Sam “King of the Hilltop”

This past weekend was the Great Plains Game Festival in Lincoln, Nebraska, and let me tell you, it was pretty awesome! You could play older games, newer games, and even unpublished games in Designer’s Row. There were play to win games, tournaments, and even just open play. It was a great time for all of Board Game Kind. I am going to recap this last weekend (in no particular order) in the hopes that if you didn’t come this year, you’ll make plans to come next year. If you are looking for board game camaraderie and just a solid 3 days of fun, this is a con you should consider.

#1) Wait…I can park my car this close!?

This was really nice to have, especially since we were actually exhibiting our game, Cult of the Deep, at the convention. There was enough for everyone to be pretty close to the front doors and people kept mentioning how nice it was to be so close. Agreed. It was nice.

#2) Oh…so this is the lost game library of Alexandria.

I know people will tell me that there are bigger game libraries out there and they would be right. However, for a con that maybe maxed out at 500 people this last weekend, it was quite extensive and varied. I was honestly quite impressed; I believe it was mentioned they had more than 1,500 board games. However, even more than that was the speed and efficiency by which they handled board game checkouts and returns. It was quick and efficient in order for people to maximize their board game playing time. Hats off to the staff of GPGF (Great Plains Game Festival). A job well done!

#3) I can’t help but feel supported and appreciated as a board game designer!

We were asked if we wanted to be a part of what is called Designer’s Row. It’s a specific row of game tables where we could essentially have a small booth like set-up to have demo games and playtesting done over the weekend. So that was very much appreciated, but they also encouraged people to come play our games by having a drawing for those who marked off a tic-tac-toe card showing our different games and businesses. We would mark off their card where our company names would be if we gave them a demo or they played our game. Now, some people were in it just for the drawing, but we had quite a few people leave impressed by our game. So much so, they signed up for our monthly newsletter. Some even came back to play the full game multiple times! Woohoo!

#4) Those were some awesome people!

We met a lot of cool people. It was great to interact with so many nice individuals who were complimentary about the whole experience but were also willing to give some honest feedback on the game. If they are reading this, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for being awesome!

Also, a shout out to our booth neighbors! Alex of Spielcraft Games and the whole motley crew of Bossy Games. Good neighbors and you should check them out if you haven’t.

Now, after all those positive things, there are a few things I would have liked to have been done differently but honestly, every con experience can be improved, whether its Gencon, Origins, or any number of other board game conventions. However, this was a fun, easy going convention, and we had a blast! So a big thank you to the staff of the Great Plains Game Festival. It was a great time.

See you next year!

Communication, It’s Important

Ed “Duke of BAzlandia”

I was unable to attend the Great Plains Game Festival. This is due to my current work schedule and distance from the convention. The physical distance between my brother and I is something that comes up over and over with the business. There are many things where the distance doesn’t really matter. However, distance dramatically effects communication and what we can and can’t do together.

Communication is always something people can work on. I don’t think it matters what activity or event I have been a part of but there can always be improvement in communication. Communication is more than just words, it is visual. It is one of the things that the internet struggles with and why so many people use emoji’s and other things to denote the intent behind the words that in a conversation you would visually be seeing if you were face to face with that person. I spend a lot of my breaks, lunches, or commute talking with my brother. Because we can’t have those face to face conversations as often as we like, it’s important we are as clear and concise as possible so we both understand what the other is communicating.

This communication is the foundation that we can build our business on. Businesses have to rely on communication between partners, consumers, manufacturers, and the list goes on. A good business is really good communication. It’s making sure everyone is on the same page on what service or product is being provided, what the value of that is, or even what expectations are between the consumer and business. It’s one of the reasons I get upset at times with a company when I buy a product. I have a certain expectation that the business will provide X. It’s when the business refuses to do X and they either explicitly stated or implied they would do X but are now refusing to. That is a problem. I usually feel like I overpaid for a product or service because I was under the impression that I was buying something I was not.

Communication is important and like the picture above, it supports everything a business does and without it, it would just collapse.

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