Gen Con 2011 has come and gone, and all we have left of Games on Demand is exhaustion, good memories… and data! This thread is about reporting how the event went this year and gathering feedback from everyone that volunteered and played.
A few Words of Thanks
Before I get to the numbers, I’d like to say thanks to everyone who came out to join us for games, and to all the volunteers who stepped up to help organize or run games (especially in the evening slots when we had more players than games!). Special thanks to Scott Acker for early planning and negotiations, as well as arranging for the banner (and thanks to Alex Mayo for designing it!).
Big Thanks to Indie Press Revolution for sponsoring half a dozen people to be there to organize the event and run games, as well as providing us with extra tables and the white board, which was really essential this year. Thanks to the Gen Con staff for getting us extra tables when we exceeded the bounds of our room.
Thanks to all the publishers who provided gaming materials and volunteers to run their games, or who were there themselves hour after hour bringing the fun.
Finally thanks to all of you who contributed extra tickets and went out of your way to make sure Games on Demand succeeded this year! Your efforts will make a big difference as we start planning for next year.
The Numbers
We made a special effort to track what games got played, who ran them, and how many players we had. The following Google spreadsheet shows that information, but there are holes in the data. If you played in a game and remember who ran it or how many players there were, or if your game is missing from this list altogether, please leave a comment or send an email and let me know.
Games on Demand – Gen Con 2011 Report
Feedback
We’d love to hear what Games on Demand meant to you this year. Feel free to leave your comments, suggestions, and anecdotes here in the comments. Thanks again for making Gen Con fun!
Thanks for keeping track and sharing this data, Steve!
Very useful info, Steve — thanx for compiling that! I’m sure it’ll be a big help for Darren and Jason as they strive to get GenCon to give us an even bigger, better space for 2012. ;)
Steve, thank you for putting in the hard work to help lots of eager gamers play lots of interesting games. I had a blast.
I ran the FreeMarket game on Thursday @ 2. I don’t remember either player’s name, though.
2pm thru 4pm Friday : Fiasco by me, Jon C, 4 including me.
2pm Saturday: Technoir, you’ve already got it in there, it was run by Mark D.
6pm thru 8pm Saturday: Microscope game run by Ryan W. 5 players, including Ryan. It was also my highlight of the con!
Games on Demand was amazing, hope you guys keep getting bigger every year. I know I will be back.
Great job, everyone!
Games on Demand @ Origins 2011 didn’t pick up nearly as many players, but we’ve been upgraded to a more central location for next year and given the “thumbs up” by the Executive Director of GAMA.
So we might catch up to your formidable benchmark, especially if we had such an excellent banner…
This is a great source of information for the event. Thanks for sharing it with all of us!
I ran at least one game that’s not in the spreadsheet, too: a second Razed game on Saturday at 2pm for five players.
It was an excellent show, marred only by the good news/bad news effect of running out of copies of so many awesome games too early on. GoD had a tremendous effect of promoting and exposing many great games and it was one we sadly underestimated this year in several cases- never again! Many thanks to all who made GoD work so well this year- Will Hindmarch, Scott Acker, Jason Morningstar, Steve Segedy, Carl Klutzke, Justin Bow, Tim Rodriguez and all the other great GMs and booth volunteers. Proof of concept achieved, now let’s kick Gencon in the pants and make it bigger and better next year! dw
Games on demand meant constant fun things to do between the exhibit hall closing, and late night games at the hotel.
It meant new friends, many of which I’m still in touch with.
It meant finding brilliant new games, and getting to playtest exciting new ones that aren’t even out yet.
It meant good memories, good times, and the steadfast resolution to do so again next year.
Thanks for the memories guys!
Games on Demand was great this year! I made a point to at least stop by every day, and actually did the bulk of my gaming in there over the course of the con. It’s excellent for trying out things you haven’t played before, and meeting new folks and playing with people you wouldn’t have met otherwise.
The only downside was that the room did get a bit noisy sometimes – there’s so much awesome stuff happening in a relatively small space, all at once! There were a few points during some of our games that some of the more soft-spoken players were having a hard time being heard. Other than that minor point, though, thumbs up all around, and gigantic props to everyone that helped make it happen!
I ran the Trail of Cthulhu game on Friday morning. We ran for a slot and a half.
You guys did great!
At least one of the Don’t Rest Your Head games was run by me, Dave M, with 4 players. Probably the Saturday one. Now I’m curious who ran on Thursday…