Pioneering digital games festival returns to Steam April 24-27, aiming to attract 1.5M visitors

MELBOURNE, Australia – February 6, 2020: Indie games label Fellow Traveller today announced the dates and exhibitors for LudoNarraCon 2020, a global festival held on Steam that celebrates narrative video games. The 2020 festival will run from April 24-27 and will feature exhibiting games including Telling Lies, Eliza, Heaven’s Vault, Boyfriend Dungeon, Paradise Killer and Genesis Noir.

Organized by Fellow Traveller, an independent games label focused on innovative narrative games, LudoNarraCon is a pioneering event, replicating many of the aspects of conventions like PAX or Eurogamer Expo but through a digital format and hosted on the Steam platform. 

It’s free to attend, free to exhibit, has global reach and no one has to put on pants.” Chris Wright, Managing Director, Fellow Traveller

After the successful pilot in May 2019, which saw more than 850,000 people visit the central event page on Steam, this year’s event will see a 25% increase in exhibitors, a 66% increase in demos and a doubling of live panel content. The organisers are hoping to drive increased attendance with a goal of 1.5M visitors to the event page for the 2020 event.

During the festival, 30 exhibitors from around the world will stream exclusive behind the scenes content and sneak peeks onto their Steam store pages with more than 15 exhibitors providing downloadable demos, available only for the duration of the event. There will also be live panel discussions on the main theatre stream and a sale featuring more than 50 story-rich games.

“We believe digital festivals like LudoNarraCon are the way of the future for indie developers and solve many of the challenges with physical events,” said Chris Wright, Managing Director of Fellow Traveller. “It’s free to attend, free to exhibit, has global reach and no one has to put on pants.”

Fellow Traveller announced 23 exhibitors today with more exhibitors to be revealed in the coming months. The announced games participating are:

• Boyfriend Dungeon – Kitfox Games
• Chinatown Detective Agency – General Interactive Co.
• Eliza – Zachtronics
• Genesis Noir – Feral Cat Den / Fellow Traveller
• Heaven’s Vault – inkle
• Hypnospace Outlaw – Tendershoot / No More Robots
• In Other Waters – Jump Over The Age / Fellow Traveller
• Mutazione – Die Gute Fabrik / Akapura Games
• Neo Cab – Chance Agency / Fellow Traveller
• Not Tonight – Panic Barn / No More Robots
• Out There: Oceans of Time – Mi-Clos Studio / Modern Wolf, Fractale
• Paradise Killer – Kaizen Game Works / Fellow Traveller
• She Dreams Elsewhere – Studio Zevere
• Solace State – Vivid Foundry
• Sometimes Always Monsters – Vagabond Dog / Devolver
• Suzerain – Torpor Games / Fellow Traveller
• Tangle Tower – SFB Games
• Telling Lies – Drowning a Mermaid Productions / Annapurna Interactive
• The Church in the Darkness – Paranoid Productions / Fellow Traveller
• The Stillness of the Wind – Lambic Studios / Fellow Traveller
• Wayward Strand – Ghost Pattern
• Welcome to Elk = Triple Topping
• Yes, Your Grace – Brave At Night / No More Robots

The line up of panels for the main theatre stream will be revealed closer to the event and developers, journalists and others keen to chair a panel can submit ideas before February 14 via this link.

About LudoNarraCon

LudoNarraConis a digital games festival celebrating narrative games and the people that make them. Organised by indie games label, Fellow Traveller, it all takes place on Steam and replicates many of the aspects of physical game conventions such as PAX or Eurogamer Expo.

Here’s how it works:

• A curated selection of developers “exhibit” on their Steam store pages, using Steam’s streaming features to provide behind the scenes looks at their games. Some also provide downloadable demos, available only for the duration of the event but playable at the player’s convenience.
• A “theatre” stream features panels on topics related to narrative games and panelists including narrative game developers, writers, and journalists.
• All of the live streaming content is looped for the rest of the event, making it easy to access the content when it suits the attendee.
• A sale featuring more than 50 narrative games runs for the duration of the event.
• Media can register for a press pass, giving them early access to demo builds, press assets and facilitating contact with participating developers to organise interviews.
• Attendees can connect with each other via stream chat, Steam forums or the Fellow Traveller Discord.
• Steam brings the whole event together in a special event page on the store making it easy to find all the content. Steam also puts the event in front of millions of Steam users via promotion and exposure on the store.

About LudoNarraCon 2019

The inaugural LudoNarraCon was held over four days in May 2019. Twenty-three games exhibited with developers participating from locations in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US. There were six panel discussions on topics such as Romance in Games and Procedural Storytelling with one panelist even taking part from a bus. The content was streamed live and then looped and the panels and some of the exhibitor streams can still be viewed via the LudoNarraCon website.

In total, more than 850,000 unique visitors came to the LudoNarraCon event page whilst exhibitors saw an average of 35,000 visitors to their “booths” (store pages). The unreleased games that exhibited saw typical wishlist increases of 4,000-5,000 with one game reporting close to 10,000 wishlists during the event.

Participating developers reported spending a fraction of the time they would normally put into preparing for and exhibiting at a major convention and of having almost no expenses for LudoNarraCon compared to thousands of dollars for a typical expo. Fellow Traveller revealed that the costs of running the event came in at two-thirds of the amount they would usually spend exhibiting at a major convention but the extra revenue generated from its games in the LudoNarraCon sale more than covered these costs.