Salute.
We can chat more if it is something that the committee want to go forward with, but it would have to be advertised correctly or lots of people just turning up thinking they would be able to play would be disappointed.
Mac
It’s not a committee idea or a proposal . I was just trying to gauge as a game/ trader if you were pro or anti the idea and then everyone would need to work on how it could be advertised etc . Not sure we could have it up and running for next years Salute but a small trial might be possible.
Ok Martin,
I would be pro the idea if it could be done correctly.
The game looked excellent Mac and a huge congratulations on a milestone on your games design journey ! I love last drifters and just wish there were more Mondays in a week to play games ! If only the cars were based . Again a huge congrats and great to see you at the show !
If your reading this and you haven’t played Last Drifters I highly recommend you do !
Hi Karl,
Thanks mate, it was good to be showing my game at the show, we had a great day.
No bases!!
Hi Mac good to see you had a good show I didn’t make it or you you would have seen me!
I’m curious how’s are sales going?
Have you experienced a drop off?
Hi Zac,
Sales are about the same… zero!
We had hoped that the show would get the game noticed and maybe we would see a few people showing an interest, but nothing really.
There are some videos out there of the game at the show (and my ugly mug) so they may get us some interest.
Sorry to hear that mate!
Hopefully things will pick up.
It’s ok mate I enjoy playing the game so I am happy 😉
People seem to love the games out there that assume your drivers can’t actually drive!! their choice I know and I am not knocking them, but I honestly do not understand it.
I guess we just don’t have enough advertising or the right advertising to get people interested in the game, I keep posting race reports / battle reports so hopefully it will get noticed soon.
Rolling dice creates jepody plan and simple!
Also while it’s easy to drive on roads that are metaind road at a reasonable speed it would be I guess quite another thing to drive on badly cept road’s at break neck speed while some nutters trying to kill you!
Looking on the business side of things you are a small fish in a small pond with two giant much older fish I.e. carwars and gaslands .
Also as someone who is interested in such games I have all 3 but have I actually played a game of any of these products?
In a word no!
Finding someone to play with is a problem for me.
Advertising is also a problem personally almost all the games I have bought, I have initially been made aware of through my local games shop.
Hi Zac,
I agree that is what the dice rolling is for, but not every time you move!! that to me is just ridiculous.
I get driving flat out on bad roads etc while people are trying to kill you could be seen as hazardous, but these are meant to represent drivers that have been in a post apocalyptic wasteland for a while living by driving and fighting, something like you see in the Mad Max films.
Also when you are playing a simple race around a track, think of the Deathrace films, absolute madness but they can all at least drive!
I do understand we are just a small company and are just small fish in a small pond with two giant older fish, but I have played both of those games and they really are odd, you have almost no control of your vehicles in Gaslands (every single manoeuvre is rolled for) it is slightly better in Car Wars, slightly more like The Last Drifters in that you can drive a little more without taking tests by not taking sharp turns etc. (I think if you only use the first section of the movement template) which gives you a little more control of your vehicle.
Advertising is a hard one as to get stuff in magazines can be expensive, and using Google Ads can sometimes work but you need to get it right or you are wasting your money, Facebook can also work but at the moment doesn’t seem to be for us.
I guess we do have an option of getting a load of the books printed some day and trying to get a shop to sell them for us, but that would be a big initial outlay to get the books printed so not something we could do just yet.
All we can do is keep putting up posts on here and the company site and maybe doing some more shows in the future.
Hi Mac,
We had a great time playing your game at the show. I’ve played games with you for years and seen this and your other games grow and develop. All of them are excellent. So well thought out and just the right balance of fun and tactics……you should be selling heaps of these games! The biggest problem is getting them noticed. You are a small fish ( but the best), in a fairly small pool so I guess it’s just down to exposure and promotion. I guessing a lot of people will stick with a ‘first buy’ game with something like this as it’s not really ‘main stream’ like 40K for example. I was I had some ideas for you. I always plug your games whenever I can ( even been thrown off fb pages for doing it!). Keep going with it I’m sure something will happen soon.
Hi Roger, thank you mate, glad you had fun paying at the show.
I’m aware you always promote my games (the cheque is in the post, mate) – my one and only fan 😉
Seriously I do believe you’re correct; it might all come down to exposure and promotion, it is just seems very hard to get either without a big company name behind the rules or lots of money, there may be other ways I just don’t know of them.
I will keep plodding though as I really do enjoy writing the rules and I do enjoy playing the games, even if I never win 🙁
It would be good to get a game sometime maybe two gangs with cars and bikes fighting over a truck full of supplies or something similar.