hello, this is npckc. i exhibited at dejige haku / digital games expo on november 12.

game devs are creatures that want to try different technologies, so i tried using a reader to do non-cash payments, but to be honest, i think it was a failure! so this is a report on that.

dejige haku!

dejige haku is an indie game event that happens every year in akihabara & it was wonderful as usual this year...

i showed a demo of my in-progress game, marron's day.

getting started with non-cash payments

since i've been wanting to try for a while, i'd signed up for square (https://squareup.com/) already in july of this year.

signing up is free & instant, but it takes time to pass the checks for each payment service. you need to register your bank account too. this was the general timeline:

7/5　sign up for square account, apply for each service, order reader

7/7　bank account registration ok

7/9　ic card (like suica) & iD check ok

7/10　credit card check ok

7/12　QUICPay check ok

7/20　PayPay ok

PayPay was the only one that took extra long (about 2 weeks) 💦

also for each check i needed to send a picture of my "store", but since i only sell at events, i don't have a store... i wasn't sure what to do, but i sent photos of my tables at events & it went through.

the reader cost slightly under 5000 yen, but everything else was free, so all it takes is time!

actually using the reader for paymetns

i actually already tested this out in july at tokyo game dungeon, but i feel like at that event i didn't make it clear enough that i could take non-cash payments, so i only used the reader twice...

so this time i had cards showing the different payment methods i could accept, & people actually did ask questions like "can i pay with ◯◯?" so i think that worked, but...

there were too many people & the bluetooth didn't work!!!

in the morning, i had no problem using the reader & got people paying with methods like pasmo, but starting in the afternoon, i couldn't get the reader to connect even after opening the square app & resetting the reader. in the end, i gave up for the afternoon & only accepted cash payments & payment methods that i could do directly through the square app without the reader like paypay.

i heard from another person that they had trouble with their bluetooth monitor, so i think it was just that the event had too many bluetooth devices (because there were too many people - it was super crowded!)

this wasn't an issue at tokyo game dungeon, but this time dejige haku was very crowded, so i'm pretty sure this was the reason...

at an event that is less crowded you probably don't have to worry about this, but if i remember correctly, tokyo game show also blocks people from bringing pocket wifi, so it probably is an issue (https://expo.nikkeibp.co.jp/tgs/2022/jp/attention.html)

conclusion: maybe i didn't need to get a reader

i feel like non-cash payments would be the most useful when an event is crowded since people don't have to look for change, but if the reader doesn't work when it's crowded, it's pointless... so i think for the future, if i want to try non-cash payments again, i'm just going to use ones which don't need th reader.

qr payment options like paypay still work, & for android, if your phone supports nfc, credit cards that support tap-to-pay work too. (i think this is super cool honestly... being able to tap a credit card to a phone to pay!)

it sounds like it started on androids this september (https://squareup.com/jp/ja/press/tap-to-pay-on-android-japan). it might be possible on iphone too, but i have an android so i've only tested on that.

unfortunately it doesn't seem to support ic cards, but with paypay & tap-to-pay, i think that covers a lot of people. this way you don't have to worry about the reader's bluetooth connection (& can also save money on the reader!)

next event!

in two weeks (november 24-26) i'll be in taipei at the goethe institut for a game event. https://www.goethe.de/ins/tw/en/kul/sup/gam.html

also i will be at tokyo game dungeon in january! https://tokyogamedungeon.com/

see you at the next event 🙇