Honestly, I don’t know much about this event; a friend told me about it and convinced me to go.
There’s two kinds of tickets; the industry ticket lets you go to all three days including the industry-only day on Friday while the general admission lets you attend the other two days of the event. I got a general admission ticket.
Applications for exhibitors have already closed.
They’ve only been around for 2 years before this one, I know because I went to both haha.
It’s always been a pretty low-key event where most anyone can exhibit whatever random thing they’ve put together. Built a 1:178 scale model of the ISS that rotates solar panels to match the current ISS? Turned an old typewriter into a TTY terminal hooked up to linux? Converted an fdm 3d printer into a chocolate printer? Got a collection of weird gameboy games with special hardware chips? Exhibit at OpenSauce. It is like a giant science fair.
I’ve always had fun just seeing what cool stuff people have made, asking them about their cool projecets, and getting inspired. There are also usually a ton of robots just out and about near their creators doing whatever it is they’re made to do!
Some stuff I bookmarked/wrote down from the events and found on short notice:
If I find more cool stuff to add I’ll be sure to update/post.
They also have panels with a lot of well-known content creators. If you watch someone and want to see them do a panel or if there’s a panel with an interesting hook, can be interesting.
Also, some people just exhibit some random thing to get free tickets to the event and such and their booths tend to be very rushed/unattended/underwhelming, but it’s been the minority of folks so far at least.
Also also, I’ve gone pretty early in the day both times to be there at open time and the line has been kind of annoying. Maybe it’ll be better this year, or maybe it’s easier later in the day.
Thanks for the heads up about the line, I’ll plan accordingly.
They’ve got a new indie video game showcase this year, as I understand it, but I didn’t get an application in for it in time. Heard about it the day the application was closing and I was busy that night.
Didn’t even know that was gonna be a thing this year! That is going to be exciting to see.
Sorry to hear about the missed deadline though, if it happens again next year I’ll be sure to try and ping here if I see it and no one else has yet.
Those are some cool examples!
My team applied for the indie showcase, so I might be there, too.