This past weekend, I attended Gen Con for the first time. Gen Con is a four-day gaming convention located in downtown Indianapolis. This convention encompasses several facets of gaming including board games, PC gaming, trading card games, RPGs, LARP (Live Action Role Play), and more. Detailing my experience attending Gen Con is difficult. It’s challenging to put into words how much this convention meant to me as a gaming geek. For those who are looking to attend Gen Con, I would highly recommend it. 

My journey to Gen Con started in February of this year. I applied for a press badge on a whim because why not? I was approved for a press badge for C2E2 in Chicago, so why not try it for Gen Con. My press badge was approved within a couple of weeks. Within a month before the convention, my email was flooded with board game developers wanting to set up a time for demos and interviews. I settled on two demos with Goliath Games and Games by Bicycle. To prevent this post from being incredibly long, I will write a separate post on the games I did “demo” from both developers.

After realizing I was going to Gen Con, I recruited my brother to come with me. I was already planning on driving to Indianapolis, but I didn’t want to go alone. Having my brother with me throughout the drive made it more bearable. We listened to NADDPOD as we drove to get hyped up for the convention.

Me and my brother chose to stay in an Air BnB versus a hotel downtown. Part of this decision resulted because I couldn’t find any hotel on Gen Con’s website with a room available. As soon as passes go on sale in January, hotel rooms are reserved. By the time I was looking for a room, I was coming up with nothing. Our Air BnB was about 25-30 minutes away from Downtown Indianapolis. One of my regrets was not staying right in the heart of downtown. I wanted the full Gen Con experience, but I felt that was stunted because we knew we needed to take a Lyft. We also had to bring almost everything we needed for the day because we didn’t have anywhere to store our stuff. This didn’t take away from the convention, but it made me realize what I want to do for next year.

When I first approached the Indianapolis Convention Center on Thursday, I was in awe of how big the vendor hall is. There are 30 ROWS OF VENDORS. 30 ROWS!? I was overwhelmed. How could I look at all the games where there are that many developers who appear at Gen Con? It wasn’t until after the third day of attending that I felt I had seen every vendor. I brought $300 of spending cash with me and even though it was enough for me, I could have easily saved more.

As far as the gaming, it’s extremely organized. On Gen Con’s website, I signed up for a couple game demos before the convention began. However, I discovered I could also buy generic gaming tickets if I found a game I wanted to demo, but didn’t have it in my schedule. I demoed an intergalactic strategy game, Lander which doesn’t launch on Kickstarter until March of 2020. I will write a separate post about game testing Lander. I plan on “kicking” the game once it launches because I enjoy the strategy of what the game has to offer.

Another reason I loved Gen Con was I felt I was at the center of board game news. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I played Lander which hasn’t even been released yet. It felt like I was getting a “sneak peek” of a game that hadn’t launched.

To end my post, I wanted to sum up the turnout of Gen Con 2019. Gen Con had a record-breaking year with 70,000 attendees. There were 19,600 ticketed gaming events, over 2,000 of these tickets were electronic tickets found on the Gen Con app. Finally, Gen Con took measures to cut down on waste that the convention produces. For their efforts, they prevented 24,000 cups from ending up in Indiana’s landfills.

Gen Con was a life-changing experience for me. I never felt more proud to be a gamer and to be in a place where I fit in. This convention is one I hope to attend again in 2020. Hopefully, I will see some of you there.