GenCon Report
Originally Posted: August 15
Last Edited: 3:36 PM, August 17
Oh my god. GenCon was so intense this year. It's been fifteen years since I've been to GenCon and so much as changed.
This post will serve as a teaser to a bunch of posts I'm going to write. I fear that it'll take me weeks to get it all out. Bookmark this post and come back to it, as I'll be writing lots of new posts and editing this one to link to the new ones. I'll tag them all gencon2006, too.
I was woefully unprepared this year but it didn't really matter much. I got to the hotel Wednesday afternoon, checked in, dumped stuff in the room and walked over to the convention center for a half hour, then returned to the hotel. I met roommate Paul Lidberg and chatted for a while. Ross Winn (ross_winn, roommate and room organizer) showed up not too much later. Paul and I followed Ross around the con site while he secured badges and took care of some things. Ross knows everyone. We had fine Indian dinner with lots of cool people then headed over to Jillian's for the Diana Jones party, which was loud and obnoxious. I met my other roommates and got some sleep.
Thursday morning I stood in line, registered (only took about 15 minutes), stood in line again to get 10 generic tickets (took about 70 minutes, gah). Next year I'll pre-register like a good boy. I spent the rest of the day playing as many demos as I could at the Forge booth. So many awesome games! Thursday evening, I played HeroQuest and Dogs in the Vineyard in the GOD room.
Friday morning, I woke up early and did some more demoing at the Forge booth. I hit the 10-noon indie game design panels at the Westin. Ron Edwards and Vincent Baker talked about inspiration and heartbreakers and knowing what your game is about. Luke Crane and Jared Sorensen ran an informal workshop and dissected a couple of games. When Ron asked who in the room was actively working on a game design, I was the only one out of a couple dozen people to raise my hand. Fucking cowards. I know that most of them are, too. Anyway, that meant that I got to explain Verge and a high concept level and it made me realize that my vision was pretty sketchy. After the panels, I had lunch with Shreyas Sampat, lesingesavant (Remi), and Selene Tan. I spent the afternoon hanging out at the Forge booth, saw the Indie Game Awards there, helped John Kim deliver an award for Artesia to Mark Smylie at his booth, and later hung out and chatted in the GOD room. Friday evening, I met up with some local Indiana folks (kimbyrle, ancientwhisper, and Amanda), all of whom I know from Firan. We had dinner, chatted about Firan, then headed over to the Embassy Suites lobby. I grabbed Eric Provost and ran a disturbing game of My Life with Master for the four of them.
Saturday morning, I went to breakfast with Ross Winn and Mark Schumann. I have no recollection of Saturday afternoon. Really, the whole con is a big blur of days and nights. I know I spent more time playing demos at the Forge booth. That evening, I ran a Verge playtest in the GOD room and got some great feedback. I turned down Ross' offer to go to the Palimino for dinner with lots of awesome people; I wanted to get more Verge feedback and do some gaming with other designers. A half dozen indie folks had dinner at Fridays then headed over to Embassy Suites. I organized a game of The Shab-al-Hiri Roach for a bunch of indie folks then wandered late into Ron Edwards' informal mini-lecture about zero-sum stakes and levels of authority.
Sunday , I spent a couple hours as part of Ross Winn's posse, followed him around and met some industry folks. I had the "ice cream of the future" with Amanda. Then I wandered the dealer room a bit, spent a little money, and eventually realized that Jake Richmond (Verge cover artist) was at the con and met up with him briefly to say hello. He comped me a copy of his own game, Panty Explosion (available at Key20) and that made me feel pretty damned special. Eventually, I said some good-byes, found Paul Lidberg again, and shared a limo with him and Tony Lower-Basch to the airport. I ended up sitting next to Selene Tan while waiting for my connecting flight to Pittsburgh, and we chatted a bit before boarding.
Other highlights:
My final flight touched down at BWI around 9:35 PM Sunday night. As much as I loved GenCon, it was so nice to be back home with my stuff, my kitties, and most importantly my Steph. Four and a half days is a long time to be away from her.
Last Edited: 3:36 PM, August 17
Oh my god. GenCon was so intense this year. It's been fifteen years since I've been to GenCon and so much as changed.
This post will serve as a teaser to a bunch of posts I'm going to write. I fear that it'll take me weeks to get it all out. Bookmark this post and come back to it, as I'll be writing lots of new posts and editing this one to link to the new ones. I'll tag them all gencon2006, too.
I was woefully unprepared this year but it didn't really matter much. I got to the hotel Wednesday afternoon, checked in, dumped stuff in the room and walked over to the convention center for a half hour, then returned to the hotel. I met roommate Paul Lidberg and chatted for a while. Ross Winn (ross_winn, roommate and room organizer) showed up not too much later. Paul and I followed Ross around the con site while he secured badges and took care of some things. Ross knows everyone. We had fine Indian dinner with lots of cool people then headed over to Jillian's for the Diana Jones party, which was loud and obnoxious. I met my other roommates and got some sleep.
Thursday morning I stood in line, registered (only took about 15 minutes), stood in line again to get 10 generic tickets (took about 70 minutes, gah). Next year I'll pre-register like a good boy. I spent the rest of the day playing as many demos as I could at the Forge booth. So many awesome games! Thursday evening, I played HeroQuest and Dogs in the Vineyard in the GOD room.
Friday morning, I woke up early and did some more demoing at the Forge booth. I hit the 10-noon indie game design panels at the Westin. Ron Edwards and Vincent Baker talked about inspiration and heartbreakers and knowing what your game is about. Luke Crane and Jared Sorensen ran an informal workshop and dissected a couple of games. When Ron asked who in the room was actively working on a game design, I was the only one out of a couple dozen people to raise my hand. Fucking cowards. I know that most of them are, too. Anyway, that meant that I got to explain Verge and a high concept level and it made me realize that my vision was pretty sketchy. After the panels, I had lunch with Shreyas Sampat, lesingesavant (Remi), and Selene Tan. I spent the afternoon hanging out at the Forge booth, saw the Indie Game Awards there, helped John Kim deliver an award for Artesia to Mark Smylie at his booth, and later hung out and chatted in the GOD room. Friday evening, I met up with some local Indiana folks (kimbyrle, ancientwhisper, and Amanda), all of whom I know from Firan. We had dinner, chatted about Firan, then headed over to the Embassy Suites lobby. I grabbed Eric Provost and ran a disturbing game of My Life with Master for the four of them.
Saturday morning, I went to breakfast with Ross Winn and Mark Schumann. I have no recollection of Saturday afternoon. Really, the whole con is a big blur of days and nights. I know I spent more time playing demos at the Forge booth. That evening, I ran a Verge playtest in the GOD room and got some great feedback. I turned down Ross' offer to go to the Palimino for dinner with lots of awesome people; I wanted to get more Verge feedback and do some gaming with other designers. A half dozen indie folks had dinner at Fridays then headed over to Embassy Suites. I organized a game of The Shab-al-Hiri Roach for a bunch of indie folks then wandered late into Ron Edwards' informal mini-lecture about zero-sum stakes and levels of authority.
Sunday , I spent a couple hours as part of Ross Winn's posse, followed him around and met some industry folks. I had the "ice cream of the future" with Amanda. Then I wandered the dealer room a bit, spent a little money, and eventually realized that Jake Richmond (Verge cover artist) was at the con and met up with him briefly to say hello. He comped me a copy of his own game, Panty Explosion (available at Key20) and that made me feel pretty damned special. Eventually, I said some good-byes, found Paul Lidberg again, and shared a limo with him and Tony Lower-Basch to the airport. I ended up sitting next to Selene Tan while waiting for my connecting flight to Pittsburgh, and we chatted a bit before boarding.
Other highlights:
- People knowing who I was
- Helping to improve the demo for Hero's Banner
- Getting two offers from people to publish my D20 and other work (and getting inspired to do it myself)
- Getting the hard sell from one of the Chronicles of Ramlar people ("this is the most innovative game at GenCon!") only to learn it was a classic fantasy heartbreaker
- Handing out random GO PLAY stickers
My final flight touched down at BWI around 9:35 PM Sunday night. As much as I loved GenCon, it was so nice to be back home with my stuff, my kitties, and most importantly my Steph. Four and a half days is a long time to be away from her.