Take 5: July News – GEN CON Edition!

We’re back from lovely Indianapolis and, of course, Gen Con! Gen Con is basically E3 for tabletop games, it’s the end-all, be-all of physical gaming cons in North America. We had the best time meeting fans from around the world, demoing A.E.G.I.S. for tons of new people, and showing off our new prototypes with our publisher, Greenbrier Games!

Big shout out to those who stopped by our booth who have played the game and own one of the original copies!

Now that we’re back, and have experienced Gen Con firsthand, we thought we’d share some exciting news and facts about Gen Con our friends in the North East and abroad may not know. With that, hold onto your ‘bots ’cause we’re diving in!

Gen Con is HUGE. After having demoed A.E.G.I.S. at PAX East and the Boston Festival of Indie Games for a couple years, we thought this would be a similar experience; we were wrong. Gen Con has everything a gamer could ever want, and even more than that. The photo below was taken from one end of the expo hall: The place basically has a horizon. It can’t even hope to capture all of the…

[list type=”check”]

• Demos to learn any game from Yashima to Penny Press to Numenera to over 5000 other games
• The event hall which is probably twice as big and hectic as the already massive show floor.
• Shopping opportunities for every gaming accessory out there: wooden dice towers, nerdy medieval music, apparel, and of course, games of all shapes and sizes! We got some great shirts (including a rad DragonZord one) from SharkRobot! So check them out.
• Gaming celebrities at booths and just wandering around to see games and friends. This year Summer Glau and Marina Sirtis were guests of honor, but there were oodles of other big-name designers and industry veterans wandering around, happy to talk with anyone. Carmen Bellaire, designer for Robotech Tactics, casually stopped by and now has one of our production copies! The board game industry is very down-to-earth.

[/list]

Basically, you love it, it’s there, and ready to greet you with open arms. Never a dull moment, since there’s always something to do or someone to talk to!

Gen Con is QUIET. And fancy. PAX East has a comparable amount of people, but it’s also insanely loud. Anyone who’s demoed anything there swears by throat lozenges. Gen Con, though, is fully carpeted (even the aisles in the exhibition hall have long red carpets laid out!), well-lit, and you can speak and have conversations at a normal volume. We took advantage of this to give interviews about A.E.G.I.S., teach new players the game, and catch up with old friends who came by to say hello.

Our game looks great! The newly manufactured prototypes were a big hit, and really do feel much better than the thin paper chits we were using for robots in our first self-published print run. There will be an in-depth look at the pieces that came in the box coming soon, but rest assured, despite this quality increase, we’re still looking to keep the financial barrier to entry low for the upcoming A.E.G.I.S. release. After all, we pride ourselves on providing as much strategy game as possible in one box for a good price.

Downtown Indianapolis is very, very nice, and we had excellent experiences with the people there. The food alone was worth the trip. Dozens of food trucks would line up every day outside the convention center, along with the con being surrounded by dozens of restaurants and venues. Bee Coffee Roasters, located directly across from the ICC, dressed up every day for con-goers’ amusement, and featured nerdy special cappuccinos for us to enjoy. The whole city transforms in to a gaming-centric mecca duing Gen Con. Their excellent lattes kept our intern Michael going all weekend, and for that he’s truly grateful. Check out this awesome post-apocalyptic barista ready to arrive at the gates of Valhalla, shiny and chrome!

You’ve made it this far with at least one robot intact and five Energy available! You’ve earned it: THE BIG NEWS: A.E.G.I.S. will be arriving on Kickstarter Fall 2015!

Stay tuned for a more thorough update regarding backer reward tiers, the final contents of each starter set, and what we need from you, the fans, to succeed in getting the game in your hands! We’re excited beyond words to finally reach this point, and we hope you are as well.

Thank you again to all readers for your support, for stopping by Gen Con, for buying our game in the past, and for every kind word you might have shared about Zephyr Workshop and A.E.G.I.S. We continue to make this game for you.

Fight and Unite!