Gen Con 2015 Wrap-Up

Gen Con 2015 is now part of history, and here are some assorted reflections on this year's big gamer festival.

• We had a lot of people interested in Munchkin Oz and Munchkin Steampunk Deluxe, both of which received quite a few demos during the show. I think it's fair to say the star of our booth was Mars Attacks: Ten-Minute Takedown. The table we dedicated to this new dexterity game was busy and raucous the entire show, and many of those demo games turned directly into sales. We also had a lot of interest in the new, expanded edition of Car Wars: The Card Game and Mars Attacks: The Dice Game.
• The other companies producing Munchkin-themed games also reported a huge Spyke in sales (sorry, but only a little).
  • USAopoly had Munchkin Adventure Time and Munchkin Adventure Time 2 – It's a Dungeon Crawl! for sale at their booth. (They'd hoped to have Munchkin Zombies: The Walking Dead, but it didn't quite make it to the show.)
  • AEG had Munchkin Loot Letter and debuted Smash Up: Munchkin; that game moved steadily all four days of the show.
  • Fireside Games continued to demo (and therefore sell) Munchkin Panic.
  • And Atlas Games had Munchkin Gloom available for the first time, with many unhappy people killing off their adventurers in delightfully morbid ways over the course of the show.
• We were right across the aisle from our pals at Green Ronin and got to enjoy seeing their booth full and overfull with folks looking to pick up the new Fantasy AGE roleplaying game and the Titansgrave sourcebook for that game, based on the Wil Wheaton-hosted and -created series on Geek & Sundry (who had a little sub-booth in GR's space). This has nothing to do with Munchkin, but the Ronins are good people and it's a pleasure to see them doing so well.
• Our booth was privileged to host signings by John Kovalic and Len Peralta, and I may have scribbled my name on a few things as well.
• SJ Games CEO Phil Reed had his usual whirlwind of meetings, some of which I was privileged to sit in on. We have some very fun plans in the works for Munchkin's 15th anniversary next year, and some of Phil's meetings dealt with those plans, but I personally sat in on one meeting where we started talking about ideas for 2018 and 2019. Crazy.
• Speaking of the anniversary, we nailed down almost all the final details for a big announcement (the first of several) coming up shortly -- watch this space in the coming weeks for more news!

On a personal note, I got to see some pals and have fun with people I don't see nearly often enough, but during the show I also learned of the passing of one of my Gen Con regulars (a loyal Munchkin fan and a good friend). Gen Con's not going to be the same without his smiling face in our booth every year.

Thanks to everyone who came to see us -- we know the show gets more and more packed each year, and we're glad so many of you fans made the time to swing by and try a demo, buy a game, or just say howdy. Those interactions are what make these conventions so much fun for us. We look forward to seeing many familiar and new faces next year at Gen Con 2016!