We wanted to remind everyone that reservations for WashingCon's special room rates at the Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center will end Wednesday, August 9th. If you have not made your reservations, you can make them here. Please note that if you cannot make reservation, that means our block has sold out. You can read additional details about our hotel room block here.
Breaking News: Signups for the Unpub Protozone at WashingCon 2017 Are Now Open
We are excited to announce that we will be giving local game designers a chance to demo and playtest their unpublished games in the Unpub Protozoon. Unpub is an organization dedicated to helping game designers get their games published. Over the last six years, publishers have signed over 100 games shown as Unpub events, including games created by our very own Ben Rosset and Matt Grosso such as Between Two Cities, Brew Crafters, and Dead Last.
Here are a few important details about this year’s Unpub Protozone:
While game designers can sign up to demo for free, you will need a ticket to WashingCon to get into the event to demo your games. If you haven't bought your tickets yet, pick them up at washingcon.com
The Protozone will have 20 three-hour slots with ten slots available on Saturday and ten available on Sunday
While the official time blocks that people sign up for will end at 6:00 pm, the tables will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm both nights
If you want to participate in the Unpub Protozone, registration is now open on the Unpub website. Please note that you need an Unpub account to register on the unpub website, and you need to have your prototype games registered on the Unpub website. When you get to the Unpub website, you'll need to take these steps to register:
1. Click the "Register Now" button
2. Sign into your Unpub Account
3. Click Event Management
4. Find the WashingCon time slot you want to sign up for
5. Choose your game to bring to the event and click Add Title
If you have any questions about the registration process, please contact Unpub. We would like to thank Unpub for working with us to make WashingCon 2017 the best con possible.
WashingCon Interviews Nora Meiners of Gamewright
For many family’s, family game day presents an opportunity for families to bond over the tabletop. For Gamewright, these opportunities were the driving force for creating an award-winning library of games. The company, which was founded in 1994 by four parents whose kids wanted great games, aims to “create the highest quality family games with outstanding play-value.” The company’s roster of over 50 games include Dragonwood, Forbidden Island, Sushi Go, and Sleeping Queens, which was designed by WashingCon 2017 guest designer Miranda Evarts at the age of six. In addition to bringing enjoyable tabletop experiences to families and gamers, the company has received over 150 awards for its games.
As a part of our game publisher interview series, WashingCon had an opportunity to sit down with Nora Meiners to talk about the company’s design philosophy, new releases, and the company’s roster of designers.
WC: For people new to the hobby, can you tell us about the history of Gamewright? What drives the company and its designers to make tabletop games?
NM: Gamewright has been in business for over 20 years with the goal of making incredibly entertaining and imaginative games for families. We are driven by getting great games into more homes.
WC: What products will Gamewright be releasing this year? What releases are you excited about?
NM: We are releasing 10 new titles this year; each one is exciting in its own right. We have three amazing redesigns, PDQ, Tiki Topple, and Loot so there are fans that will be excited to see them resurface and a whole new group of gamers for them to win over. Go Nuts For Donuts should be a sure-fire hit for the whole family, who can say no to donuts? Cardventures, our interactive story series, has two new installments which explore time travel and wizardry respectively.
WC: What does Gamewright take into consideration when designing its games? What tips would you have for other game designers who are working on their own game designs?
NM: The only advice we have is to be you in your designs. What is missing in the board game world? Fill that void and have fun.
WC: We're excited to have Miranda Evarts join us this year at WashingCon 2017. Can you tell us a little bit about her and your other designers?
NM: Miranda was a child inventor so, it has been exciting to work with her as she grew into the college student she is now. Sleeping Queens has been around for over a decade and it is thrilling that it came from the imagination of a kid. We have such a varied roster of designers but Matt Leacock has been especially prolific to work with and that is exciting.
WC: Gamewright has won over 150 industry awards for its products. Which of these awards are you most proud of?
NM: It is always and honor to win the Mensa award.
WC: In case you're coming to WashingCon 2017, what are you looking forward to the most for this year's con?
NM: Just to see the DC community come together and enjoy a good game.
WashingCon would like to thank Nora and Gamewright for supporting our convention and work.
Breaking News: The First Batch of WashingCon Events is Here!
WashingCon is excited to reveal the first batch of events for WashingCon 2017! The events, which you can view here, will range from meet and greets with our guest designers to tournaments of North Star Game’s Evolution to the Wits & Wagers Gameshow. As you review our first release of events, we wanted to note that:
- All events are free for individuals with WashingCon passes
- Attendees will use Eventbrite to sign for events requiring registration
- Events marked as “No Registration Needed” are open on a first come, first served basis
- People can submit their own event ideas for WashingCon 2017 using the "Submit an Event to have at WashingCon" button on the events page
As WashingCon draws near, we will have more announcements about new events and panels that our attendees can attend throughout the convention. If you want to participate in these events, purchase your tickets here.
Important Information About WashingCon's Discounted Hotel Rooms and Event Space
As WashingCon draws near, we wanted to provide some details about the Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center, our convention space and hotel. The hotel and center is a short walk from the heart of historic Georgetown on M Street. We want everyone to know that:
- The gaming space is over 10,000 square feet with dedicated rooms for specific events that we will begin to announce this week.
- In addition to hosting events in the center’s main room, we will hold others in the six conference rooms surrounding the main room.
- The center will have paid parking; limited street parking may be available around the center on Saturday and Sunday.
In response to feedback from last year's attendees, the conference center will provide sandwiches, drinks, and grab-and-go items in a convenient location close to the main gaming hall. We will also have an improved shuttle service to transport individuals to and from the convention center during WashingCon 2017.
In terms of our hotel accommodations, the hotel has generously provided us with a significant discount for WashingCon attendees. Attendees who are interested in booking a room at the hotel should know that:
- Guests will be able to book discounted hotel rooms for Friday and Saturday night for $119 per night using this link: https://reservations.travelclick.com/15410?groupID=1751030#
- If you have booked a room, call the hotel at (202) 687-3200 and let them know they are part of WashingCon and would like the room block rate. The hotel will modify your reservation to get the discounted rate.
- If you cannot book a room because we ran out of spaces in the room block, email contact@washingcon.com and let us know so we can add additional rooms.
We also want to remind participants that they must make reservations by Wednesday, August 9th. If you want to learn more about the hotel and spaces, please visit the Georgetown Hotel and Conference website.
Breaking News: WashingCon 2017's Roster of Guest Designers is Here!
WashingCon is excited to announce the roster of our special guest designers for WashingCon 2017. Our guests span the world of tabletop and roleplaying games and have worked with publishers such a Fantasy Flight Games, GMT Games, Plaid Hat Games, and Gamewright Games. As with last year’s event, WashingCon attendees will have a chance to meet and interact with all of these special guests and demo their games in some cases. Our roster of guest designers will include:
Sam Bailey: Samuel W. Bailey is a professional board game designer and writer. He previously worked at Fantasy Flight Games, where he worked with many successful game lines including Forbidden Stars, Elder Sign, Mansions of Madness, Star Wars: Imperial Assault, Talisman, and X-COM. His newest game is Deep: Enemy Frontiers, coming soon from Leder Games.
Keith Baker: Keith is a game designer, RPG author, and fantasy novel writer. He has won an Origins Award twice, first in 2004 for Best Roleplaying Game Supplement as part of the team for the Eberron campaign setting, then again in 2005 for Traditional Card Game of the Year for Gloom, published by Atlas Games. He recently released the card-based RPG Phoenix: Dawn Command.
Ross Cowman: Ross is an award-winning game and RPG designer and owner of Heart of the Deernicorn, a publishing company based in Olympia, Washington. His design credits include Serpent's Tooth, Life on Mars, and Fall of Magic. He has taught workshops and been a panelist at Gamestorm and PAX prime.
Miranda Evarts: Miranda Evarts is the designer of Sleeping Queens from Gamewright Games, which she designed at the age of six with her family in 2003. She'll be showing her game in the family area.
Jon Gilmour: Jon Gilmour is a professional game designer living in Ohio. He is most well-known for co-designing Dead of Winter. He is also the designer of many recent and upcoming releases such as Dinosaur Island and Wasteland Express Delivery Service, both by Pandasaurus Games.
Bruce Glassco: Bruce is a college professor and game designer living in the Charlottesville area. He is the designer of Betrayal at House on the Hill as well as the upcoming game Fantasy Realms.
Susan McKinley Ross: Susan McKinley Ross is a game designer with over ten published games to her credit, including Qwirkle. In 2006, Susan won the Spiel des Jahres, the most famous game design award in the world, for Qwirkle. Susan is the only female designer to ever to have won this award.
Jason Matthews: Jason is a game designer who lives in the DC area. He is the designer of the number three rated game of all time, Twilight Struggle, as well as the designer of several other games such as 1989: The Dawn of Freedom, and Founding Fathers. His newest game is Sola Fide: The Reformation.
If you want to meet these designers, purchase your tickets here. WashingCon would like to thank all of our special guests for coming to this year’s convention and supporting our community.
WashingCon 2017 Needs Volunteers! Join Our Team to Make This Year’s Convention the Best One Yet!
WashingCon relies heavily on the hard work of our volunteers to help organize and staff the convention. Our team of volunteers and their dedication to the tabletop community in the DC area will be critical to making this year’s convention a success.
If you want to contribute to this year's convention, here are three important details about volunteering with WashingCon:
- In return for working two 4-hour shifts, volunteers will have their tickets refunded after the convention; they must purchase a regular ticket before the event.
- Volunteers will also receive a free volunteer t-shirt to wear during their shifts and keep afterward.
- Volunteers need to visit WashingCon's volunteer sign up page to register for their shifts by August 11th to guarantee their t-shirt size.
Remember, you need to sign up for two shifts to receive a refund for your ticket after the convention.
In addition to working at the convention, volunteers will need to attend one of two upcoming volunteer meetings that we will host in DC in mid-August. We will send out this information to volunteers this summer.
If you have any questions, please email volunteering@washingcon.com. Once again, WashingCon would like to thank all of our volunteers for their hard work and commitment to making the convention possible.
WashingCon Interviews Andy Looney of Looney Labs at WashingCon 2
Pyramids and Fluxx. While most people outside the hobby would not associate these words together, long-time fans of Looney Lab’s games know that Kristin and Andy Looney have turned these words into expansive worlds and games. Founded in 1996, Looney Labs is best known for its Fluxx card games that have spanned themes ranging from Cthulhu Fluxx to Cartoon Network Fluxx to Firefly Fluxx. Looney Labs has also developed the Looney Pyramids, a game system that uses colorful pyramids as the foundation for playing an expansive library of games published by Looney Labs and other enthusiasts on the internet. In 2016, Looney Labs successfully launched a Kickstarter campaign for Pyramid Arcade, an anthology with components to play 22 classic Looney Library games. Andy referred to Pyramid Arcade as his magnum opus, a sentiment shared by an ecstatic review of the set from the Dice Tower’s Tom Vasel.
In addition to serving as WashingCon 2 sponsors, Andy and Kristin attended last year’s con and participated in Andy versus Everybody. The event, which was one of the most popular ones at WashingCon 2, had Andy play different games against against over ten players – at the same time. In between meeting fans and taking on a room of gamers, WashingCon had a chance to sit down with Andy to talk about the evolution of Looney Labs, the development of Pyramid Arcade, and news about upcoming products that the company will be releasing in the future. WashingCon would like to thank Andy, Kristin, and the rest of Looney Labs for supporting our convention and work.
WashingCon Interviews Byron Collins of Collins Epic Wargames at WashingCon 2
In the world of tabletop games, designers face the challenge of helping gamers immerse in historical battles such as World War II or conflicts set in the far future. In this area, Byron Collins at Collins Epic Wargames has been successful in giving players a range of immersive tactical games set in these conflicts and settings.
The company is well known for the award-winning Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 series, a fast-paced two-player tactical card wargame and expansions set in World War II that covers the Western and Eastern fronts. The company has also had a successful Kickstarter campaign for Polyversal, a 6mm to 15mm mass combat sci-fi miniatures system that allows players to use the game’s miniatures, which have been designed by five major manufacturers like Hawk Wargames, or their own to recreate battles set in a near-future war-torn Earth.
WashingCon was fortunate to sit down with Byron Collins, the owner of Collins Epic Wargames, to discuss the company’s line of games. Hear the interview to learn more about the company’s history, the development of the Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 series and Polyversal, and new games that the company is developing for the future. WashingCon would like to thank Byron for supporting our convention and work.
Breaking News: Sleeping Queens Designer Miranda Evarts Will Appear at WashingCon 2017
WashingCon is excited to announce that Miranda Evarts, the designer of Gamewright’s Sleeping Queens, will attend WashingCon 2017! Miranda designed the game with her family in 2003 after she came up with the idea for a game where a range of kings help sleeping queens such as the Pancake and Rose Queens wake up. After testing the game with her family and friends, Gamewright published the game in 2005 as its first kid-designed game. In addition to receiving one of the "2006 Best Bet Awards" from the Canadian Toy Testing Council as well as other awards and accolades, Miranda’s game has been profiled in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and the World Intellectual Property Organization. Miranda will have a “Meet the Inventor” session where she can sign games from the convention’s attendees. WashingCon would like to thank Miranda for supporting our community and work.
WashingCon Interviews Rachel Sunday from Peaceable Kingdom
Among companies that sell tabletop games and other products for children and families, few have made the development of kindness and cooperation as important to their mission as Peaceable Kingdom. The company, which was founded over 30 years ago in Berkley, California, has been putting out games such as Friends and Neighbors, Say the Word, and Mole Rats in Space that help children grow personally and emotionally by learning the importance of cooperation and teamwork. As Rachel Sunday, Marketing Manager at Peaceable Kingdom, told us, “we create games and gifts that inspire cooperation and cultivate kindness – because kids that play well together play well in the world.”
In addition to producing great games, Peaceable Kingdom will also be sponsoring WashingCon this year. As Rachel explained, the sponsorship came from the company’s relationship with fellow WashingCon sponsor Labyrinth Games. “We are extremely appreciative of our partnership over the years with Labyrinth,” Rachel said, “when the idea of WashingCon was presented, we immediately hopped on and wanted to be part of the family section!”
Read our interview with Rachel to learn more about Peaceable Kingdom’s design philosophy, upcoming releases, and charitable work through its Donations Every Day program.
WC: For people new to the hobby, can you tell us about the history of Peaceable Kingdom? What drives the company and its designers to make tabletop games for children and families?
RS: We create games and gifts that inspire cooperation and cultivate kindness – because kids that play well together play well in the world. Cooperative games blend playful fun with a chance to learn compassion and practice kindness toward others. Common goals teach kids to work together. Cooperative games enable players to win or lose as a team, which builds resilience and strengthens friendships. Play with heart and soul!
WC: What products will Peaceable Kingdom be releasing this year? Are there any releases you're excited about?
RS: We have a handful of new releases in 2017! We are particularly excited about demoing Mole Rats in Space with the WashingCon crowd! Mole Rats in Space was designed by celebrated game designer Matt Leacock, best known for designing Pandemic and Forbidden Island. Mole Rats in Space is a 7+ games and is Leacock’s first cooperative game for kids. Players work together to help the Mole Rats gather their equipment and make it to their escape pod before time runs out! Climb the ladders, slip down air-shafts, but don't get bitten by the snakes.
WC: Given how important cooperative play is to your company, how do you view the rise of cooperative board games across the entire hobby? What lessons do you think they could take from your own games and design philosophy?
RS: Cooperative games have been popular in the adult world of gaming for some time. However, we do feel that we have found a niche in the children’s gaming world by advocating and providing such games. We embody the cooperative concept as a company all around. We feel that our cooperative games provide a place for children to learn qualities that they can take with them and share with the world as they grow. Among those qualities are listening, communication, teamwork, inclusive play and sharing. It also doesn’t hurt to win or lose as a team, rather than by yourself!
WC: What type of organizations have you supported through your donation program? What's been the most memorable organization that you've supported over the years?
RS: In 2017, we began our partnership with Kids for Peace. Kids for Peace launched the Great Kindness Challenge week over ten years ago and has now spanned to millions of schools and children across the globe. Their mission is to encourage kindness and build kind acts as habits amongst kids in their school setting. Kids are challenged individually and as a whole to complete a Kindness Checklist throughout the week. We believe that kindness can change the world and through our products, kids learn how to listen to each other, use their own voice, and be kind. We are proud to be partners with Kids for Peace and strongly stand behind their goals and mission.
WC: How does the inventor submission process work? What are things that all tabletop game designers can learn from the products that inventors have submitted to you over the years?
RS: We accept inventor submissions via our website! We encourage and accept all submissions. These submissions are reviewed and handled by who we like to call our ‘Game Guru’. We are always looking for new and exciting ways to share cooperative games with the rest of the world!
WashingCon would like to thank Rachel and the rest of the team at Peaceable Kingdom for supporting our work!
Breaking News: Susan McKinley Ross to Attend WashingCon 2017!
WashingCon is excited to announce that Susan McKinley Ross will be attending WashingCon 2017! The founder of Idea Duck!, Susan is best known for developing the award-winning game Quirkle, which has been honored with a Mensa Select Award, a Parents' Choice Gold Award, a Games Magazine Games 100 Award and a Spiel des Jahres Award. In addition to spending time with attendees, Susan will also be participating in events that will form part of WashingCon’s efforts to highlight female game designers at this year’s convention. We want to thank Susan for helping us highlight how important inclusivity is within the tabletop hobby.
WashingCon Interviews Luke Warren from North Star Games
What’s in a name? While that question will bring up a range of responses – and stories behind them – from the tabletop game community, the one from North Star Games has special significance for its Co-Founder and President Dominic Crapuchettes. As Luke Warren, Public Relations Director and Head of Specialty Accounts at North Star Explained, the Dominic chose the name after using the North Star to return his boat to safety after losing power while captaining a salmon boat in Alaska. After returning to the dock, Dominic decided to pursue his dream of creating board games.
Since then, North Star Games has taken its inspiration from this experience to produce a range of hobby board games that are accessible to a mainstream audience such as the Evolution series as well as popular party games such as Wits & Wagers and Say Anything. The company became a sponsor of WashingCon through its work with Kathleen Donahue, the owner of Labyrinth Games and a fellow WashingCon co-sponsor. “We are always down at her store demoing games. And as we are a local company, it only made sense to sponsor the local con.”
Read our interview with Luke to learn more about North Star Game’s design philosophy, the development of questions for Wits & Wagers and Say Anything, and the company’s new releases for 2017.
WC: For people new to the hobby, can you tell us about the history of North Star Games? What drives the company and its designers to make tabletop games?
LW: Well, that’s really a great question. Our co-founder Dominic Crapuchettes was the captain of a salmon boat in Alaska (like you might have seen on reality TV, but before watching fishing boats was a form of entertainment) but since he was a kid he had dreamed of making board games. Well, one night while captaining said fishing boat, he lost power, took on water and had to guide the boat home by the North Star, hence the name of the company. He decided since he made it back alive, it was time to start trying to make his dreams a reality.
While in business school he met his future business partner in Satish Pillalamarri; they graduated in 2004 and have been going full blast since then. Dominic, also our head game designer and President, has a drive to bring the deeper game play of hobby games to a mainstream audience. That requires streamlining games so they have as few rules and exceptions as possible. “Find what’s fun, get rid of everything else,” is his philosophy. This philosophy has the added benefit of making hobby games more streamlined as well, so in a way we are bringing mainstream consumers’ need for simplicity to hobby games. The best of both worlds!
WC: What products will North Star release this year? Are there any releases you're excited about?
LW: The biggest release will be a blue Happy Salmon. It has 6 more color of cards so you can play 12 person Happy Salmon games. That is pure craziness right there. I have done it, so I know what I am talking about. Oh, and a sweet expansion to Wits & Wagers, called Vegas Wits & Wagers. More ways to bet on a bigger, cooler Vegas style rubber mat. For all you high rollers!
The second big release is our new, streamlined Evolution - same great game, same great art, just a smaller box, no excess components, and now $40. We have fixed a couple of problems, like the occasional lack of food tokens, and reduced the amount of table space you need for the game. The biggest change is to switch out the food bags for cool food shields that create a 3-D visual experience and makes it look like the animals are coming to the Watering Hole to feed. So it's a more immersive experience as well.
WC: How does the process for selecting user submitted questions for Say Anything and Wits & Wagers work? Are there any memorable questions that came out of this process?
LW: The process has several steps, but basically we put out an All Points Bulletin for submissions, and once we get the questions, we cull out a bunch that just will not work. The remaining lot then gets sent out to volunteers who rate the questions and answers on how fun and interesting they are, since that is always the main consideration behind everything we make. The highest-ranking questions are then playtested, edited, fact checked until we have the best ones.
Memorable questions? Well, the most memorable ones make it into the game! But as far memorable experiences based on these questions, at our big GenCon Wits & Wagers Game Show, we asked the question about how many “favorite things” are mentioned in the song, My Favorite Things from the Sound of Music. Decent question, not necessarily memorable. Except that many gaming geeks love musicals, so after the question, we gave everyone one minute to write down all the favorite things, and then to reveal the answer, made everyone sing the song. A room full of 70 people all singing My Favorite Things at the top of their lungs is pretty entertaining.
WC: Can you tell us about the team of artists behind the Evolution series? What inspirations did they draw from to produce the art for these games?
LW: Catherine Hamilton, the artist, knows Dominic from high school. Fortunately she is an international representative for Zeiss, has worked with the Audubon Society, and is a very well respected ornithology artist, doing much of her work in watercolor. So when Dominic approached her to do the art for the game in a realistic, but alternate history kind of way, it was almost second nature to her. That is why the animals in the game seem familiar but are not quite ones that have existed on Earth.
WC: How has working on the digital version of Evolution impacted the design of your tabletop games?
LW: It has definitely helped us to streamline game play even more than we already do, since when playing digital games asynchronously, every little decision point slows the game down. Too many delays while someone who was not the active player has to make a decision on something and the game becomes excruciatingly slow. So now in our table top design we try to cut out those interrupts.
WC: What are you looking forward to WashingCon 2017? What games and events will you be running at this year's con?
LW: It's a super fun show and being local makes it even better. Meeting local game enthusiasts who love our games, or introducing our games to new fans is awesome. We will be running an Evolution tournament, a Wits & Wagers Game Show and a Say Anything ‘after dark’ game. Lastly, a Happy Salmon festival, which if you have not played this 60 seconds of crazy game, WashingCon is the place to do it!
WashingCon would like to thank North Star Games and Luke for supporting our work and community.
WashingCon Interviews Jason Matthews at WashingCon 2
As a con based in Washington, DC, WashingCon's community is home to policy and international relations wonks who play and design tabletop games. Among these individuals, we were especially proud to have Jason Matthews attend WashingCon 2 as a presenter at panels and special guest. A former Senate staffer and government relations expert, Jason is best known for co-creating GMT's award-winning game Twilight Struggle, which uses the political and military developments in the Cold War as the backdrop for two-players to compete as the United State or the Soviet Union. Jason has also co-designed other games that have focused on history and politics such as 1989: Dawn of Freedom, 1960: Making of the President, and, most recently, Sola Fide: The Reformation.
In addition to participating on the Future of Game Design Panel, Jason also had an opportunity to sit down for an interview with WashingCon’s resident policy and international relations expert, Cris Ramón. Take a listen below to hear Jason discuss the origins of Twilight Struggle, the manner that he fuses mechanics with history and politics, and his approach to selecting political and the intersection between hobby gaming and military wargaming. WashingCon would like to thank Jason for supporting our work.
WashingCon will be at Labyrinth Games and Puzzles for International Tabletop Day
We wanted to let our DC-area fans know that WashingCon staff will attend the International Tabletop Day festivities at Labyrinth Games and Puzzles, our sponsor and DC's own FLGS. If you're free on April 29th, stop by Labyrinth to buy WashingCon tickets, talk with WashingCon staff, and participate in the store's events. Make sure to follow us on Twitter for live updates about the day's events. More information about the roster of Labyrinth's events is available here.
WashingCon 2 Vendor Spotlight: Catlilli Games
As a part of WashingCon's efforts to make our conventions kid- and family-friendly, we invited a range of vendors that offer games that help bring the youngest members of our community into the hobby. One of these vendors was Catlilli Games, which sells educational board games such as Crazy Cats, Cycles, and Tacto that help children grow interested in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. In Crazy Cats, for instance, children compete to draw the craziest cat based on dice rolls that determine the genes – and their corresponding appearance – for their cats. In short, the game's mechanics supports a child's exploration of complex scientific concepts such as genetics and phenotypes.
Listen to the interview with Jon Nardolilli, co-founder and game designer at Catlilli Games below to hear more about the company's origin, design philosophy, and efforts to help reverse the absence of effective STEM education in the United States. WashingCon would like to thank Jon and the rest of the Catlilli team for serving as vendors at our convention.
WashingCon Interviews Darrell Louder and Brad Smoley from the UnPub Protozone at WashingCon 2
One the highlights of WashingCon 2 was the opportunity to host the UnPub Protozone where we gave local game designers a chance to demo and playtest their unpublished games in the Unpub Protozone. Unpub is an organization that aims to help game designers get their games published. Over the last six years, publishers have signed over 100 games shown as Unpub events, including games created by our very own Ben Rosset and Matt Grosso such as between Two Cities, Brew Crafters, and Dead Last.
During WashingCon 2, we had a chance to briefly chat with Darrell Louder, the Director of Unpub and the designer of Compounded and Bottom of the Ninth from Dice Hate Me Games, and Brad Smoley. Listen to the interview below to hear more about the Protozone as well as Unpub’s broader work in giving designers an opportunity to share and demo their games at conventions like WashingCon.
Raise the Three Red Meeples High and Proud! WashingCon 2017 Digital Flyers Are Here!
As the WashingCon planning staff will tell you, our convention could not happen without the enthusiasm and help of its community and volunteers. While we encourage our attendees to volunteer at the convention, we recognize that not everyone can attend WashingCon. If you fall in this category, we have a new way you can help us out: distribute our new digital flyers! We have created four flyers that everyone can distribute at their favorite gaming tabletops and online platforms. Tweet us your best photos posing with our flyers @washingcondc and we'll make sure to feature them on this blog in the future.
Green Ronin Publishing and Ravensburger to Sponsor WashingCon 2017
We are excited to announce that Green Ronin Publishing and Ravensburger Global have signed on as sponsors for WashingCon 2017. Green Ronin, which will be returning as our sponsor, Dragon Age, is known for role-playing games such as Dragon Age, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, and Mutants & Masterminds. The company has won over 40 awards for excellence, including winning GenCon & EnWorld Award for Best Publisher for three years in a row.
Ravensburgeris a leading supplier of puzzles, games, and craft products in Europe. In addition to sponsoring WashingCon, the company will also put together our swag bags and include a special item for the convention’s attendees. We would like to thank both companies for making WashingCon 2017 the best possible experience for our members!
WashingCon Interviews Bruce Glassco at WashingCon 2
Recently, a member of WashingCon’s staff was having dinner with friends when they discussed their interest in board games. One of the individuals at dinner mentioned playing a horror game with the word “Hill” in the title that was fun – and extremely unnerving.
As many of our readers know, the game in question is Bruce Glassco’s award-winning Betrayal at House on the Hill, which pits players against a traitor in a haunted house. While Bruce's game has emerged as a definitive classic in the hobby, his interest in tabletop gaming has led him to continue working on new designs such as Mystery! Motive for Murder. Listen below to hear about Bruce's development of Betrayal at House on the Hill, his work as an English professor at Piedmont Virginia Community College, and what inspires him to keep working on game design.