Day 2 – Pop-up Arcade
Saturday was the second day of Gamercamp and the first day of the pop-up arcade, which was more like a festival, as opposed to a conference.
It opened to the public at 10 AM, so I arrived just a little before 9 AM to set up. Coffee and pastries were provided, which was really nice.
This is what my setup looked like: 
I had three laptops running the game, one of which was hooked up to the large screen TV. The TV setup could only be played with an XBox controller, while the other two had both keyboard + mouse and XBox controllers. One issue that made the setup a bit awkward is that the UI for the game doesn’t support controller yet, so to restart the game on the TV, I would have to go behind the table to operate the laptop.
This is what the entire setup of the first floor looked like:
As you can see, Relativity is set up on the left hand side, on the large table across from the bar. I shared the table with “Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes”, which was a festival favorite.
My Gamercamp show neighbors:
On the right, it was a dining area, with tables and chairs where people could sit down and eat. There were also a couple of games on display there.
The way pop-up arcade worked was there were two sessions. The first was from 10:00 am to 2:30 pm, and the second session went from 3:00 pm to 7:30 pm. In between, everyone who was not a developer or organizer had to leave Gamercamp. This gave developers a break, and also helped to manage crowd density.
Here’s a shot of a group of people playing Relativity: 
It was never too crowded during Gamercamp, and with the three laptop set up, it meant that people didn’t have to wait in line to play the game, and also there was almost always someone playing.
Here’s another shot of people playing: 
Some people even managed to finish the demo!
Second Floor
The second floor of the hotel was also an open lobby-type area. There wasn’t a bar or dining area, but there were many more games. All of these games were part of the offical Gamercamp selection.
Third & Fourth Floor
The third and fourth floor had a really cool setup, as they were where the hotel rooms were. The third floor was XBox games while the fourth floor was PlayStation games. Inside each room, one or two games were being shown. Out of all the conferences and festivals I’ve been to, this was by far the best way to show a game.
Each game got the attention it deserved. The lighting was right, it was comfortable and intimate, and the sound didn’t travel between the rooms. So you could have people playing a local multiplayer game like Nidhogg in one room, and be shouting and screaming, then walk down the hallway and see someone playing Night In The Woods and just hear the sound in that game. I’d love to see more festivals adopt such a setup.
Here’s the Sunset Overdrive room:
And down the hallway, Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime:
Night Arcade
After the day sessions ended, it was time for Night Arcade! This was a special session on Saturday night starting at 8 PM. It was for age 19 and older, so it felt much more like a party. The local multiplayer games were especially popular during this session.
Here are some people playing Nidhogg:
