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Origins 2012 had a different feel to it than conventions in the past. Most importantly, it was moved back on the calendar to the start of June instead of closer to the July 4th weekend where it used to always occur. I believe that this schedule change was to try to separate it a bit from Gen Con on the calendar. I had heard from a number of different sources that this was one of the motivations behind the schedule change.
The problem with the schedule change is that I fear it was too early in the summer – well, summer doesn't even start until June 20... – for many people to attend. I know that my kids were still finishing up their school year, and they were still involved in their spring activities, namely select soccer. Many other friends of mine had similar schedule conflicts with baseball, etc. To make things worse, Origins week was also a short work week with Memorial Day, and I know of at least a few folks who were unable to take any time off of work during that week because of the recent holiday.
Having the convention occur before the real start of summer vacation made it much more difficult for me to consider bringing the whole family to the convention. As it was, I was only able to come up for a short visit on the weekend, and I had to leave the kids at home as they still had soccer and school activities. I was apparently not the only one to have such issues as it certainly appeared to me that attendance was way down from last year. Again, relying upon the local rumor mill, I heard that GAMA was estimating about a 20% drop in attendance. Based on my one day there, I'd certainly agree that the Saturday crowds looked about 20% lower...than last year's Thursday crowd.
The dealer hall was pretty much desolate. Convention goers could easily navigate the (wide) aisles of the Dealer Hall without too many traffic issues. While I was chatting with some of my friends who work for Mayfair Games, we both noted with surprise that 20% of the demo tables in the Mayfair booth were empty during the middle of Saturday afternoon. Normally, crowds surround the tables, trying to catch a game demo while standing or trying to grab the seat for the next game. There were also a number of empty booths scattered in the layout, and the central aisle used to separate groups of booths was a fairly generous swath of blue carpet, probably four to five booths in width.
The Board Room also seemed to have fewer people there, though not to the degree of the Dealer Hall. The reason for the relative attendance success of the Dealer Hall was due to lack of security/personnel. Normally, the Board Room area is reserved for Origins guests who have a paid badge; furthermore, only Board Room ribbon holders are able to check games out of the library. However, this year, no Origins volunteer stood guard at the gate to make sure that it wasn't an open area. Plenty of gamers had only a day-pass bracelet in the Board Room, and frankly, it wasn't hard to spot folks in the Board Room who had neither a badge nor a bracelet. The Columbus Area Boardgaming Society (CABS) that runs the Board Room asked for volunteer help with the badge policing, but they were apparently told that there wasn't enough staff to do that. Despite the extra crowds, there was still plenty of room for people to try out games – and the Board Room remains an unparalleled location to play games at a convention. While there weren't as many new releases at Origins this year, donations from the exhibitors made sure that Board Room Ribbon holders could borrow and try out all of the new games.
But enough of being a Debbie Downer... Despite the lower attendance (or maybe because of it), I had a great time at Origins and had a good chance to see a lot of what I was interested in during my single day there. For once, my time at the show was the limiting factor in taking in demos, instead of having to fight for space at a booth.
As far as the games go, the big theme for me was that the new games will be coming out later this summer, probably in August at Gen Con. Plenty of prototypes and printer proofs could be seen, but very few actual new relases were at Origins. It was almost as if Origins were being used to start generating summer buzz for the late summer releases. The other over-riding theme was that except for the largest publishers, everything new is being backed through Kickstarter.
Notes from some of the varied exhibitors:
Mayfair Games: Had its usual huge booth right in the center of the front row of the Dealer Hall, probably 20-25 tables total where it was showing off both old classics (Catan, etc.) as well as newer wares. Amongst the new games were the FunFair line, including Rocket Jockey and Whitewater. This new line of games is Mayfair's attempt to cross over into the mass market. Morgan D. described them as quality games meant to be played by both gamers and non-gamers. Catan Junior was also front-and-center trying to attract passersby.
Asmodee: Stefan from Asmodee had final prototypes of the summer releases Seasons and Libertalia. Both were at the booth, but Asmodee was not giving full demos of those games. Both games will have a U.S. first release at Gen Con with a European release later in 2012, possibly at Spiel. According to Stefan, this marks a change in Asmodee's scheduling as these games will be the first to be released here before they're released in Europe. At the booth, Divinare was also getting a lot of attention (and sales) as was Dixit.
FoxMind: Apparently FoxMind is the distributor of the English version of Fauna. This was happy news for me as I think Fauna is an excellent game, and I was waiting for a non-metric version of the game to be released. (Editor's note: Apparently Dale missed the Sept. 2011 news item about this game being available, with FoxMind being the publisher, not the distributor. To be fair, I've not seen this game for sale in the U.S. outside of Barnes & Noble; that said, I've also seen many curious people looking this game over at B&N, so placement only there is not necessarily a drawback. —WEM)
Soda Pop Minatures: Showing off its dungeon crawl game as well as the controversial Tentacle Bento. While TB has been taken off Kickstarter, SPM is still trying to source funding for this game through its own website (and at the booth). Super Dungeon Explore looks to be an approachable entry-level dungeon crawl with rules that are easy to learn and follow.
Cambridge Games Factory: Had a bunch of card games, including Pala and the new Glory to Rome. There were a very limited number of GtR promos available, but quantities were so low that they were reserved only for Kickstarter backers.
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Cubicle 7: A new licensed Dr. Who card game was available for viewing in final prototype form. I hadn't heard anything about this prior to showing up at Origins. The designer is none other than Martin Wallace. I got only a brief rules explanation, but it appears that you are trying to take control of different locations found on the cards. To do this, you play good characters (the Doctor and his companions) to these locations while your opponent is playing bad guys (Daleks, Cybermen, etc.) to stop you. The game is still awaiting final agreement on the license with the BBC, but this should be coming shortly. The game plays 3-4 players and should take about 15 minutes per player per game. Cubicle 7 is planning to also be at Gen Con, and if the licensing agreement is settled by then, hopefully it will be able to release the game there.
Jolly Roger Games: Still pushing Founding Fathers... As far as the new stuff goes, Jim D. did have a very interesting prototype called Family Vacation, designed by Phillip duBarry. You are trying to take your family across the U.S. to different cities while keeping all the different family members happy. I personally love travel games, and I can't wait to see this one complete. Family Vacation is likely to go up on Kickstarter soon with an anticipated release in late 2012 or early 2013. JRG is also planning to release a new version of the classic game Kremlin with some slight rules changes as well as modern politicians on the cards.
Arcane Wonders : Despite not having a finished product, Mage Wars was again one of the larger sponsors of Origins with a large booth to boot. T-shirts and other promo items were available for those who completed a demo of the game. According to Will Niebling, there is a "90-95%" chance that Mage Wars will be released at Gen Con 2012.
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Z-Man Games/Filosofia: The new edition of Goa was here. The other big news from the booth was that Filosofia/Z-Man are the new English language partners for future Hans im Glück releases. Overall, Filosofia as a company is trying to cut back on the number of releases each year, so don't expect Z-Man to put out 20-30 games in 2013 and beyond... It's unclear how the newly announced arrangement of Z-Man as the English language distributor for Hans im Glück games will affect the production schedule as well.
Rio Grande Games: Rio didn't have a booth in the dealer hall, but its game demo area was better located than in the past. All of its recent releases were available here, and Jay continued to provide the occasional food and drink table for guests of his area. FunSockets also were in this area, showing off their new implementation of Dominion. This will be a cross-platform release, coded in HTML5, which will have AI play as well as allowing players across the Internet to play each other. Beta-testing is to start soon on this project. And while RGG doesn't sell its own games at U.S. game shows, a few retailers in the Dealer Hall were offering some seriously cut-rate prices on RGG/Hans im Glück games including Carcassonne and the expansions.
Stronghold Games: It had the new release of Survive with the typical beautiful components. No news *yet* on upcoming releases... I'm guessing that Stephen B. is holding out to give the news to Eric Martin in a later publisher piece here.
Queen Games: Once again, Queen was there trying to carve out its role in the American market. Kingdom Builder was the focal point of its booth, and all of the signage pointed to the recent nomination of KB for the Spiel des Jahres in Germany.
Dice Hate Me Games: Three new games coming out in the near future, including Compounded, a game about making chemical compounds that piqued my interest as I was a Chem major in college. VivaJava is nearing completion, and this "social" game of coffee-making should be out soon. The art looks wonderful, and there aren't many games out now that comfortably hold eight players. Chris from Dice Hate Me said that two-player rules are also in development, but they won't be released until they can be fully tested.
Irondie: This Italian game which first came out a few years ago has a new American distributor. The game is still pricey at $35/starter set, but I had a chance to play a few games, and it is actually a pretty interesting little game. They are hoping to gain more exposure by getting some booth space at Gen Con as well.
Game Salute: The final booth that I'll cover is the Game Salute area which was a huge area set aside for the smaller or self-published games. Game Salute, run by Dan Yarrington, is kind of a brand name for the self-published (Kickstarted) world of games.
According to its website, the advantage for designers is that Game Salute will take care of art, graphic design, production and printing, convention support, promotion, sales, all the elements of sales, fulfillment, marketing, etc. For publishers, Game Salute can provide most of the infrastructure needed to print and distribute a game while possibly providing some economy of scale as well. Finally, for consumers, the Game Salute label should make you feel comfortable that the new game you're looking at has been vetted by professionals and produced with professional standards.
There were plenty of new games and new companies using the space in the Game Salute area. Among them were:
-----• Asmadi Games – Fealty, FlowerFall
-----• Conquistador Games – Road to Enlightement
-----• Red Raven Games – Empires of the Void
-----• Stratus Games – DiceAFARI, Eruption
-----• GreenBrier Games – Zpocalypse
The Game Salute area was pretty crowded throughout the course of the fair, and according to Mr. Yarrington, plenty of people were pitching new games to join the Game Salute family.
Well, that's about all I could see in a single day at Origins, and if I missed some booths it'll have to wait until Gen Con! For the pictures from the fair, see my photo essay on the Opinionated Gamers.
Until your next appointment,
The Gaming Doctor
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