Lessons from GENCON

Since my GENCON trip (August 1-2), I thought I’d share some observations for both new board game designers and as an avid tabletop game enthusiast.

1)  Discounts at GENCON

• GENCON had some amazing discounts, even discounts on hard to find games that are marked up online.  Not to knock PAX Unplugged, but the Philly convention had very few discounts.  If you want deals on tabletop games and accessories, GENCON seems to be the place to go in the USA.

• Having said that, as a game designer and soon to be retailer, I am going to make certain to bring some great deals of my own to GENCON.  People spend a lot of money just to get into these conventions so I think it’s really cool to help folks make some of that back in discounts. 

2)  Rare finds at GENCON

• While there wasn’t as much of this, there were a few items that you could only purchase at GENCON.  Kingdom Death Monster’s booth was one example of this and it REALLY worked.  The first day, Thursday aka the “slow day”, Kingdom Death had a line to get into their booth and make purchases that was easily 100+ people long.  There wasn’t a single time during that whole convention where they didn’t have a line. They were selling exclusive GENCON content, and that’s what the people wanted.

• I will look to sell at least something that is unique and only available at GENCON for Primogen Games.

3)  Booths at GENCON

• I saw a lot of booths at GENCON, some better than others.  My favorites were Chip Theory Games and Kingdom Death Monster. Both for different reasons, but they were really nice.  I could give mention to many others that were also really cool and all the variety certainly gave me some ideas of my own.

• One thing that was nice to see was that you don’t have to have a GIANT booth to draw a crowd.  The Gloomhaven booth was pretty small and simple but had a lot of visitors.

• Aisles in the convention ran North / South off of the main entrance to the main hall. The flow of traffic followed those aisles with minor exceptions.  One key exception was booths so big they blocked those aisles.  I was a little surprised some of those booths put up big walls rather than trying to funnel the traffic into their shop.

Chip Theory Games Booth at GENCON 2019

Kingdom Death Monster Booth at GENCON 2019

4)  Artists & Entrepreneurs

• For folks building their own games, I was a little disappointed there weren’t more artists accepting commissioned work.  There were a lot of amazing artists, but it would have been nice to see a few more that were at least considered commissions.  I do have to give a shout out to some amazing artists that were open to commission work and were there to talk details.  Thanks – Jared Blando, Dustin Panzino, Tom Babbey. I haven’t followed up with all of you yet, but I really appreciate your openness for discussing potential commission work.  Good artists are really important for the entire game industry

• The Manufacturer booths were ok but hard to find.  I had to hunt a bit to find the booths for the manufacturers.  Most were friendly which was nice.  It is a little hard to get manufacturing pricing details, but maybe someday that will improve. I was also hoping to see more distribution groups, which I didn’t see any companies there at all.

• Where was Kickstarter?  I would have thought they would have a booth at GENCON for sure.

5)  No Booth Required

• I have to give props to a few game designers that had really great prototypes and just set up “shop” out in the hall or at a table in some random location.  It was nice to see that even new game designers and developers could feature some awesome work without having to purchase a booth at the convention.  Though I think a booth could help, it certainly wasn’t a necessity for those who really wanted to share their work.

• While I will have a booth at GENCON some day, if I’m still in prototype mode pre-Kickstarter, this may not be a bad option to consider.

6)  Don’t Do This….

• One thing I noticed one large game manufacturer did that I personally was pretty disappointed about….they sold one of their Kickstarter games at GENCON before shipping it to their backers.  I did get the game a few weeks later, but it did leave a bit of a sting.  As a backer, I did ask if I could pick up my copy at GENCON and they said no… Ouch, right?

• I personally would never feel good about doing this.  If I do a Kickstarter campaign, which I almost certainly will, I will not have any retail copies available before backers get theirs.  If you do a Kickstarter, your backers always come first (even before yourself)!

I hope some of you find these lessons interesting, if not at the very least a chance to reminisce on the awesomeness that is GENCON.  If you have any lessons or key notes you’d like to share, I’d Love to hear from you!