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In May 2023 I helped organize an UnPub Mini event near Detroit, MI. Since this playtest event came about directly from a high school game design class, I figured I'd post my experience here on my Project Pack site. Anyone can organize an event like this. Though ours was not only for students, and most designers were adults, I could see this as a great event for the end of a class, where students show their games to families and other community members.
The Initial Vision
In early March, Kevin Crowther posted a message on some Facebook gaming groups. He teaches a high school game design class (a dream job in my mind, but he reminds me it’s just one of his classes). They normally participate in a countywide design competition, but it was canceled this year. He was checking for interest in running an UnPub Mini with area designers, so two of his students could get feedback an exposure for their games.
Kevin and I are both educators. We’ve talked for years (mostly online, but we’ve crossed paths at big gaming events in the area) about his class. I have wanted to run an UnPub-like event since I participated in a large UnPub in Michigan about five years ago. I responded to his post with an offer to co-organize this with him.
I was thinking of doing this mid-summer, but Kevin wanted it before school was out, if possible. He picked May 20, about two months away. I figured that was tight for a large event,
What Exactly Is an UnPub?
I am very familiar with Protospiel events, having attended the first one ever (just five of us). I ran the one in Michigan (still the only Protospiel at that time) for several years. In those events, designers get together and playtest each other’s games. Countless designer meetups like that now happen monthly in larger cities.
The UnPub model is very different, and it caught me off guard when I attended one in 2017. These events have designers testing their more polished games to the general public. The one I attended had 50 - 100 designers over the weekend, and hundreds of playtesters cycled through.
Kevin had read up on what it takes to officially connect our event to the UnPub Network and call it an UnPub Mini. Turns out the main requirement was that we couldn’t charge anyone. That’s my type of event, so I was fine with that.
The UnPub site says a Mini event can range from 10 - 40 people. So our task was to get space for something like that, plus we needed to draw in some designers and the public.
Getting Space
I knew our event would likely be too small to warranting renting space (and we had that requirement that we couldn’t charge anyone to participate). If it went well, though, I was afraid we’d pack out the gaming space at any game stores I was aware of. Kevin and I considered the possibility of libraries and conference rooms too.
Considering that we eventually needed to reach gamers who would be willing to playtest, the game store option made the most sense.
Now to put this in context, I live in a small town about an hour north from Detroit. All the exciting stuff happening with gaming and game design is always a bit of a drive for me. Playtest events I hold about 30 minutes from me are still considered too far to drive for many of the designers in the greater Detroit area.
So while I knew of many larger game stores in the area, I don't frequent them. I certainly didn't know the owners. I wasn't sure how crowded their rooms were on a Saturday. I ended up making a lot of phone calls and reaching out with emails and Facebook messages, first just checking if anyone would consider hosting an event like we had in mind.
I started out thinking I was providing an opportunity for many people to come into their store. After a few chats with owners, I knew I was really asking for a big favor! The owners didn’t know what an UnPub Mini was. Responses ranged from skepticism with little interest to accommodate us to vague references to a fee if we wanted to be sure to have enough room. Understandably, their regulars (who also expected to have long gaming sessions on a Saturday) took priority. I did have a price in mind that I’d pay for the event, just to make this first one happen. I was really hoping for free though.
Eventually I connected with a shop on the west side of the area that had a large open gaming area. The person in charge of events assured me we'd have room and wouldn't have to pay (But I could pay around $200 to reserve it just for us, not knowing at the time how many people we'd even have). I checked with Kevin. We decided to go with the free option. I asked them to add our event to their calendar.
With that out of the way, the next effort was to get some interested game designers.
