#news expo live 2023

[kinghellcat]

Finally finally finally made a dream come true ✨

I saw NEWS live 💚💛💜 it was such a blast and we actually had really good seats!!

[studiotriggeritalia]

Riepilogo Anime Expo 2023

Riepilogo Anime Expo 2023

Salve brigata, è da parecchio che non aggiorniamo il sito con qualche novità quindi perché non cogliere la palla al balzo dell’Anime Expo 2023? Probabilmente i più interessati tra voi si sono già aggiornati in altri lidi ma le notizie sono comunque interessanti e quindi è bene riportarle anche qui. Durante l’AX di quest’anno erano presenti: Hiromi Wakabayashi, Masahiko Otsuka, Hiroyuki Imaishi,…

[banqanas]

BALLISTIK BOYZ LDH LIVE EXPO DAY 2 24KARATS JERSEY

BBZ - Original member

Yoshi - Nesmith

Masa - Atsushi

Ryuta - Naoki

Ryusei - Imaichi

Ricky - Gunchan (shoes are Omi’s)

Riki - Kenchi

Miku - Shokichi

From: BBZ instagram livestream 20231231

[reversatility1]

So that’s what that smile meant??!?!?!

According to this Reddit post, at FAN EXPO New Orleans today (Jan 7, 2023), Warrior Nun writer David Hayter “confirmed that the end credit scene of the season two finale was meant to be interpreted as Ava already having been back in the human world for several months and that Bea was leaving to be with her.” I knew that Simon had said the post-credit scene meant that Ava was back and alive, but I don’t think we’ve previously gotten details about how long for, and also, that Bea was leaving the OCS to be with Ava, like live her life with her?!?! I have so many feelings. (And questions. But mostly feelings.)

[yumeka-sxf]

There were two panels related to Spy x Family at Anime Expo this year, with the first on Day 1 being Toho Animation's panel featuring both Spy x Family and Kaiju No.8.

The panel started with the SxF portion, with the special guests being the series director, Kazuhiro Furuhashi, and the CODE: White director, Takashi Katagiri. They also had the six SxF ThreeZero figures on the stage with them 😀

The MC asked them some questions, like what their favorite scenes were from their respective works and who their favorite character is. They also showed behind-the-scenes footage of both the Loid/Fiona tennis match in season 1, and Yor's fight scene against Type F in the movie. We got to see both of these scenes in rough animatic sketch form and then in line art form, which was pretty cool (it wasn't clear if photo/video was prohibited at this panel, but I didn't want to risk it by being caught blatantly recording these exclusive clips, lol). Then they showed off some of Anya's unused outfits from the movie.

At the end, they showed this original illustration by Kyoji Asano, made specifically for this event 😁

And that was it for the SxF part of the panel before they moved on to Kaiju No.8...and to be honest, it kinda overshadowed the SxF part, mostly because it featured two of the main Kaiju No.8 voice actors, one of which was extremely hilarious and charismatic. Plus there were a lot more segments compared to the SxF part. The interview with the guests seemed longer, they did three live voice overs, showed a pre-recorded special message from the band that performs the Kaiju No.8 opening, and then they took a group photo with the audience (and maybe something else that I'm forgetting). It seemed like the SxF part took up about 35% of the panel's time while Kaiju No.8 took up 65%. Not sure why it felt so unbalanced, but it was still fun.

Next was the panel on Day 3 for Production IG and their related studios WIT and Signal MD. Heads of each studio were there, including George Wada from WIT. Photo/video wasn't allowed once the panel started, but it basically consisted of an interview with the different guests, then trailers/teasers for their upcoming projects, then a Q&A session.

WIT is the studio that makes SxF, so I was hoping for any news about season 3, specifically if WIT would be more involved with it than they were with season 2. For those who don't know, season 1 of SxF was made by both WIT Studio and Cloverworks. But when they decided to make both season 2 and the movie in 2023, they split up the work, with WIT focusing on the movie while Cloverworks did pretty much all the work on season 2 (which is why the animation in season 1 and season 2 looks a bit different). According to this tweet, the official staff listing for season 3 is the same as season 2, meaning WIT will once again have little involvement. But despite this, they had a slide during the presentation with the season 3 promo image (preceded by the CODE: White teaser trailer, which made the crowd go wild - glad there were lots of SxF fans in the audience!) George Wada also said in regards to season 3 that they're "working hard on it."

I wanted to confirm during the Q&A if WIT would again take a backseat during season 3's production as well, but unfortunately the panel only had a few minutes left when it was close to my turn, and then they opted to pick a few random people in line for their last questions (which I thought was kind of unfair). Guess we'll just have to wait and see if anything changes with that staff listing once we get closer to season 3's release.

Overall, while Takuya Eguchi's appearance at last year's AX was more fun, it was still cool to attend this year's SxF-related panels as well. Hopefully season 3 will either be airing or close to being released at next year's AX, so we'll have even more SxF events!

[beardedmrbean]

Bad Dragon is suing SinSaint over copyright infringement of their dildo designs. What I want to know is, can you copyright the shape of a dog's dick? Because if you can, you shouldn't be able to.

I did knot need to hear about this one.

one more pun

TSG is gonna be one of the more reputable sources for this one

MARCH 25--A manufacturer of “fantasy-themed sex toys” has accused an upstart Brooklyn, New York firm of knocking off its distinctive designs, according to a federal lawsuit alleging that the defendant has infringed on copyrights for dildos such as “Spritz the Seadragon” and “Tyson the Water Buffalo.”

In a March 20 complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona, Bad Dragon Enterprises contended that its “sculptural” products have been illegally copied by SinSaint, which is headquartered in a Coney Island warehouse and advertises that all its “Ethically Manufactured” toys are “made in Brooklyn, USA.”

Bad Dragon, which noted that it has had “significant commercial success” in the adult toy field, alleged that SinSaint has been selling the duplicative dildos through its website and other trade channels, including the recent AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas (where the new firm’s exhibitor booth was next to that of the all-nude Palomino strip club).

The lawsuit identifies 13 separate dildos that Bad Dragon claims have been copied (and renamed) by SinSaint, which was incorporated in New York last year. The colorful silicone toys feature scales, tentacles, suction cups, and other design elements meant to mimic the genitalia of dragons, sea creatures, and other fantastical characters.

Some of the Bad Dragon products that SinSaint is accused of swiping are “Kelvin the Ice Dragon,” “Stan the T. Rex,” and “Vergil the Drippy Dragon.” SinSaint has not been accused of pirating other Bad Dragon offerings like “Jason the Demogorgon” or “Cuttlefish of Cthulhu.”

According to the lawsuit, SinSaint’s counsel last month stated that the company had begun removing “some of the allegedly infringing listings for product redesign.” This response, Bad Dragon contended, was “unacceptable,” adding that it “continues to be harmed by Defendant’s ongoing, unlawful conduct.”

The Bad Dragon complaint seeks an order enjoining SinSaint from continuing any further alleged

copyright infringement and seeks “disgorgement of all of Defendant’s profits” related to the artificial penises. The company may also seek statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each of the dildos in question.

For more than a decade, Bad Dragon has sought trademark and copyright protection for various product lines. While often successful, the firm’s application to trademark its “Cum Tube” was abandoned after a government attorney rejected the ejaculating dildo because the “applied-for mark consists of or includes immoral or scandalous matter.” The application included a very NSFW image, which can be found on the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office website.

According to an August 2023 trademark application, SinSaint’s owner is Oleg Semenenko, 50, a resident of Brooklyn’s gated Seagate community. Semenenko lives less than a mile from SinSaint’s warehouse, which shares an address with GlobMarble, an industrial molds business for which Semenenko is listed as “manager” in a separate trademark application filed this month.

In a brief interview today, Semenenko was asked how a dildo firm grew out of his original business. “We work with rubber,” he replied. Semenenko dismissed Bad Dragon’s claim that its products were unique and original: “How can octopus hand can be your idea?” (4 pages) ____________________________________________

Hope the judge that did the recent trump case gets this one, even though I know that's basically impossible, just the thought of making him listen to hours of testimony about how these rubber fantasy dildos are protected by copyright or trademark law, or something like that is funny to me.

It's not a revenge thing wanting it, just a keep him humble thing. I know you think you're hot shit now, so here listen to these arguments for a bit.

Totally different note, I'm wondering how long until the discourse starts up, or if it has already started up, where using horse dildos is either bestiality or a gateway to bestiality because what with the way people treat cartoons of fictional people I can't imagine it's far off or not already here.

Look to japan for the tentacle ones.........

[earlycuntsets]

mcr shows on youtube pt. 4 (2011 - 2023) last one :]

-> pt. 1 (2002 - 2005)

-> pt. 2 (2005 - 2007)

-> pt. 3 (2007 - 2011)

08/05/2011 pnc bank arts center holmdel nj - the academy is my beautiful romance

08/13/2011 hersheypark stadium hershey pa - the academy is my beautiful romance

08/20/2011 first midwest bank amphitheater tinley park il - the academy is my beautiful romance

08/26/2011 little john's farm reading england - em

08/31/2011 rogers arena vancouver canada - catie cunningham

09/03/2011 usana amphitheater west valley city utah - delaney nye

09/04/2011 comfort dental amphitheater greenwood village co - the academy is my beautiful romance

09/09/2011  capitol federal park at sandstone amphitheater bonner springs ks - the academy is my beautiful romance

09/11/2011 dte energy music theater clarkston mi - justanotherkilljoy

09/18/2011 farm bureau live at virginia beach va - the academy is my beautiful romance

09/20/2011 verizon wireless amphitheater charlotte nc - the academy is my beautiful romance

1/22/2012 gold coast parklands gold coast australia - the academy is my beautiful romance

02/03/2012 adelaide showground adelaide australia - the academy is my beautiful romance

02/05/2012 mccallum park perth australia - myxinfinitexromance

05/19/2012 north beach asbury park asbury park nj - ryan hanratty

12/20/2019 the shrine expo hall los angeles ca - gabe havel photo

05/16/2022 the eden project day one st austell england - the academy is my beautiful romance

05/17/2022 the eden project day two st austell england - the academy is my beautiful romance

05/21/2022 stadium mk milton keynes england - TheChickenGiraffe

05/24/2022 royal hospital kilmainham dublin ireland - the academy is my beautiful romance

05/28/2022 sofia gardens cricket ground cardiff wales - the academy is my beautiful romance

06/04/2022 bologna sonic park arena parco north italy - the academy is my beautiful romance

06/06/2022 olympiahalle munich germany - the academy is my beautiful romance

06/07/2022 budapest park budapest hungary - the academy is my beautiful romance

06/09/2022 progresja warsaw poland - the academy is my beautiful romance

06/11/2022 o2 arena prague czech republic - the academy is my beautiful romance

06/13/2022 stora scenen gröna lund stockholm sweden - live from stockholm

08/19/2022 paycom center oklahoma city ok - tony

08/23/2022 bridgestone arena nashville tn - the academy is my beautiful romance

08/24/2022 heritage bank center cincinnati oh - the academy is my beautiful romance

08/29/2022 wells fargo philadelphia pa - ronaldb2985

08/30/2022 mvp arena albany ny - the academy is my beautiful romance

09/05/2022 scotia bank toronto ca - the academy is my beautiful romance

09/16/2022 riot fest douglass park chicago il - geoffrey gardner

09/20/2022 prudential center newark nj - deadhoarse

09/24/2022 fla live arena sunrise fl - the academy is my beautiful romance

10/03/2022 tacoma dome tacoma wa - seattle concerts

10/05/2022 oakland arena oakland ca - HisoKu

10/07/2022 t-mobile arena las vegas nv - wormspeddler (smeagles)

10/08/2022 aftershock discovery park sacramento ca - the academy is my beautiful romance

10/09/2022 barclays center brooklyn ny - the academy is my beautiful romance

10/15/2022 kia forum inglewood ca - the academy is my beautiful romance

10/23/2022 when we were young day day two las vegas - the academy is my beautiful romance

10/29/2022 when we were young fest las vegas nv - PichyJr

11/18/2022 autódromo hermanos rodríguez mexico city mexico - leashalia

03/11/2023 the outer fields at western springs auckland new zealand (soundcheck) - the academy is my beautiful romance

03/23/2023 qudos bank arena sydney australia - the academy is my beautiful romance

-> pt. 1 (2002 - 2005)

-> pt. 2 (2005 - 2007)

-> pt. 3 (2007 - 2011)

[arimiadev]

(you can read this article down below or on my blog!)

How to Sell Visual Novels at Conventions

Or, “how do you table at an anime convention and actually get people to stop by your booth and actually get interested in visual novels????”

Picture this – me, someone who’s never been to California nor flown alone arrived to the Hyatt at the San Francisco Bay, being greeted by several online friends I’d known for years but never met in person. After a great time walking around the surrounding Burlingame area and meeting back up with the rest of our group, we had to actually put in some work for the day.

That is, setting up our booth for the convention starting the next day.

We unpacked box after box, taking turns standing around with our hands on our hips and heads tilted wondering “how the hell are we going to set all of this up?”. I decided to make it my job to set up our keychain display. All I had to do was get a copy of each keychain we had and pin them up – we even had a box from prior conventions that had a single copy of (most) of our keychains, for displaying. But as I opened more boxes, I found more and more keychains…

After threatening to change the password on their Vograce account, I found we had 10+ boxes of merchandise for niche visual novels that we were trying to sell at a vtuber convention. Not an anime convention, not a gaming convention, a vtuber convention! Going to bed that night, already tired, I was sure there was no way we would make a profit…..

…And yet, we made more on Friday than they had for the entire convention in 2023. By Sunday, we had made more than double that, having sold items to over 100 customers with most purchases around $40 each. We weren’t selling fanart, we were selling a majority completely original art.

We lived the dream of a lot of indie developers – we sold physicals of our indie games and people bought them. But how did we do it??

a little context

Some background – OffKai Expo is an annual vtuber-oriented convention in Burlingame, California, a suburb of San Francisco and just 15 minutes away from their airport. If you don’t know what a vtuber is, just go watch my oshi Gavis Bettel. In 2023, Studio Élan had a booth at the convention as it’s somewhat local to some of our members. We decided to have another booth at the convention for 2024 and I offered to work at it (what’s a booth without a marketer?).

The only anime convention I’ve ever been to was the local one in Memphis, namely Anime Blues Con, but those are….lacking, to say the least. Not much to do, very limited artist alley, waning attendance (which was already small to begin with), barely any new artists nor sights year after year… I’ve always wanted to go to a convention outside my area, to say the least.

But how did we manage to make the weekend successful?

conceits

What we did won’t be entirely replicable for most devs reading this, but there will be some insights and takeaways that I’ll highlight that are applicable to anyone wanting to table at conventions and sell their games.

Our table was for Studio Élan x VirPro – it was a joint table between our yuri visual novel studio and our indie vtuber friend streaming group, Virtuality Project. We sold some merch for VirPro, but I’d estimate that was no more than 20% of our sales – we still would have made a profit even if we weren’t selling that merch.

this table held our limited VirPro merch. we were able to hang our Élan prints on the wall behind it thanks to our friends at Studio Nekomata allowing us to tape our prints to the backside of their display. we also had a Miho cutout, but she didn’t want to stand up this weekend…

However, it is important to note that Studio Élan is not a new studio. We’ve been around for years, have 15k followers on Twitter, and have several visual novels released. We’re not extremely well known, as we are within a niche within a niche, but we aren’t unknown either. Some people actually cosplayed our characters at the convention! It’s definitely possible some locals came to OffKai Expo just to see our booth & panel (we also held a panel on Saturday where we announced 2 new games).

Another thing to note is that we have a stock of merch from running an online store and having held Kickstarters before. Specifically, we have physical copies of almost all of our games as well as artbooks, soundtracks, clothing, and more. We had tons of keychains and 11×17 prints, sure, but we also sold a lot of merch that is much harder and more expensive to produce.

So, tl;dr, things we had going for us:

We are established developers with a following & released games

We have a sizeable amount of merch already made for our online store, including physical games & artbooks

We were boothing with our indie vtuber friend group and selling their merch on the side

But our main problem:

We were boothing at a vtuber convention, not an anime or gaming convention

Now, with all of that out of the way….

convention standards

First off, let’s look at some basic things you can expect while tabling at a convention. (for the purposes of being specific to visual novels, when I say “convention” I’m only referring to anime & gaming-adjacent conventions—OffKai falls under this as vtubers are both anime & gaming-adjacent)

At a convention, you will typically be selling in either the artist alley or the dealer’s room, which are both referred to as the vendor’s hall. For small conventions, these two may be the same area. The artist alley is typically for artists selling keychains, prints, and more. The dealers room is for vendors that sell larger merch or have more items to sell – this can include artists but also includes people selling imported items (such as anime figures) and companies.

Conventions have a set amount of hours that the events go on and the vendor’s hall is usually not open the entire time. These rooms will usually open in the morning, around 10AM or so, and allow vendors an extra hour for fixing things before opening every day. For OffKai, we had to stay at our booth for about 8~ hours every day, except for Sunday. Sundays are always the shortest days for 3-day conventions, as the convention will usually wrap up around dinner time (if not earlier).

Vendors get time the night before the convention starts (usually Thursday night, with most conventions I’m referencing being Friday-Sunday events) to set up their booths. It took us around 3 hours to fully set up our booth, with 4 of us working on it. Setting up your booth will go a lot smoother if you do a trial run before the convention.

Every convention I’ve tabled at or known a vendor at provides vendors with at least 1 table and a chair. More chairs are usually easy to get, you just need to ask staff before the vendors hall opens up.

tip 1 – bring a friend

Conventions provide tables and chairs, but they don’t provide helping hands! You’re probably going to need help unpacking and setting up the table, but you’ll definitely need to take breaks during the convention for the bathroom, food, and more. You can’t just ask staff to sit at your table and you can’t just hide everything while you’re gone. Bring a friend to help out!

If you have to go alone, make friends with the people boothing next to you and ask them to watch over your table if need be. Be sure to keep your money and payment processors with you if you ever have to step away. And bring snacks & water!

our merch

Like I said, at Élan we have typical merchandise for our visual novels like keychains and acrylic standees, but we also have physical copies of our games for PC & consoles, artbooks, soundtracks, and more.

We had these types of merch:

Acrylic & wooden items

Keychains

Standees

Pins

Print media

PC discs

Console discs & cartridges (Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5)

Artbooks (game artbooks, limited edition anniversary artbooks)

Soundtrack discs

4×6 prints (CGs, key artworks)

11×17 prints (key artworks, exclusive convention artworks)

Clothing & fabric

T-shirts (4 designs, 1 color each)

Hoodie (new collaboration design, for all of our games)

Scarf (new collaboration design, for 1 of our games)

Fabric flags (key visuals)

Misc.

Grab bag (misc small items)

$5 bin (misc small items)

Pencil bag

Mousepad

Enamel pin

Plushie (limited Makeship leftovers)

Some of these were items we’d never sold before such as the hoodie, scarf, and 11×17 prints. Some of them were also much more of a hassle than others.

In terms of storage and cheapness to make, prints and stickers are by far the winners (we didn’t sell stickers at OffKai but plan to in the future). Prints are basically the best thing you can sell for production cost:profit, as a 4×6 print can cost you $0.20 but sell for $5+ and an 11×17 print can cost $0.60 and sell for $15-20.

On the other hand, t-shirts can be some of the most difficult merch to work with. They take up a lot of room (we had at least 2 boxes of just shirts/hoodies) and require you to have multiple different sizes. The plushies were great & easy to sell, but at the same time they cost a lot per unit and take up even more space than shirts.

The physical copies sold great, but the cost to produce & room to store them makes them unwieldy for most developers. I would recommend them over more bespoke merch like clothing, though—several people came to our booth, having never heard of our games, and left with a physical game. CD discs rather than DVD cases are much easier to store and can be handmade, although ours are manufactured.

tip 2 – be selective with what merch you make & bring

Unless you’re lucky enough to have a convention down the street from you, chances are you’re going to have to travel to the convention. That means packing everything up, possibly shipping it, etc…. You need to be picky with what you bring if you don’t have multiple cars to throw it all in.

My merch recommendations:

4×6 prints

Ours were $4-5

Dirt cheap to print, easy to store

Easy for people to buy because of the low price point and ease of carrying

Idea – these are so cheap to print, at the very least print some of your key visual & logo to hand out to people for free

Stickers (die-cut or sticker sheets)

Dirt cheap to print, easy to store

Easy for people to buy because of the low price point and ease of carrying

Idea – some conventions won’t allow you to hand out free stickers. For conventions that don’t, I would sell either singular die-cut stickers or sell them in packs

Keychains

Ours were $12-15

Cheap to print, not very hard to store

At this price point people want to have an attachment to the characters before buying

Idea – if your game is relatively unknown but you still want to print keychains, consider packaging them with something else like the game or a sampler CD of the demo / soundtrack

Physical CD disc games

Ours were $30

Not cheap to print, not very hard to store

People will buy copies of games they’ve never heard of because it’s an interesting item to own and seen as more value than a digital copy (even if physical is more expensive)

Idea – it doesn’t cost much to get a 50 pack of CDs, the cost comes from the packaging and time to make the entire thing. If you don’t have a finished game yet, consider printing your demo out on CDs in paper slips to hand out for free

our booth

Now that I’ve talked about basics for conventions and what merch we sold, what did our booth actually look like?

We didn’t have a pre-convention trial run, so we were essentially winging it. With all of the merch I outlined, could you believe we crammed all of the display copies on 1 table, 2 shelves, and 1 clothing rack?!

Our main focus was making sure each of our physical games were visible. After all, we were at a vtuber convention where most attendees didn’t know us, so we wanted to have a way to show off our games. We spent a lot of real estate on showing individual game copies and having brochures spread out.

tip 3 – have an idea of how you’re going to display things before the convention

We also brought several items to display merch. For keychains & pins, we had a simple corkboard leaning on a photo stand / easel. For acrylic standees, we had a clear nail polish stand. For physical copies, we had photo stands and bookends. For clothes, we had a small clothing rack. For physicals, we had 3 small bookcases. These were all extremely helpful, but they are added costs and more things to carry to the convention.

here’s a better look at our 2 bookshelves. the purple ladder one was at the back of the booth highlighting some items and storing various artbooks & bundles and the smaller one was at the front left of the booth by the VirPro merch, basically in the walking aisle

The corkboard and various photo stands were must-haves, regardless of what you’re selling. A corkboard makes it easy to display anything on it, whether it’s keychains, stickers, mini-prints, announcements, posters, and more. Photo stands were also super helpful for propping our corkboard on but also showing off individual physical copies.

this was me trying to arrange the corkboard and acrylic stands. photo stands and art easels can in handy!

Along with the display stands, we also brought some decorative items like pink table clothes and flowers. These aren’t required, but help make your booth more noticeable.

A few miscellaneous items I plan on bringing to our next convention are a hand sanitizer dispenser, a small air purifier, and fliers. I always keep hand sanitizer on me, but it’s easier to use it when it’s in a convenient bottle and place. Several of us got sick after the convention (despite me wearing a mask), so I’m also bringing a small air purifier to keep some germs away from the table. I also want to bring small fliers for our upcoming games—while brochures are wonderful, I want something that’s easy (and cheap) to hand out to anyone who looks at our booth, not just the people we talk to.

tip 4 – be aware of merch thieves

We arranged our table in a way that we didn’t have to worry much about people stealing merch, though that is a problem at some conventions. As you might’ve noticed from the pictures, our smaller items like the keychains are at the far back of the booth, right beside where we sit. That allowed us to keep a better eye on it.

Rather than sitting behind our tables, we arranged our booth to be where people would walk inside it. This allowed us a way to talk to people easier. We also made sure to hide our card readers, phones, and more when any of us left the table, though this was easy because we almost always had 2-3 people at the booth at any time.

my advice

If I were an indie dev looking to booth at a convention and had the time and spare change, I would if it were close enough to drive to and the booth cost under $500. Unless you’re an established developer or have a popular artist working on your project, it’s hard to justify that cost.

tip 5 – don’t forget to budget for…

booth costs

extra badges (most booths come with 2 free badges)

hotel

travel

food

merchandise manufacturing

any shipping fees (your luggage, merch, etc.)

display items, extra things for your booth

While you may find a booth for $250, you also have to remember the travel fees, cost of food, all of the extra items you’ll need aside from merchandise, and more. A $250 booth for a 3-day convention could easily end up costing you $2,000+, and that’s if you don’t pay yourself or coworkers for their time at the booth!

If you’ve never been to a convention before then definitely go to one as an attendee before becoming a vendor. Get a feel for the place and have some fun, even if it means you won’t be able to booth there for months or a year.

tip 6 – be sure to bring…

Some kind of handout for people with your game & logo on it (fliers, business cards, brochures, etc.)

Small stationary merch for your game (4×6 prints, stickers, etc.)

Corkboard to display things on and something to prop it up

A way to take card payments and cash for change

Hand sanitizer

Pen/pencil and sticky notes

Clamps

Tape

this is the inside of our old brochure! it details our different games and highlights some upcoming titles

I’d also try putting your demo on CDs to hand out to people who seem really interested if you can. CDs are pretty cheap to get now, and even if you just get a 50 pack that can run you around $12, which ends up being $0.25/CD. Not a bad cost for getting a potential fan, if you hand them out only to people who are really interested or package them with other merch and sell them.

Your main effort if you’re not an established developer, however, will be awareness. Talk to the people who stop by your booth. Tell them hi and explain to them what you make. I had several people clearly not understand what visual novels were, but I had many more who became interested once I mentioned we made these games. “Wait, you actually made them?!”

tip 7 – talk to people!!!

People at conventions think art is cool. They think indie games are cool. Be honest with them and show them your hard work. Yeah, this means you have to put on your extrovert cap for the weekend. Just don’t treat it like you’re a car salesman—you’re a game dev first and foremost and enjoy this line of work so much you want to share it with strangers at conventions. Let that shine through in your words.

All in all, conventions are stressful, tiring, and a lot of fun when they’re run well. If any of this sounds interesting to you and you find a convention close enough to you or one that will be relatively cheap to attend, I recommend trying it out.

------------

OffKai Expo was so, so much fun and I’m so happy I was able to attend. It was a well run convention, our booth did amazing, I got to meet actual fans IRL, and I was able to finally see a lot of my online friends in person. I was scared leading up to it but I’m so glad I pushed myself to go. Having an in-person panel there where the room was almost full absolutely blew me away—I kept asking “do they know what room they’re in? Did they get lost?” If you came to our panel or booth, thank you!!

— Arimia

read more of my articles on tumblr here!

[hinaypod]

A Hi Nay Podcast Year - 2023

At the beginning of 2023, I got a planner that said it'll be a "Great" Year. I had to cover it up - because the last time I had a planner claiming the year would be great... it was 2020. So I covered it with one of our stickers, making it read "It'll Be A Hi Nay Podcast Year". And it was!

Here were some Highlights for what was an absolutely jam-packed HI NAY YEAR!

The Hi Nay Fundraiser

Though we didn't get to our full goal, we did get to our initial goal to keep the show going! We also got absolutely unbelievable support that we still don't know if we deserve, but we're grateful for nonetheless. Because of this fundraiser, we were able to provide honoraria to our performers and editors, as well as get to work on Act 3 of Hi Nay, which has grown much bigger than anticipated. Special thanks to Jesse Goodsell and Malaya, our top donors!

We also wanna thank our amazing P atreon supporters, who ensure we keep this show going until its planned ending!

Interviews

We were able to chat with so many amazing people this year! Here's some of the shows that had Motzie on to chat about Hi Nay, horror, Filipino stories, and podcasting.

Radio Drama Revival

IndieAF Special: International Women’s Day

Ep. 387 - Motzie Dapul — Spooked!

The Skull Sessions - Hi Nay (Hello From The Hallowoods)

Conventions!

Because of the wonderful people over at the Canadian Podcast Awards, we were able to briefly table at TORONTO COMICON and FAN EXPO, and were able to have our very first live show at Fan Expo, all without paying a dime! Huge shoutout to the Canadian Podcast Awards for giving us indies the opportunity to do something so amazing!

The Podcast Awards!

We got nominated in two categories: Fiction and Best Asian Hosted, and it was amazing! Fiction was tough since there were so many amazing titles, but in Best Asian Hosted we were just happy to lose to one of our favourite people in the audio/video medium - Sapphire Sandalo.

How is this list not done yet OH RIGHT

The Rusty Quill Network!

It was truly life-changing to join RQ, given that the Magnus Archives is the reason Hi Nay exists, though we like to think our story has formed its own unique identity beyond our inspiration. Still, we're genuinely grateful and excited to do more with RQ and the other absolutely amazing shows in the network in 2024! Even before this, Motzie got to interview the Rusty Quill folks for Storytelling Podcast Week and befriended the wonderful Helen Gould. And most recently, the fantastic Alasdair Stuart agreed to voice one of our most beloved new characters - Detective Dooley - for our Pride Episode. Alasdair is a gem, and we're happy and grateful to have him on.

There's so much more to cover and we can't put it all in one post, but we'd like to reiterate:

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE SUPPORT! We truly want Hi Nay to grow as a podcast without losing what makes it special, and it's all thanks to you listeners that we're able to do that.

-

Before we go, we'd like to mention the following:

CareForGaza is a non-profit charity in aid of helping the needy families of Palestine. If you're able to help them and their cause, it would make a huge difference! Gaza eSims is a campaign to help people in Gaza to get connected to family as well as facilitate important communication for medical aid, etc. Since Tumblr hides posts with l inks, you can google them and find more information.

And as always - thank you, we love you, and Manigong Bagong Taon. Happy 2024 everyone.

[abdulraveman]

U R Not Alone

NEWS 20th Anniversary LIVE 2023 NEWS EXPO

[benzgarfield]

BenzGarfield Master Tag Post

Series (co-starring):

Pit Babe

Pit Babe Boys Journey

This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans

Events:

Pit Babe Audition February 9, 2023

Lactasoy Meet March 3, 2023

Praew Livestream March 23, 2023

Music Festival April 1-2, 2023

Thai Book Fair April 8, 2023

Pit Babe Soft Fanmeet May 22, 2023

Pit Sawat the Musical Premiere June 12, 2023

Pit Babe one31 June 20, 2023

Praew Talk July 15, 2023

Pit Babe Fitting August 8, 31 2023

Pit Babe Press Conference September 18, 2023

RealMe 11 x 5G September 21, 2023

Pit Babe Blessing Ceremony October 25, 2023

one31 Rising Artists November 28, 2023

Pop's Graduation December 6, 2023

Yuniverse Awards December 11, 2023

GarfieldBenz x Central Rayong December 24, 2023

iQiyi Christmas Live December 25, 2023

OPPO New Year x Pit Babe December 30, 2023

Japan Expo Thailand Feb 3, 2023

Pit Babe Final EP Feb 9, 2024

Pit Babe Valentine's Live Feb 14, 2024

This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans Presscon March 20, 2024

Vanillin Spring Summer Show March 23, 2024

EFM Fandom Live March 28, 2024

Change 2561 Changing April 25, 2024

TLDHLB Kaprao Challenge May 24, 2024

Love4Garfieldmily June 16, 2024

TLDHLB Blessing Ceremony June 20, 2024

Tsubaki x BenzGarfield June 29, 2024

TLDHLB Premiere July 5, 2024

EFM Fandom Live July 11, 2024

Plern Live July 12, 2024

Daily News July 12, 2024

FEED July 12, 2024

Mellowpop July 17, 2024

TLDHLB Sound Check July 17, 2024 (aired July 23)

KAZZ Online July 17, 2024

Praew Talk July 21, 2024

Chato Studio July 24, 2024

4x4 Celebrity Gameshow August 3, 2024

iQiyi Check-in August 4, 2024

TLDHLB Cast Crew Karaoke Party August 7, 2024

PoohPavel First Date August 10, 2024

TLDHLB Final EP August 23, 2024

BenzGarfield Sunshine Day August 25, 2024

Affair First EP August 30, 2024

ADDA Let's Walk Together August 31, 2024

Benz MBK Bday Project September 1, 2024

Fluke's Bday September 1, 2024

Comma And September 3, 2024

Benz's Bday Party September 14, 2024

BenzGarfield x Dr Ally Sun September 15, 2024

FEED Y Awards September 21, 2024

Pit Babe 1st Anniversary November 17, 2024

P'Aoi and P'Chod on Tour July 2023, July 2024

Pit Babe Asia Tour February - September 2024

Other Tags

Social Media Updates

Social Media Livestream

Official Photos

Interviews

Translations

Fan Content (gifs, edits, etc)

Tiny Garfield

TLDHLB Workshop

TLDHB Filming

Pit Babe Workshop

Pit Babe Filming

[animesavior]

“Find your dream, Akira. Find the biggest one you can. Your dreams keep a man solid; don't you ever forget that.” -          Teruo Tendo, Zom 100 (Ep. 12)

“If that's the case, I think it's time I leave the village. If what Shizuka's said was true and the zombies are caused by a virus, I'll travel the country and look for a cure to it. they'll convince dad to get surgery for his hemorrhoids, yeah. Do your best to help humanity and do what you can for the world. Those were dad's last wishes after all.” -          Akira Tendo

This Toonami Trending Rundown is a double feature for June 28 & 29-30 and July 5 & 6-7, 2024, as these two weeks marked the season finale of Zom 100.

In regards to trending, during both Toonami Rewind broadcast of June 28 and July 5, #ToonamiRewind would trend in the USA. And for both nights of June 29-30 and July 6-7, #Toonami would trend in the United States alongside My Adventures with Superman and Zom 100. #Toonami would also trend on Tumblr during the latter week.

The Zom 100 manga continues on Akira, Shizuka, Kencho, and Beatrix’s storyline, which is also being published stateside by Viz Media, which is still going strong with 17 volumes and 67 chapters and counting. Unfortunately, there’s no word yet on when and if we’ll see a second season of the Zom 100 anime as of now. As previously mentioned, the anime saw numerous production issues and setbacks that regularly delayed the release of episodes during its original Japanese run, most notably with the final three episodes being delayed for over three months. So even if a second season is already greenlit, it’s quite understandable that the animation studio might need some time to get things back together. Nevertheless, Zom 100 sure was a fun ride, and hopefully we’ll see this show return in the future. In the meantime, feel free to check out the manga, in addition to a live action film by Netflix, that has been on their service since August 3, 2023.

This week’s feature was a game review of Animal Well, a platformer developed by Shared Memory and published by Bigmode. It received an 8/10 score.

During the Production I.G panel on the Saturday of Anime Expo 2024, the panelists revealed the voice cast of the upcoming anime adaption of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki. The English cast will include:

Abby Trott as Kirie Goshima

Robbie Daymond as Shuichi Saito

Cristina Vee as Azami Kurotani

Doug Stone as Kirie's father

Aaron LaPlante as Shuichi's father

Mona Marshall as Shuichi's mother

Max Mittelman as Katayama

As for a potential release date, In an interview with The Japan Times released on June 29, Ito revealed that “the first of four episodes is complete, and lives up to his expectations.” The article also mentioned that Uzumaki is set to air later this year. During San Diego Comic-Con, Toonami announced that Uzumaki would indeed be premiering this September 28, 2024 at 12:30 a.m., following premiere episodes of Rick and Morty: The Anime.

Speaking of Comic-Con, we also got some news regarding several original productions and acquisitions. We got a new show announcement in Rooster Fighter by Shū Sakuratani. Rick and Morty: The Anime will also be premiering on Adult Swim on August 17, with the Japanese with English subtitled version of the episode premiering on Toonami starting August 19. Lazarus by Shinichiro Watanabe will be premiering in 2025. And finally, Aniplex has announced that Toonami will be airing Demon Slayer’s Swordsmith Village arc on August 10 at midnight, with successive episodes airing on 12:30 a.m, at least until September 28.

Crunchyroll has revealed a new trailer, key visual, and release date for the third and final season of Fire Force. Season 3 will be split into two cours (roughly around 24-26 episodes combined), the first half premiering in April 2025, while the second premieres in January 2026. In terms of trending, #FireForce would trend in the USA as a result.

As I attended San Diego Comic-Con in person, unfortunately, we’re running a bit behind on posting the most recent trending rundowns. We’ll have the trending rundown for the rest of July, featuring the season finale of My Adventures with Superman, up in the coming days. And be sure to tune in tonight for the premiere of Demon Slayer’s Swordsmith Village arc. Until next time, stay gold, be sure to register to vote for this year’s elections if you’re eligible and haven’t already, and let’s go Team USA.

Legend: The shows listed are ordered based on their appearance on the schedule. Show trends are listed in bold. The number next to the listed trend represents the highest it trended on the list (not counting the promoted trend), judging only by the images placed in the rundown. For the Twitter tweet counts, the listed number of tweets are also sorely based on the highest number shown based on the images on the rundown.

June 28, 2024 Toonami Rewind Trends

United States Trends:

#ToonamiRewind [#13]

Tweet Counts:

#ToonamiRewind [1,435 tweets]

#Naruto [6,288 tweets]

June 29-30, 2024 Toonami Trends

United States Trends:

#Toonami [Trended with #MyAdventuresWithSuperman]

#MyAdventuresWithSuperman [#5]

#Zom100 [Trended with #MyAdventuresWithSuperman]

Tweet Counts:

#MyAdventuresWithSuperman [3,128 tweets]

July 5, 2024 Toonami Rewind Trends

United States Trends:

#ToonamiRewind [#24]

Tweet Counts:

#Toonami [1,218 tweets]

#SailorMoon [3,321 tweets]

July 6-7, 2024 Toonami Trends

United States Trends:

#Toonami [#8]

#MyAdventuresWithSuperman [#9]

#Zom100 [#9]

Tumblr Trends:

#Toonami [#5]

If you wish to send me a tip for the work on the trending rundown, donations can be sent to https://paypal.me/DanielLimjoco.

Secrets upon secrets. Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.

[tamapalace]

On Tamagotchi Uni, You Can Visit Multiple Rooms

We’re really impressed by this. It appears that the Tamagotchi Uni is really focused on more than just one living space. Awkwardaltschmerz on Instagram was able to visit the Tamagotchi booth at the 2023 Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. They were really lucky to be greeted by Tara Badie, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectibles America, Senior Director Brand Strategy. Tara gave Awkwardaltschmeraz a hands-on demonstration of the new Tamagotchi Uni in Pink!

The demonstration provided a glimpse into more features than we’ve seen before! The one that caught our eye was the ability to visit other rooms on the Tamagotchi Uni. You can see as Tara uses the “B” button to move Gozarutchi from the main living space, to the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, backyard, and lastly back to the main living space.

How awesome is that? On other Tamagotchi’s you could only visit certain spaces, and others were reserved for specific functionality, for example, you could only visit the bathroom if you needed to use the bathroom. Some of us just want to hang around different spaces!

We also noticed that your Tamagotchi can freely move between the different spaces on their own, without you moving them there. Oh, and they can even bring their items into the different spaces too. How wild is that? They will interact with items differently in each space. For example, if they’re playing with the teddy bear item, they might play with it on their bed in the bedroom, but in the main living space, they might hug it instead.

The gameplay is much more fluid and really showcases the personality of your Tamagotchi. This really elevates the Tamagotchi experience!

[petrovna-zamo]

Upcoming Events

2024:

January 5th: Salt Lake City - TB&TB Live*

January 6th: Denver - TB&TB Live*

January 19th: Philadelphia - TB&TB Live*

January 20th: Pittsburgh - TB&TB Live*

February 1st: Monterrey, Mexico - TB&TB Live

February 2nd: Mexico City, Mexico - TB&TB Live

February 28th: San Diego - TB&TB Live*

March 1st: Los Angeles - TB&TB Live*

March 18th: Richmond - TB&TB Live*

March 20th: Atlanta - TB&TB Live*

May 1st: Katya’s Birthday!

May 9th: Cincinnati - TB&TB Live

May 10th: Indianapolis - TB&TB Live

June 8th: Salt Lake City - MILK+ Pride

June 14th: Chicago - Roscoe’s

June 21st: Louisville - Play Louisville

June 28th: Royal Oak - Five15RoyalOak

June 30th: Seattle - Queer Pride Festival

July 5th: Nashville - Play Nashville

August 23rd: Trixie’s Birthday!

September 5th: Albuquerque - TB&TB Live*

September 7th: Sacramento - TB&TB Live*

October 12th: Atlanta - Wussy Events

October 24th: Baltimore - TB&TB Live

October 25th: Providence - TB&TB Live

October 27th: Online - Veeps Virtual Halloween Special

October 31st: Perth - ITD Scream Queen

November 1st: Sydney - ITD Scream Queen

November 2nd: Melbourne - ITD Scream Queen

November 3rd: Brisbane - ITD Scream Queen

November 16th: Columbus - TB&TB Live

November 17th: Charlotte - TB&TB Live

December 4th: St. Louis - TB&TB Live

December 6th: Madison - TB&TB Live

December 8th: Madison - TB&TB Live

2023:

February 16th-March 8th: North America - Last T&K Live Tour

February 24th: Chicago - TB&TB Live

April 8th: Boston - MassArt Alumni Talk

May 1st: Katya’s Birthday!

May 7th: Online - Drag Isn't Dangerous Telethon

June 1st: Online - Trixie & Katya Live Livestream

June 8th: LA - Apocalipst!ck Cabaret - Pride Show

June 13th: New York City - ILTW Live

June 17th: London - Afternoon Tea

June 22nd: New York City - Pier 17 Pride

July 27th: Montreal - JFL TB&TB Live

July 28th: Minneapolis - TB&TB Live

August 11th: Melbourne - Drag Expo Opening Gala*

August 12th-13th: Melbourne - Drag Expo*

August 23rd: Trixie’s Birthday!

August 30th: Milwaukee - This is It Pride*

October 31st: LA - Apocalipst!ck Cabaret - Halloween Show

November 16th: Houston - TB&TB Live

November 17th: New Orleans - TB&TB Live

* = Rescheduled Date

[ginpotts]

NEWS ⨳フルスイング (Full Swing) from NEWS 20th Anniversary LIVE 2023 NEWS EXPO

[trascapades]

🚨🇵🇸#CeasefireNow #StrikeForGaza December 11, 2023

The National and Islamic Forces, a coalition of major factions in Palestine, has called for an inclusive global strike that would include all aspects of life in solidarity with the Palestinian people—particularly in the Gaza Strip—who have been facing an Israeli war of genocide, displacement and ethnic cleansing...

Tomorrow 11th Dec. is a global strike day. "If the politicians do not hear us, then we can strike from economic life and daily movement and we can boycott everything, we can put pressure on them to stop supporting and blessing the massacre that is happening in Gaza. CEASEFIRE NOW!!!!" 

Caption reposted from Esraa Alshikh إسراء الشيخ @Esralshikh

🛑We started a campaign to push for a total strike worldwide on Monday 12/11/2023..

⭕️It is necessary to paralyze the movement of life and the economic wheel in all countries so that everyone feels that he is directly affected by the impact of the aggression on Gaza... 

⭕️ Start making your communications today, mobilizing and publishing ..

⭕️The strike must include the transportation, aviation, trade, banks, ports, and even schools and universities.

⭕️Work on gathering the majority of supporters and forget about those who are negligent and discouraged..

⭕️Any personal loss we suffer is worth nothing compared to the massacres taking place against people in Gaza..

Image 2 by artist @heyimsakina 

Images 3 & 4 and caption by artist @shirien.creates: ...I got news that my friend Refaat had been assassinated by the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza, alongside his brother, sister, and four of her children. There is confirmation that he had received a threatening phone call by the Israeli intelligence saying they have located him.

Refaat was a well-known and loved Palestinian author, poet, and English literature professor. He was also a founder of @we_are_not_numbers. Refaat taught hundreds of students in Gaza English as a way to help them tell their stories and connect Palestinian liberation with the liberation struggles of Black, Indigenous and colonized people around the world.

I met Refaat in 2014 during his book tour for “Gaza Writes Back,” a collection of stories from Gaza youth living under siege. Refaat taught me how important art and storytelling are as part of our resistance as Palestinians. His work profoundly impacted and inspired me.

Even under Israel’s relentless airstrikes, Refaat hopped around Gaza to find internet to be able to stay connected with his students, his friends abroad, and to take interviews to shed light about the atrocities happening in Gaza. He bravely spoke up knowing that Israel was systematically targeting journalists, academics, creatives, and all those exposing the truth. His home was already targeted and bombed in October, but he survived. This time, he didn’t. 

It’s hard to believe Refaat is no longer with us. It is a painful loss. His intellect, his love for Palestine, his passion to make life better for Gaza, his beautiful care for his people, and his great sense of humor will be missed. But in his short time on earth, Refaat left a lasting legacy on all Palestinians and on the world.

Refaat, in one of his last interviews, said expo markers are all he had as his resistance. But he would never give up, and he wouldn’t want any of us to give up. As he rests, we will continue to tell our stories, to demand an end to the genocide and siege in Gaza, and to keep struggling until Palestine is free.

"Writing is a testimony…a memory that outlives any human experience. We lived for a reason, to tell the tales of loss, of survival, and of hope." - Dr. Refaat Alareer   

Images 5-8 and caption by @ajplus Israel has bombed the Great Omari Mosque, the largest and oldest mosque in occupied Gaza. Since Oct. 7, Israel has damaged or destroyed over 100 cultural heritage sites in Gaza, along with thousands of historical documents.

Associate Producer: Katherine Conner

Image 9 from @npr The United States vetoed a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war at the United Nations Security Council on Friday.

The Security Council vote on the resolution, backed by Arab states, had 13 in favor and one — the U.S. — against, while the United Kingdom abstained.

#News #Gaza #Israel #Palestine #Palestinian #Mosque #History #GazaGeniocide #Gaza