A pretty big Shmup Demo in the West

[PROMETHEUS]

Hey guys !

I want to show you something that happened 2 weeks ago that I thought was pretty outstanding.

As some of you may know, and like many have done and will keep doing, I travelled to Japan last Summer and checked out some arcades, Ebi-sen, Hey in Tokyo and A-cho in Kyoto, mainly. I and the shmuppers who were there at the time got quite lucky and for various reasons we got to meet and talk to WTN, NAK, Kamui, SPS, etc. We went to Wasshoi (Tougeki) and saw the big shmup demo there (outdoors) with quite a bit of people watching and applauding. I was used to playing in front of like 30 or 40 people max at Stunfest (Rennes, France), so I got an idea of how much bigger the scene is over there, although it's super weird how some players don't talk to others at all in the arcades themselves.

Anyway, back in France, the guys who had organized the demos at Stunfest (which also included demos of Tetris and some speedruns in addition to shmups), were getting busy in France trying to organize similar stuff on a slightly larger scale at other events, including more commercial ones. This time, their project got accepted by the city-organized event "Montpellier in Game", which is essentially a gaming fair with lots of commercial stands selling stuff and letting you try the latest games and systems, as well as an Esports part with Starcraft, CS competitions being played with cash prizes and stuff.

So we land in the middle of this and set up our own "Superplay" stand. This is our team :

Left to Right :
Jago, great Tetris player - ProMeTheus, some DDP player - DamDam, organizer and does a bit of everything - Bob Lennon, a minecraft comedian celebrity who filed expertly the role of commentator - AM, organizer and does a bit of everything as well - Ghab, Portal and Braid speedrunner - Sephyross, technical commentator who knows a lot about the games.

There was no predicting how well this would go because it was the largest event we ever participated in. So we got prepared, set up our space, and what happened is best explained with a few pictures :







A little more can be found on the following blog post : http://damdamprod.over-blog.com/article ... 74914.html
So far DamDam has only released the DDP pics, and videos.
Videos of the live runs have been posted to youtube. You can get a better idea of what it all felt like, even though it's pretty centered on the game being played. You might like to see my hands on the keyboard while playing though, never done a video like that before, cool :
DDP, Sunday morning (much less crowded) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU7sI0Djt1M
DOJ, Saturday afternoon (big success) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Naj0HYUgIuw

I also did a Guwange demonstration but I don't have the pics and vid yet.

So what the hell happened ? We almost took over such a mainstream commercial event with speedruns, tetris and shmups. Our stand garnered such attention that there were way more people than the space was designed to accommodate. Some were watching from a platform 100meters away to get a glimpse. Something like 300 or 400 people applauding and screaming when, for example, a DOJ boss gets destroyed. Most hadn't even heard of those games before. What the hell ?

Well, it seems all it really takes is getting there with the right combination of factors. At least, that is my analysis of it.

You need space in a crowded event attended by game fans. A little bit of hardware to not only run the games, but project the video on a large enough screen, some mics and sounds systems. A game that is impressive and fun to watch. And finally a complementary team to do the job :
• A good player who is able to perform without messing up too much most of the time.
• A good technical commentator who is able to explain to the public and the other commentator what the fuck is going on.
• A good comedian-type commentator who is able to transmit emotions to the public and interact with it, as well as crack jokes, ask questions, etc.

To be honest, I feel like our comedian-type commentator is better than the one they had at Wasshoi, but it's not like I had a clue what that guy was saying in Japanese. Still, and even though a western crowd probably reacts more dynamicly than a Japanaese one, I think there was at least as much response from the public here than there was at Wasshoi. It is probably important to note that this guy is so popular that he brought a lot of people to us simply by being present. However, we did manage successful demonstrations on a slightly lesser level even when he was not with us (something in between the crowd you see for DDP and the one for DOJ happened when he was not there too, and he was always there at peak hours).

Similar success was met by other demonstrations, depending on how well we nailed the factors together and the time of day.

What this means for the future I don't know. Time will tell, and the team is currently attending various events accross France to set something up that is different from the mainstream-latest-games competitions and stuff. In any case, the Montpellier In Game big boss went to talk to us in the end and stated that given our success, they want us back next year with a different, bigger space and better accomodations.

Shmups will only ever die if we let them. People who don't know them love them anyway. And it doesn't even have to be the latest shit.

To the future of arcade gaming !

ProM

_________________________________________________________________________

The boss of Ebi-cen, the arcade where some of the best shmup players gather up to practice for events, do their daily play or even beat and record new records, and the Japanese players themselves have heard of this happening and have tweeted about it. The third tweet includes a link to this topic !

https://twitter.com/ebi_cen/status/275895912742674432
https://twitter.com/ebi_cen/status/275897630389837824
https://twitter.com/ebi_cen/status/275899113361518592

Tweets translated by marus :

1: A french player who attended this year's Wasshoi at GSF2012, ran a similar event in France! That's a huge crowd! The event is packed!

2: At at event called Montpellier in Game, a skilled player did a live run in front of an audience on a big screen. There were two commentators, one of which did comedy and one which went over the game system. The event looks amazing! But playing Dodonpachi on a keyboard must be insane lol

3: I think it's a blog about organizing the event? There's a bunch of photos of the venue! And the crowd is completely packed! The venue's filled with people just standing and watching!

Clover-TAC wrote an email in reaction to seeing this post, pics and videos, and agreed that it be posted here :

Wow, it was really lively for both Dodonpachi and Daioujou lol
The amount of people watching is amazing, and more than anything the way people engage with the show (watching with mouth open -> player dodges a bullet-> OOHHH, or when he dies they say "Awww") is just like Japan and that impressed me.
This is the proof that superplays of bullet hell shooters communicate as a universal entertainment around the world.
I think Koizumi (who founded Wasshoi) would be really happy to see this (I already forwarded the mail to him)
I think it might be tough in the west but it would be even better if people could play on cabinets/consoles instead of emulators.
I'm hyped that an event like this took place overseas. Looking forward to what else develops!

[BulletMagnet]

Very cool experience; personally I'm most curious as to what sort of commentary the announcers were giving as the game went on (I don't speak French, obviously), as I find it difficult to envision what sort of accompaniment might work best at keeping a contemporary gaming audience interested in this sort of thing. In any event, congratulations on the turnout, and of course a big tip of the hat to your DOJ skills!

[Weak Boson]

This is amazing. It warms my heart to see a room full of people gawping at your mad DDP skills. There is hope yet.

[system11]

Nice work - keep the faith!

[Cagar]

That DOJ-stuff was intense. Now get gus to play futari ultra.

[Skykid]

Beautiful DOJ run! Performance under pressure Prom, loving your work. You make shmupping so darn sexy.

[AntiFritz]

Watched both the videos the other day when they were linked in the youtube thread here. That doj video is absolutely amazing, good job.

[Acid_Rain]

This is awesome. We need Demos like this in Germany, too.

Would love to watch someone who is really capable of shmuping perform live.

[Primative Charm]

Très bien! Thank you for sharing this awesomeness with us. It's stuff like this that just makes me smile ear to ear and seeing those crowd reactions is just golden.

[MrChiggins]

This makes me really happy. Watched both runs and I WAS SO NERVOUS FOR YOU PROMETHEUS JESUS CHRIST.

I hope more things like this happen in the future anywhere in the world. I don't care if I can't go to them. Just let me see people gathered somewhere watching a badass player like this.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Very cool experience; personally I'm most curious as to what sort of commentary the announcers were giving

I tried to listen to what was being said but it's hard to make out. He's talking faster than I'm used to (my French is pretty rusty, much to the disappointment of my relatives), sound's pretty muffled and there's a lot of background noise, I'm only catching a few sentences here and there about how many bombs he's got left and such.

Shmups will only ever die if we let them. People who don't know them love them anyway. And it doesn't even have to be the latest shit.

Demonstrations like this are great for keeping the genre alive and we definitely need more of this sort of thing. Although I think showing off only emulated versions of games may not be the best way to support future shmup development, might be good for live things to also include a playthrough of a shmup that's more recent/readily available to purchase/import like Futari or DFK (then again DOJ's out for iPhone as Blissful Death, even in Europe, right?).

[O. Van Bruce]

Darn. Makes me wanna get a lot better at shmuping. We need to do something like this in our respective countries... that analisis of the needed factors to make it a succes will be helpful.

when is the next event in Montpellier? I'd like go and see the show myself (even though I can't frog language)

[Tyjet]

So cool! Watching a live person playing versus watching a video of just the game screen gives a totally different perspective. I want something like this in my city.

[chempop]

Seeing the enthusiasm from the crowd while you tear through DDP was just incredible! I have a feeling the DOJ performance is going to be even better

Huge respect for you, the organizers, and everyone involved with the scene out there making events like this possible. I'm just so happy to see the genre being publicly represented by one of the finest players.

[ancestral-knowledge]

Excellent!

I hope this gets a million and more views.

[emphatic]

This is amazing. It warms my heart to see a room full of people gawping at your mad DDP skills. There is hope yet.

My sentiments exactly.

[Eaglet]

Awesome initiative man!
Wish i could'a been there.

Think there'll be room for some Garegga next time?

[PROMETHEUS]

Very cool experience; personally I'm most curious as to what sort of commentary the announcers were giving as the game went on (I don't speak French, obviously), as I find it difficult to envision what sort of accompaniment might work best at keeping a contemporary gaming audience interested in this sort of thing. In any event, congratulations on the turnout, and of course a big tip of the hat to your DOJ skills!

I couldn't hear them when I was playing cause I tried to be in my own isolated bubble thx to the headphones, but quite a bit of the technical commentator's job was to gradually explain some of the game's system as the run went on. I mean, he has to start with the size of the hitbox, then talk about the fact there are bombs, chaining system with a gauge, hypers with frames of invincibility, rank.... In between those system explanations, he does a lot of describing what is on the screen and what I am doing with it. The comedian commentator basically reacts emotionally to what's going on and what the technical one is saying and relays it to the crowd. Often he reexplains it with simpler words or using a real life metaphor. Lots of little jokes and exclamations. "Shit it's raining bullets on him right now !! You know how it was raining this morning ? Well when Prometheus arrived here, he wasn't wet !". etc

[Erppo]

Just another generic "these are awesome" post!

The DOJBL one especially. Even if 2-5 went pretty badly, you more than made up for it at the final bosses.

[CHI]

Beautiful DOJ run! Performance under pressure Prom, loving your work. You make shmupping so darn sexy.

+1

"Shit it's raining bullets on him right now !! You know how it was raining this morning ? Well when Prometheus arrived here, he wasn't wet !"

+1

Great watch first thing in the morning

[PROMETHEUS]

Also the pure emotional part of the commentary is very very important. I think it is the most important one. The kind where when the player dodges something really hard, you manage to put into words or sounds or movements what you are feeling so that the crowd feels it as well, and echo with the crowd so that everyone feels connected emotionally to what's going on. Like theater... Moments like these well handled result in serious response from the crowd and everyone feels like something very cool happened and everyone is having fun.

[PROMETHEUS]

That DOJ-stuff was intense. Now get gus to play futari ultra.

Who knows, right ? If you guys manage to set up similar things in other places in the world and in bigger events.. those events have MONEY. A lot of money. When I came to other - independant - events in the past I was usually given free entrance, also free lunch and dinner, and sometimes free stay at some organizer's place.
But Montpellier In Game is a city organized event. They have so much more money than the independant events that they can afford... what they want to. And this time, even though we were a mere test for them, they paid for our train tickets, taxi, food, some items, provided some good hardware, and let us stay in an appartment in the very center of the town for 2 nights, just for ourselves. It's not like we got paid, but they made sure everything we needed or wanted for the whole experience would be there, and would be free. We could go to the supermarket and buy as much food as we want, and they would pay us back as long as we give them a copy of the receipt. They let you pick your own limits and if you behave well and/or are worth enough to them, they will pay. If we keep doing this and doing it well, they might agree with an idea like "hey let's get this other player come from that other country who plays this particular game". They might well be willing to pay us a bit as well, which of course if it keeps working and/or growing I imagine we would ask for in time.

So you guys should start as small or big as you like and record what you are doing, take pics and videos, use them to contact some bigger event and do it again there and take pics and vids... climb this little ladder until you reach the mass audience. That's what we did. The first time I played a demo in front of people there were 5 guys watching. Then it was 10. Then 25, then 40. Then 300. If you do the same, we can connect everything together in the end ;D

[Friendly]

Great performance!

And now imagine how good you could be if you'd use a stick or gamepad

[PROMETHEUS]

Great performance!

And now imagine how good you could be if you'd use a stick or gamepad :P

And now imagine how good you could be if you'd use a keyboard. :P

[Friendly]

Great performance!

And now imagine how good you could be if you'd use a stick or gamepad

And now imagine how good you could be if you'd use a keyboard.

The only arcade game that is meant be played with a keyboard is Typing of the Dead.

[PROMETHEUS]

The only arcade game that is meant be played with a keyboard is Typing of the Dead. :mrgreen:

Or maybe the guys who make the games have no clue what's best to play it with :mrgreen:
There are experts outside of the "official"/"professional" field. I'm sure you know that, being a shmupper. You see those PES/fifa progamers that earn 10K€ when they win a tournament ? There is arguably little skill to play these particular games compared to shmups, yet the best shmup players earn next to nothing and seem unofficial to the rest of the world. For now.

(not saying all mainstream games take no skill, lots are absolutely awesome. I think it's harder to play CS, Quake or Starcraft at top level than it is shmups, for instance. But in those games, CS:Go, Starcraft 2 and other games have sometimes taken over the "pro" market, even though most/all players know they take less skill, they were tailored to make money. Another example of how you should never think what's official, what's meant to be, that has no value. Value comes out of discussion between everyone, like in those forums !)

[Vamos]

Great performance!

And now imagine how good you could be if you'd use a stick or gamepad

And now imagine how good you could be if you'd use a keyboard.

The only arcade game that is meant be played with a keyboard is Typing of the Dead.

You obviously havent seen the vid of Prometheus getting to stage 2-7 or was it 2-5 at casino in london on a cab?

[PROMETHEUS]

The only arcade game that is meant be played with a keyboard is Typing of the Dead. :mrgreen:

You obviously havent seen the vid of Prometheus getting to stage 2-7 or was it 2-5 at casino in london on a cab?

Eheh that's beside the point I think but yeah I also 2-ALLd DOJ with stick a bunch of time in Japan. At Hey and A-cho ;) I even put the bloody coin in there and everything! And I have witnesses!!

[Friendly]

I know you are an awesome player, I'm just teasing you a little. I just think that using a keyboard instead of a pad makes stuff like circular motions difficult. Then again, it's nice of you to handicap yourself a little so the rest of us don't look so bad in comparison.

[PROMETHEUS]

I know you are an awesome player, I'm just teasing you a little. I just think that using a keyboard instead of a pad makes stuff like circular motions difficult. Then again, it's nice of you to handicap yourself a little so the rest of us don't look so bad in comparison. ;)

Seriously, it's not a handicap. It might even be the opposite. Who knows ? So little are giving it a serious try. And those who do are dominating the DDP rankings :p
By the way, circular motion (which I can do anyway) don't seem nearly as important to me as having 3 or even 4 fingers for directions instead of just one on a pad. This increases reactivity and possibility of making very small adjustments in all directions at any time. I think circles look like crap in comparison to the ability of doing that, you see circles being used a lot in those games ? I see reactivity and small adjustments in all directions a lot though.