The Adventure X Adventure!

It has now been over a week since I woke up in the small hours to get on a train to London, needing and emergency lift from the wife due to the rain, and I had no idea that when I set off I would have such a blast.

I've been developing games for around 5 years now (if you count it from the first hestitant bits of self-taught coding that started Abscission), have two full releases on Steam, three short free games on Itch.io, and four (how?!) AGS awards to my name, three for Abscission, and one for The Anchorite. This is more than I ever thought I would achieve when I set myself the lofty goal of 20 units for Abscission, and it still feels like I'm somehow cheating my way onwards through this interesting, often lonely, always interesting career (especially as it's not my day job). This feeling was at the forefront of my mind as I walked into the narrative game convention Adventure X, something that I had no idea existed until I joined a game jam last year, making The Anchorite. I didn't know what to expect, and I was hoping to catch a glimpse of devs I'd been following for a while, in the hope that they would just acknowledge me nearby as a physical object.

I do understand that I am my own worst enemy when it comes to advertising and socialising, so to counter my own natural tendencies I wore a t-shirt with my Beyond Booleans logo on it, just as a conversation starter really, to force myself to engage with others. I also had some cool business cards made up (that I rarely gave out as I forgot I had them... genius).

I felt very nervous when I stepped into the exhibition hall, even though no one was looking at me. I flung myself at a demo to try to relieve the tension, the fantastic Seance of Blake Manor. I got to play a few games over the course of the weekend in the end, and this was probably the best. Then I saw Tom Hardwidge (of Tall Story Games, and Co-Director of Adventure X) and he gave me a hug, saying that he was sweaty and now I was too. This definitely put me at ease... I think. Tom was everywhere over the weekend, helping out and keeping a smile on despite his exhaustion (he was so busy that I didn't want to bother him for a photo, though I'm sure he would have obliged). I'd met Tom last year, as I'd reached out to him after I'd found out he was a UK game designer who didn't live too far from me, and he had been kind enough to meet me to chat about his game and the development process in general (I now really want to make a big box game one day... watch this space). I hope everyone gets the chance to meet him, a genuinely great guy and creative force.

The first day talks were excellent, with the highlight being Dominic Armato's keynote about defeating imposter syndrome (John Robertson's Dark Room was also fantastic though less motivational, especially if you were one of the people he bellowed "YOU DIE" at). I waited to meet Dominic and he was so kind to sign my Monkey Island posters and CDROM covers, you could tell he was genuinely touched and somehow surprised by every bit of praise that came his way.

I spent the rest of the day tentatively approaching people I recognised from various places -

• Johnny Nys of Adventure Game Hotspot and Adventure Games Podcast, who has been a supporter of Abscission and Carnival, and is a really great guy (and a sharp dresser!). His understanding and love of adventure games is second to none, and it was great to finally meet him. I also met Seoirse Dunbar and Kieran Childs from Adventure Games Podcast, who were also great and very complimentary about Carnival. It was surreal to meet people who'd played my games, which never got old any time it happened over the weekend.

• Francisco Gonzalez of Grundislav Games, developer of Rosewater, another AGS legend (and apparently secret Karaoke dynamo). Such a great guy!

• Dave Gilbert of Wadjet Eye, maker of some of the games that made me want to use AGS, and who I think I scared by hissing 'DAVE!' from behind him in case I was wrong. Despite this, he was kind enough to have a photo with me.

There were other people I had hoped to meet but I thought 'I'll catch them at the afterparty!'. This lasted all of 20 minutes for me as I stood in the corner, not knowing how to speak to anyone and eventually running away to my hotel. I started to think that I should have booked an earlier train on Sunday as I clearly wasn't cut out for this life... clearly this was not a world that I could join without some form of personality transplant!

Due to my previous day's retreat, I entered day 2 with more trepidation than excitement, however an early chat with Johnny and then a meeting with Falko Löffler (who knows Sascha Strobel, a tester on my last game and supporter of Abscission for years), put me far more at ease.

Falko was great company, really humble and approachable despite his successes (writing two Leisure Suit Larry games, among other things), and I mentioned to him that I was also hoping to meet Richard Cobbett. Consequently, when I passed by a table where Falko was sitting with Richard, he called me over and helped me get past my own awkardness. When Falko had to leave, I said I would leave Richard alone (as he'd no doubt been hounded all weekend), but he was really kind and offered for me to stay, and we talked for half an hour more about the ludicrous mess of Limbo of the Lost, Sunless Seas/Skies, his latest upcoming game with Wadjet Eye, and he even asked about my game. It was a real highlight of my weekend.

I also was lucky enough to grab a photo with Twitch streamer Villainy, who had played The Anchorite and Abscission on her stream, and was really friendly despite the work she was putting in over the weekend with the Adventure X stream. She chatted as if we'd known each other for ages!

Later, I finally managed to catch up briefly with Director of Adventure X Amy Tant, who has narrative games in her blood and had been kind enough to stream The Anchorite. She worked so hard over the weekend and is a huge reason why the event was so successful. I didn't ask her for her photo as she was heading off for a rest, and I didn't blame her, but I will try to get one with her next year!

Finally during the day, I got to meet Alasdair Beckett-King, who I knew more from comedy, but who is also a very talented dev. He would have every right to have a huge ego but he was really humble and friendly (there seems to be a theme in the adventure game community...).

I missed some of the talks during the second day in order to play some more demos, but the ones I caught were excellent (especially the talk by Florent Maurin and Pierre Corbinais, and the panel on comedy writing with Tom Hardwidge, Sally Beaumont, Alasdair Beckett-King, Dave McCabe and Adam Riches).

When it ended I was ready to leave the experience there, being willing to wait for my 10pm train nursing a pint by myself, but I luckily met up with Falko and Johnny again at the afterparty, and also met Tomas Becks, another part of the Adventure Games Podcast and a really funny, easy going guy! I couldn't have asked for better people to share a drink with. The time flew past (in a flurry of each of us attempting to grab pizza for our little group), and as it neared the end I returned to the table to find Dave McCabe of Spooky Doorway sitting in my chair and resting over my rucksack as if he was guarding an egg! Treasa McCabe also joined us, and they were both so funny and humble (THERE IT IS AGAIN). Towards the end, Treasa went onto Steam to buy my games, and I involuntarily yelled out "Don't buy them!". Dave told me, very matter-of-factly, that I needed to work on my sales technique. We settled for swapping keys to our games, and now I'm the proud owner of Seance of Blake Manor!

I didn't want to leave, but eventually I had to, but instead of heading home feeling that I didn't belong, I instead felt I was at the start of a fantastic journey, and that I would meet a lot more amazing people along the way.

Roll on Adventure X 2026!