by W. Eric Martin

Gen Con 2025 took place in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. from July 31 to August 3, and the show delivered a discordant experience in which everyone I spoke with seemed to feel that few of the newly released games were blowing up their kilt, while at the same time you saw lines everywhere you looked, with most people weighed down by newly acquired treasures.

Attendees, especially those visiting from outside the United States, asked whether tariffs had thwarted the availability of new releases, yet for the most part publishers were loaded up with titles for the majority of the show, with Lightning Train and 12 Rivers being notable early sellouts.

Some publishers had flown in new titles, most likely breaking even on each item sold, but hoping the buzz would pay marketing dividends down the road...although some risk the buzz petering out before the main shipment arrives.

MindWare, for example, had one hundred copies of Qwirkle Flex on hand, with five hundred more due shortly and likely to be sold online through its own store in order to ensure a decent margin after tariff costs. As for the main shipment, well, who knows what will happen with the tariff rate for goods imported from China — 34% as of today's post — after August 12? Maybe importing those copies will never make sense; maybe MindWare will open a Canadian warehouse and offer customers a free order of poutine should they pick up their order in person.

One Canadian publisher lamented the double hit of tariffs they're suffering, paying for goods going from Canada to the U.S. and from the U.S. to Canada, whereas before this non-productive tariff madness started the bidirectional tariff was 0%. You, the customer, will end up paying this tariff one way or another, whether through higher costs, lower-quality production, or worse service. Some publishers shrank their booths in the months ahead of Gen Con 2025; one cancelled a secondary room to (in essence) recover funds spent on tariffs.

The only direct hit on a game's availability I'm aware of happened to Portal Games' debut of Age of Galaxy, despite Portal having scheduled the game for an arrival in early June 2025. One delay after another kept piling on — for eleven weeks! — which left Portal handing out a "free shipping in the U.S." offer for anyone intrigued by the demo of the lone copy on hand. (I was somewhat intrigued, but also baffled; I think a playthrough is necessary to get a handle on the game's arc.)

As usual, I took hundreds of pics and wrote as many notes as I could from more than three dozen scheduled meetings and a like number of chance encounters, and I'll endeavor to post previews, release updates, and game announcements in a timely manner before the SPIEL Essen 25 info wave buries everything else. From my perspective, far too many of these announcements present an upcoming game as "more of what you love, but different", but maybe that's only because they weren't giving me more of what I love.

Only one game made me say "Oh, neat" during the demo: Blind Jack by the design team of Méra, Méra, Leclercq, and Turrière and French publisher Bandjo, with Blue Orange Games bringing it out in English.

Each player or team receives two trivia cards for their starting hand, with each card having a numerical answer from 0-10. You're then presented with a new card and either hit (taking the card) or pass (stepping out of the round). Try to get a high score, without going over 21. You get to see the cards taken by all other teams, so you know where they stand in the count, but you often have only a guesstimate for your own total. I could immediately see this as an ideal title for casual play, along the lines of Wits & Wagers, but without the fussiness of ordering guesses, then trying to ensure everyone understands the betting process.

Which hand is best? And should the player on the bottom right take the "Rank of Russia" card?
I'm taking a couple of days to recover, then I'll get back to posting. If you attended Gen Con 2025, feel free to tell me how wrong I am and talk about your experience. What did I miss that got you excited?