Showcasing my game at a fair

27. April 2026

I showcased my game 99Managers Futsal Edition already twice. First at GodotFest25 in Munich, where everybody could show their game in a dedicated room. The second time at the IGDA Trentino Game Night, similar to GodotFest25. I really enjoyed both events, especially talking about my open source game.

This year I decided to exhibit at the Tempo Libero 2026 (IT) / Freizeit 2026 (DE), in the city of Bolzano, Italy. It is not a fair specific for video games, but generic for leisure time activities and interests. From sports, camping and food stands to household articles and a gaming court. Here you can try new sports, buy a lot of stuff and discover new products.

A big thank you to the organizers of the fair for giving free booths to startups, like me! Without this offer, I would not have attended the fair.

My booth was near the gaming court, a 600m² area with a video game exhibition. From historical game consoles, like NES and SEGA to modern Play 5 or a virtual flipper. So I was positioned right at the corner of this gaming zone.

This is me with my booth the first day, still full of energy :-)

Now I will share my experience and what I learned during this days. This is no guide but more a personal journal documenting this experience.

Nobody tried the game

The hard truth is that in the first 2 days, nobody sat down and played my game. Some people where interested and asked questions, but never touched the keyboard/mouse.

I guess this is related to 2 main reasons. The first one is that my game is too complicated and niche to just give it a try. Sport management games have naturally a learning curve and my game is not much intuitive. Games where you get instant feedback when moving the mouse or joypad might work better. For example racing games or platformers should perform much better. Additionally my game is not so visually attracting, being UI heavy with lots of dashboards.
The second reason is that I used a sitting desk as table. For that reason to play the game, you had to sit or bend down to grab the mouse/keyboard. This might be too much friction for most people that are just curious. I guess that having a small standing desk would make more people stop and try.

It got better on Saturday and Sunday, where around 30 people actually sat down and played the game. For the record, there where also a lot more people on the fair those days.

Free stickers

Recently I ordered 1000 stickers of the game logo. They where meant to be handed out during the fair, but not only. I did not expect to finish all of them in 4 days.

Now I still have 850 stickers left, so around 150 stickers where taken. I hope this will remind people of the game, when they got home. Stickers are in my opinion better than flyers or cards, because people like stickers. And they have much more future potential, because they might get attached somewhere very visible. A lot of people also just grabbed a sticker and moved on.

It would be awesome If I see my sticker attached somewhere in the wild :-) I'm also thinking about sending stickers to players around the world. The main issue with that of course is the high postal fee, but let's see. If you want some stickers, let me know!

The stickers where my only expenses for this fair, since I got the booth for free (thanks again!).

Tweaking the setup

I changed the my stand setup everyday a little bit, with the observations of the previous day. For example the first day nearly nobody understood that this was a video game. Additionally to that, many did not know what the word futsal means, even people who knew the sport. To be fair, futsal is not much used here, but the Italian and German translations. (Bolzano is in Italy (South Tyrol), but many here speak German) For that reasons I created the following simple graphic and showed it on the TV.

This translated and explicitly says that it is a game. Here I learned that it is really important to make people understand what the product is. It should be clear at first sight.
Next time I will put a big banner saying that it is a video game and the local translations of it. On the TV instead I could show a trailer of the game, to attract people.

I also removed a laptop and just left the PC where the game could be played and the TV. It never happened that multiple persons wanted to play at the same time. And if that would happen, a queue often indicates something interesting, attracting even more. I also think that having only one possibility to sit down and play is less confusing.

People will see, what they want to see

It was interesting to hear what some thought my stand was about. Even after putting the description in both languages on the TV. The highlights where stickers factory, tournament, tactical software and a real futsal team.

Of course it is mainly my fault, for not making it clear enough. But I really think with so many people passing by, someone will always see what he wants to see.

(Future) special demo mode

Showing a futsal match in action attracted the most peoples attention. But this needed manual intervention from me on game breaks (like half time) and when the match ended. Additionally most players where disappointed when they tried to play during a match. There isn't much to do during a match and it is better to start from the dashboard.

Having a special demo mode should be much better. In that mode a match could be run in a loop, without manual intervention (or simply a video). Once the mouse is touched or a key is pressed, the game exits the demo mode and shows the dashboard. Maybe even with a nice transition and a message welcoming the player.

For the next fair I really hope to find the time to implement this mode. This would also allow me to use all displays/TVs for promotion and play testing at the same time.

Number of sales during the fair

A crucial metric to measure the success of the fair would be units sold on Steam. I had no specific link with UTM tracking or whatever to measure this. But it is currently selling only a few copies a day, therefore I should see changes in local sales.

I checked the Steam sale statistics in Italy, and I sold an amazing amount of 0(!) copies. The reality is harsh and of course I did expect better results. But I also hope that many people who saw the game might buy it in the future. Or at least share it with friends and fellow futsal followers. There is also to say that most people did not know what Steam is. Finding gamers that know Steam and enjoy futsal was harder than expected.

So while the short-term results are really bad, long term it might bring something. I met some real futsal players and they where really excited about the game. At least I got some visibility at the local futsal communities.

Anyways I learned a lot and knowledge is priceless ;-)

Final thoughts

The fair started as a flop but turned out great in the end. I was able to show my game to people playing futsal and hopefully attracted new players. I also learned a lot about how to promote a product directly to people. Staying alone for 10 hours at a booth for 4 days is a bit too much, but possible. I just needed at least 1 day of rest afterwards.

Opportunities like this help a lot to get experience and free marketing. Usually stands cost hundreds or thousands Euros and more. If you happen to get a free or low-cost spot somewhere, go for it!

I'm already keeping my eyes open for other fairs nearby (North Italy) :-) If you happen to know something interesting, let me know!

Every feedback is welcome

Feel free to write me an email at info@simondalvai.org and comment on Mastodon.

Exit through the gift shop

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