"Zuiderspel", a success!

Last Monday I presented my board game Day & Night for the first time at an event for game fanatics! We can call Zuiderspel, a new yearly event in Eindhoven, a big succes. There were more than 700 visitors (while the organisation estimated between 500 and 700 visitors before the event), and that's a lot for a "small board games event" (especially if I think back of Days of the Dice in 2007).

Sebastiaan and I were there with a big selection of original arts. Unfortunately illustrator Eerin Vink couldn't come this time (her cat needed her help after a pretty big operation)... Specially for this event Eerin made a new Day & Night art, that visitors could win in a contest (create the best name for the art). Frank van Wanrooy won with his name 'Mesmerizing Gaze' (though we all liked 'The Blue Hour' of Johan Heine, 'Cleansing Winds' of Marjolein Pronk, 'Dandelion Dream' of Aukje Veenstra and 'Clouded Pulsars' of Renee van Wanrooy a lot too).

At the beginning of the event we had only 2 tables where enthousiasts could try and play the game. But after only 30 minutes it was so crowded that we could use another 2 tables from our neighbour 999 games! And even then, there was not enough space as you can see on the picture; people were even playing behind the paintings!

The regional channel made a short video of the event, where you can see Day & Night for a few seconds. In the Day & Night group over at Facebook I posted more pictures.

The Elf Fantasy fair is coming up, a big fantasy event with a dazzling 20.000 visitors and we're planning something very special! More about this, soon...!

Day & Night at the ABC Amsterdam!

The 4th of April Illustrator Eerin Vink and I demonstrated the Day & Night board game to customers of the American Book Center in Amsterdam.

Unfortunately, most of the customers were there for the books, not for games... That made it hard to sell the games. People were excited though and we got a lot of positive reactions on the design and illustrations of the game. It was also very nice to meet a polish couple that was so excited about the game they offered to translate it in polish if we would need it!

The 13th of April will be very different; we'll be at an event with a good target audience - board game fanatics. Zuiderspel posted a good promotional news message on their website (in dutch though):

3 april 2009: Spel auteur en illustratrice van spelprimeur 'Day & Night' op Zuiderspel aanwezig.
Spel auteur Valentijn Eekels en illustratrice Eerin Vink presenteren op Zuiderspel voor een eerste keer op een beurs het strategische bordspel vol illustraties "Day & Night"!. Eerin schildert tijdens de beurs voor het oog van de bezoeker een Day & Night kunstwerk dat bezoekers kunnen winnen door deel te nemen aan een wedstrijd. Meer informatie over Day & Night: http://dn.mystics.nl.

The event is in Eindhoven, and it's the first time they organise it. I'm not sure about the number of visitors, they think between 500 and 700.

The Day & Night website can now be found on the "international" link www.dn-boardgame.com (should be a lot better for search engines too).

Last day at my office job

Today was my last day at my "office job" that I did for 6 months. I'm extremely happy I can now focus on my freelance design and promotion of the board game.

And like always, when you focus on something very hard, a lot of opportunities come at the same time... Tomorrow, the first day after the last day of my office job, I immediately have a demonstration of Day & Night for the visitors of the American Book Center in Amsterdam. A great bookstore in the center of Amsterdam.

When I walked from my job to the train station to go home I was positively surprised to see a promotional poster on the door of the ABC. Also two Day & Night games were behind the front window.

Also, the 13th we will promote and sell Day & Night at Zuiderspel, a game fair in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Illustrator Eerin Vink will even lifepaint!

I will blog tomorrow about the demonstration at the ABC!