San Diego Comic-con And Gen-con: Oh My!

Hello and welcome to the special edition of the Gamescape Newsletter. In this edition, we will explore the store's activities at San Diego Comic-Con and Gen-Con, two of the largest conventions in North America. Let’s get right in!

What are San Diego Comic-Con and Gen-Con?

We are starting with San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC), which is often regarded as the most prominent comic-based convention in the world. It was held at the San Diego Convention Center from July 25th through 28th. This was the 55th annual SDCC, with 55 years of growth. It started at the El Cortez Hotel in downtown San Diego but is now hosted in over 460,000 square feet. But now, what we care about–board games. While SDCC’s focus is comics and popular media, there has been a rising force of board games, with demo rooms, TCG events like Star Wars Unlimited and a few vendors in the expo hall. Stay tuned for more info on what Gamescape got up to at SDCC.

On the other hand, Gen-Con is entirely focused on board games. It took place the weekend after San Diego Comic-Con, August 1st through 4th, at the Indianapolis Convention Center. This was a historic Gen-Con as it was the first time it sold out on all four days, boasting over 80,000 participants. All of these participants had a great time playing games in the halls, looking and dressing in cosplay, attending learn-to-plays and other events and, of course, coming into the exhibitor hall to learn about all the fantastic games released at this convention.

Now that you have learned more about these conventions let’s see what Gamescape got up to.

Gamescape at San Diego Comic-Con

In San Diego, David was on a mission to bring the joys of Star Wars Unlimited to more players. He spent the weekend running demos and teaching people how to play this game he loves. He got this game to everyone, from those who have been lovers of Magic: The Gathering and had complex questions to those who had never played a trading card game. His favorite part of the weekend was playing Star Wars trivia, when tough questions were asked, but the staff lead knew every answer immediately.

On the other hand, Sergio was going around and talking with everyone from the board game industry. Comic-Con primarily features comics, movies, and TV, but the number of people in the board game industry has grown. A few vendors were in the expo hall, and there were many game demo rooms. Sergio spent his time talking with people and demoing games to try and bring more games into the store.

The Journey to Gen-Con

Sergio and I (Tessa) traveled to and from Indianapolis together. We started naive and excited to attend Gen-Con, not considering the travel we had ahead. On the way there, we had a quick and easy flight to Atlanta, landing around 10 p.m. with an hour-long layover. We made our way to the new gate, and the flight was delayed until 2 a.m. Frustrated, we accepted this change and made some friends who were also on their way to attend Gen-Con. It was lovely chatting with other passionate gamers excited to be surrounded by the gaming atmosphere. Then our plane finally arrived, and the previous flight deplaned, and we were so excited. Then the crew walks off the plane and away, as we are informed that they have timed out and cannot take us to Indianapolis until 9:20 a.m. Defeated, we attempt to sleep in the airport as it is currently past 3 a.m., and it is all we can do now. After a rough night of something that you could maybe call sleep, we finally boarded and made it to Indianapolis around noon, nearly twelve hours later than initially planned. You may think that a twelve-hour delay is terrible, but wait for what happened on the way back.

Staff Experiences from Gen-Con

Let’s start with K. It was their first year at Gen-Con, and they were working with Asmodee, which had the largest booth in the exhibitor hall and many well-known titles like Star Wars: Unlimited, Altered, The Mandalorian Adventures, River of Gold, MLEM Space Agency, and Canvas to name a few. While they were busy working with Asmodee, they got away from the booth a few times to experience the convention. They were excited to see some highly anticipated games, such as Rock Hard: 1977 from Devir, Infiltrator from Pandasourus, and Fromage from R2i. Even with these exciting adventures, their favorite part was playtesting a new RPG in the very early development stages. They are incredibly excited for its inevitable release. While it was only their first time in attendance, they worked like a pro at the Asmodee booth and can’t wait to be back for next year, but for now, they come back to the store filled with inspiration for exciting new events!

Next, we will look at what the blue-haired man Sergio was up to. He has been on a quest to bring new and exciting games to the store. Two of these are Warcrow and Necromolds, which will soon be available for demos. We will get into what those games are soon! On top of that, he received some “big-atures” from Van Ryder Games, which are larger versions of their regular miniatures. These feature the horror villains from one of Sergio’s favorite games, Final Girl. These miniatures are Hans - The Butcher, who hunts down and feeds on unsuspecting victims, and The Poltergeist, who seeks to eternally trap her victims. However, if you’d like to see these painted models, you’ll have to travel to Germany for Essenspiel (or you could check out the Gamescape social media). Sergio got so much stuff, he had to buy yet another suitcase…

Now, we will dive into my (I’m Tessa) experiences at Gen-Con. This was also my first time experiencing Gen-Con and a board game convention of this size. I went to help with Dead Alive Games as they were premiering their new game, Cyber Pet Quest. In this kid-friendly, cooperative, campaign-style game, you work together as cybernetically enhanced pets to find your missing owner. It was enjoyable to talk with people at the booth and learn more about what players enjoy and look forward to in games. While outside the booth, I met many incredible people in the industry. This includes many people written about in this newsletter, like the Chronicle RPG folks and those from Artis Opus. We even got to go to the Dice Tower Awards show because Dead Alive Games' last game was nominated for Best Game From a Small Publisher. Overall, it was a wonderful experience that I feel so lucky to have been a part of.

New Game Demos

We have many amazing games that Sergio brought back to be demoed on skirmish nights and game nights.

Starting with Warcrow from Corvus Belli, the makers of Infinity. This is a fantastic entry-level skirmish game with excellent miniatures that are simple to build, paint and play. In Warcrow, you’ll control a small force of medieval fantasy miniatures. These small battalions of fighters, wizards, and creatures fight in battles on a quest to achieve your faction's goals.

Next is Necromolds, a kid-friendly skirmish game that uses colorful Play-Doh models instead of the typical grey plastic miniatures. This game only takes an hour and is very beginner-friendly. Take your time to mold your troops and make attacks to smush your opponent's models. Many different models allow you to mold your army into whatever you choose.

Finally, we have Landmarks, a new party game that you can play cooperatively or as two teams competing against each other. One person will give one-word hints that connect different locations. This hilarious experience gets more and more difficult as more clues are placed on the board.

The Journey Back Home

Now that we know what happened at Gen-Con, our experience coming home couldn’t have been worse … right? After we are exhausted, we have a final day in Indianapolis as our flight isn’t until 7 p.m. buying another suitcase, shoving Sergio in the back of a van, and having lunch—a lovely last day. We make our way to the airport and go to check our bags. The flight attendant informed us that we couldn't make our connecting flights because our first flights were delayed due to a hurricane. The soonest we could get home was at 2 p.m. the next day, so we packed off to a hotel for the night. On the shuttle to the hotel, we met some more kind people who had the same issue as us and played some games with them at the hotel. Finally, after a night of rest, we returned to the Indianapolis airport to go to Detroit and finally home again. Unfortunately, due to the weather, our first flight gets delayed, and we sprint to our connecting flight, thankfully barely making it. We sat on our final plane and felt a sigh of relief as all we could do now was sit. But of course, when we land, Sergio discovers that his bags have remained in Detroit. Luckily, he could get them shipped, and we returned home and went to bed.

Thank you for tuning into this exceptional deep dive into our recent conventions. We hope you enjoyed hearing about the staff experiences and new things coming to the store. Stay tuned to our social media for updates on all the cool things happening at your local game store!