Spot Glitches.VR at VKET Winter 2023
We hawk digital wares in Japan’s largest virtual marketplace
Hello! Bonito here 💚 I’ve been up to a lot this past month and haven’t been writing as much as I’d like. My film “The Painter’s of Virtual Reality” was nominated for Best Short Film in VR at Raindance Immersive and I’ve been attending as many events as possible. It’s been a privilege to catch live performances in social VR spaces like New Eden’s “Dark Manor”, Creative Jam’s “Rise of Atlantis” and improv shows like “Skits and Bits”. Here at Glitches we’ve been flirting with the idea of hosting trips to events in VRChat and other platforms. Wouldn’t that be fun?
While Raindance was taking up much of my time, there was another event along the horizon to prepare for: VKET.
VKET
As described on their website VKET is “the largest market festival virtual reality has to offer… the event sees over a million visitors from around the world and even holds multiple Guinness World Records™ as the pioneer of metaverse events”. Each year since 2018 Virtual Market has run a summer and winter market, giving VRChat users access to new avatars, 3D assets and world prefabs as well as demos and experiences for physical products and services like food and computer hardware (One of my fondest VKET memories is a booth for cup ramen from a Summer 2023 company world). Virtual Market is one of the many events global VR users can thank the Japanese community for! With English translations being provided at every level of involvement.
When I first applied for a booth in 2022 it was relatively easy. I got the world I wanted and most of the people I knew who applied had also been accepted. Uploading and creating a booth was a bit difficult, but Virtual Market provided thorough documentation and vendor support through their Discord. This year, however, it has been a lot more difficult to get a spot. Despite the number of vendors growing from 540 in 2022 to 700 in 2023, myself and most of the creators I applied with were turned away for the summer market. Some people have started strategizing by applying for worlds that are Quest focused or have a less compelling theme in hopes that there will be less competition. Kelseu and I decided to apply individually for the worlds we wanted and then if one of us were lucky we would share the booth. When I do IRL markets I usually request a half table and share with another vendor, same concept. Lucky for us Kelseu's application was accepted!
Creating Our Booth
One of the coolest things about VKET is the virtual market’s worlds. There are 15 unique worlds for vendors to show their work, with 7 of those having multiple versions to accommodate even more booths. The world Kels was able to land is called Barremhorn Midnight and has a mediaeval/fantasy tavern kind of vibe. Kels, doodledrop and I were in call together while trying to brainstorm what our booth could look like and how it could play off of the worlds aesthetics. After some research and Pinterest deep dives we settled on a gothic monastery. I was excited to work on a stained glass window in our image and Kelseu’s demon avatar was already in the making thanks to a Halloween party.
Doodle did a lot of heavy lifting despite not having a particular avatar or asset he wanted to sell. My previous experience with being a Virtual Market vendor made it clear that sales aren’t guaranteed anyways, it’s more about creating an image for yourself and building relationships with people in the community. The booth layout, materials, lighting and placement were left in his capable drops while Kels and I focused on making our items. I was inspired by her demon avatar and a vintage Kewpie illustration to make a devil baby. We then planned to have candles, a summoning circle and a spell book to follow through with our theme.
Seeing all of our work come together was really exciting. I find collaborative projects always a bit more satisfying than things I accomplish on my own. Maybe it’s similar to eating food cooked by someone else? There are little flourishes and surprises unknown to you that make it more interesting. We are the second last booth from the end of the world so make sure you walk all the way through!
✦ How to check it out ✦
Visit the Virtual Market website for a cohesive list on how to make your way through this groundbreaking event. It will run from December 2 to 17 with core hours on the weekends:
★ December 9, 10 +16 | 9:00-11:00 pm (JST) / 7:00-9:00 am (EST)
★ December 17 | 8:00-10:00 pm (JST) / 6:00-8:00 pm (EST)
Core hours are when vendors are encouraged to stand at their booth in a public instance and greet users. Despite being early in the morning for us North Americans, Jo and I stood at our booth during Comic VKET in February of 2023. It was just like manning a booth at a convention in person! Totally worth being an early bird for a weekend or two.
Join us tonight! (December 5th) from 8-10 EST in a Glitches.VR Group Public instance in VRChat. Our group code is GLITCH.3559.
Before I go I’d like to highlight some of my favourite booths by other vendors! You really need to go visit for yourself ok?
Great article but I think you mean "hawk" https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hawk#Verb_2