The French city of Cannes is internationally recognized for its Film Festival, but every year in late February, it also hosts the Festival International des Jeux, or International Games Festival (FIJ). Though less glamorous than its movie counterpart, it is the most significant board game event in France, second in Europe only to Essen SPIEL. For four days, one of which restricted to professionals only, La Croisette was filled with more than a hundred thousands attendants, mostly local families and board game enthusiasts from all around France. FIJ also hosts 300 exhibitors, 300 designers and artists, 300 journalists and influencers, plus 3 500 retailers, cafés, and games libraries.
For the first time, we decided to get a small booth at FIJ where Dized would be used to teach Kingdomino on two tables. It was also a perfect opportunity to show Early Access to publishers and professionals, and get more feedback from players.
Obviously, texts and voice-over needed to be in French: localization is not yet a priority, but besides being necessary for this specific audience, it was also a great opportunity to refine the process of translating the app and content.
Voulez-vous jouer avec moi ?
We had a busy — but pleasant — time: we collected 182 feedback forms from an estimated 250 players, 86% of which enjoyed learning the game with Dized, and roughly 75% claiming they can see themselves using Dized over a rulebook! The numbers are even slightly better than the feedback we collected in Essen a few months ago, certainly because we kept improving on the Tutorial since, and possibly because players in Cannes are often less familiar with board games and rulebooks than the average board game player in Germany.
Putting the Tutorial out there is always an excellent opportunity to get quality feedback we can use while improving this specific Tutorial and planning upcoming ones. Input from players in Cannes allowed us to make changes to the players choosing screen, fix a few bugs with the scoring tool, and make a few rules more transparent overall. As an example, we realized that our explanation of how a single square is counted as a territory that should be scored wasn’t clear enough. Luckily Dized can be updated every time such an issue arises, so it will be an easy fix.
Dized is blue like an orange
Cannes marked another important landmark for us, as it was the first time a third party operated the app at their booth without our supervision. We had three Dized tablets teaching Kingdomino at Blue Orange’s booth — the original Kingdomino’s publisher. The feedback we obtained from both the players and the demo team there was precious, and we learned a few lessons on how to better train the staff of a third party booth, or what kind of ready-to-go equipment we need in the future for a proper Dized setup.
While we are currently focusing on Dized as a domestic experience, we will continue to explore what the app could bring to significant events like FIJ. Compared to a traditional demo crew, particularly one that needs to be trained or is tired, Dized allows to handle more gaming tables and provides a better learning experience, as rules are always updated and explained clearly. This way, the crew can be freed and made available to greet players or talk with visitors.
Last but not least, Cannes was a great place to meet many publishers — some for the first time, others for a quick update. Sounds boring, but those meetings confirmed the interest around what we’re doing and the expectations for its potential. We are confident that most publishers are now acquainted with the concept and the advantage it can offer to their games: this awareness will be key to build a much broader library of titles over time.
— -
Want to learn more about Dized? Sign up on this page and make sure you’re the first to discover what’s new — we’re working on a few exciting things! No spam, only good stuff. You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
