FallCon - A Cornucopia of Gaming

I'm just putting the final touches on my FallCon 24 to-do items before moving on to next year's business and one of those to-dos is announcing winners of a couple promotions we were running.

First off, I'm happy to announce the winner of our 2011 survey draw: Julie Imbach. Julie's won a $100 gift certificate at the retailer of her choice. Julie we'd love to hear what you ended up buying with your gift certificates! Thanks to everyone who sent in their feedback. We'll be combing your responses with a fine toothed comb this month to figure out how to make FallCon 25 something truly worth celebrating.

Next up are the winners of the RPG-to-Boardgames cross-over promotion. In early August, I invited folks to email me if they were into RPGs and boardgames. Those that did stood a chance of winning one of several new D&D books and game add-ons. Without further ado, here are the winners:

• Andrew Crowe: D&D 4th Edition Rules Compendium
• Diane Quan: D&D Heroes of the Fallen Lands
• David Bligh: D&D Heroes of Shadow
• Jason Sallay: D&D The Shadowfell - Roleplaying Game Supplement
• Shane Dalager: D&D Dungeon City Tiles: The City

Send me an email to claim your winnings!

Jasen

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For those of you who weren't at our awards ceremony on Saturday, let me share with you the 2012 Canadian Game Design Award winner: Matt Tolman for his design, Undermining.

Matt got an early birthday present and seemed to be floating on air for the rest of the con. He's now in Essen proudly demoing Undermining at the Z-Man booth while sporting the CGDA logo on a t-shirt. Congrats Matt - best of luck in Essen and we look forward to hearing how things went in Germany.

While we're on the topic of the CGDA, Valley Games flew in an advance copy of Octopus' Garden just for FallCon and I saw it played a number of times at the convention. The production is truly top notch and the game play is just as I remembered it last year when we played it during the final eval. It's a great family game that I would heartily recommend.

We have now received 50 advance copies in Calgary which we're making available for $35. These advance copies will come with the Diver expansion, 4 extra tokens that you can mix in with the other tiles. When you buy them from the market they clean up the garbage in your garden but also pocket the relics (those greedy divers!). If you're interested in picking up a copy 1 or 2 months in advance of your local retailers, send me an email. I'll have them ready for pickup at my place in the Calgary NW or downtown as of Friday this week.

I know I'll be picking up a couple copies myself. These are the perfect family holiday gift!

Jasen

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Well today's the day: FallCon officially starts at 5:30pm this afternoon. Looking forward to seeing all of you.

For those of you commuting to Commonwealth Hall via transit, I just wanted to highlight the fact that we're only a few minute walk away from the Westwinds-McKnight C-Train Station. If you've got a transit pass, simply get off at Westwinds, walk a few minutes to catch the 95 southbound on 40th St. NE, then get off when the bus makes its turn onto 52th Ave NE. You can map out your route below.

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See you in a few hours!

Jasen

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Part of the momentum seen in the expanding boardgame market has been through the delivery of boardgames via iOS devices. Apple’s iPad has proven to be the first mobile device that can truly provide a real board gaming experience. The screen is large enough, and the picture is crisp enough, to be viewed by groups of people sitting around a table. The iPad also improves gameplay by managing the minutiae of piece management and rule application, freeing the players to focus on strategies, interactions and the joy of the game.  In short, gamers can play what they want, when they want, and finish an entire game in the time they might otherwise spend trying to find that missing card or pawn!

Unbeknown to many in town, we have our own development and iOS publishing house right here in Calgary. I invited Chris and Graham from Codito and Sage Board Games to attend this year so they could showcase some of their iPad games in the Open Gaming area. Sage Board Games has licensed and is publishing an upcoming “who’s who” of board games being developed for iPad, iPhone, and iTouch by Codito Development Inc. To date, they have published Reiner Knizia's "Medici" and "Ra", as well as Wolfgang Kramer's "Tikal".  All of these are currently on sale at the time of this blogpost. They also developed Andreas Seyfarth's "Puerto Rico" for Ravensburger Digital. Next up on the development list: Tigris & Euphrates, Le Havre, Through the Ages. I know I can't wait for those to come out! 

So come by and learn some new games from Chris and Graham on Friday night. Put that iPad to good use!

PS. To keep tabs on Sage Board Games developments, you can like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, or subscribe to their email newsletter.

Jasen

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