Betacon 1.0 ran last weekend over in KDU, and while it wasn’t the biggest of events, its probably one of the few that has people over to actually play and interact rather than just stick around for the show.
ACG events are pretty dang huge now, with the events being either huge affairs bringing in guests from around SEA (or even further!) or heavily sponsored do’s that even come with a bundled in concert experience for free. However, that’s not what Betacon 1.0 is about.
In essence, what Betacon aimed to do was to make it possible for board game makers to test out their games with the public, and for people to get to try out board games (and the like) which they normally won’t be able to unless they buy the game themselves or head on over to a board game cafe somewhere.
For the most part, I haven’t gone for many smaller scale conventions, so I personally found Betacon to be a breath of fresh air. Especially one that didn’t have cosplay as one of its major aspects. Plus, it was free entry so can’t complain there!
It was pretty cool to see homebrewed games (in various stages of completion) all laid out for people to try, and honestly I think it was a good thing. Practically all the games were produced by local creators, some of them being KDU students themselves, like Blag for instance; a card game based on deduction and luck. Then we had games like Pasaraya: Supermarket Manager, which is almost ready to hit the shelves. All made by local devs, available to play for anyone who wised to give them a go.
There’s always been a big issue with indie games getting out, in the sense that there’s usually not many chances for them to get beta-tested by the public, and the fact that many do not have the budget to try a 2nd time if they don’t get the game right on the first go. This event literally gives them an avenue to iron out the kinks in their games before they hit the market; and we get a chance to help them field test it and have a whole lot of fun to boot.
I personally didn’t get to try many of the games myself but I did manage to squeeze in one brisk game of D&D and Blag during the short time I was there.
For those who wanted to play something else, there were tables available for people to try out commercially available board games (thanks to the various vendors who had come out to lend their games!) and the D&D Malaysian Adventurers League was there for anyone who was interested in getting a taste of the pen and paper RPG.
As rare as it is to have so many tables all gaming all at once, I hope it becomes a more permanent fixture if Betacon rolls around for round 2. Even those into miniatures had many a tabletop skirmish during those two days.
All in I would love to see more events like this, especially when you have so many people just sitting down to play games with total strangers; some of which might just become friends. No pomp and circumstance, no flashy lights. Just people and games.
Do check out the event gallery below for a taste of what you missed. Images provided by Betacon 1.0.
