Words by David C. Obenour
Gen Con | July 31 – August 3, 2025 | Indiana Convention Center & Surrounding Area
Sold out events with full table of gamers beside full table of gamers. An impossibly large exhibitor hall that still manages to be messenger-bag-shoulder to backpack-shoulders. A massive balloon sculpture. Cardhalla. All of this can mean only one thing: Gen Con is back with four of the most overwhelmingly exciting days of gaming this side of the Atlantic! With so much to get into, here is part one of the games we were able to experience this year.
Mystic Curling Club (Asmadi Games)
Quidditch isn’t the only extracurricular available to aspiring witches and their familiars. Coming soon to Kickstarter, grab your broom and head out to the rink for a quick match of mystic curling! Played in under a half hour, players slide, flick, or roll their 12-sided dice stones into the scoring rings – but also there’s meddling magic, coming in different forms from each of the Club’s participating wizards.
Happy Mochi (Zygomatic)
Uno con duo? A quick, fun, and delightfully illustrated and themed little card game, Happy Mochi pits players in a race of discarding pairs of increasingly higher (or when reversed, lower) numbered cards. However, Mochi are sticky so after you put a new card into your hand you can’t change the order! With a few other twists to the rules, it’s light-hearted and heavy-tummied good times.
Chit Chat (Helvetiq)
The concept is simple. Flip a card with a number on it. Draw a question card with a quantitative answer – place it as either to the left (more) or right (less) of the number. Draw another question, now where does that fit? Draw another – discuss again, placing it on the spectrum. Keep going like this and realize that Chit Chat has rather simply and cleverly gotten you and your friends doing just that!
Scream! (Bézier Games)
Having just cleared out all the forest critters from Scram! you return to your campsite only to find a new game with decidedly eerier intruders. Starting with a handful of horrors, players arrange cards facedown – unable to look at these after the initial layout. Turns are taken drawing blindly and openly, using abilities, bluffing and challenging, and doing your best to have the least terrifying campsite at the time of the Scream! and end of the game.
Food Fight: Reheated! (Cryptozoic Games)
Food Fight is an open drafting battle of the bulge where players serve up meal after meal of delicious devastation. Alright, let’s 86 the wordplay and just get to it. Originally released in 2011, our gaming group has long enjoyed this game that seemed to allude the broader fanbase of the (also awesome) Battle Wizards. Hopefully these reheated leftovers bring more hungry gamers to the table. Looks like wordplay is back on the menu, boys!
Dying Message (Oink)
Arriving on the crime scene, you and your fellow investigators discover a cryptic message scrawled next to the body – can you use it to identify the murderer? With a deck of suspects and their own backstories, and a deck of symbols and squiggles to be thoughtfully arranged by the now-departed – it’s on you to help them find their peace! With a similar gameplay to Mysterium or Dixit, Dying Message makes for shorter rounds and more sharing of the clue giver role.
12 Rivers (Good Games Publishing)
Sitting down to play 12 Rivers, the first time the mountain gate opened – unleashing a flood of marbles down their winding river paths – someone joked, “and you just sold four copies of the game!” and he wasn’t far off! Gimmick or trick sound like negative descriptions – and yes – a slanted board with marbles at the top is a little gimmicky. But it’s also a lot of fun and an excitingly inventive method of randomizing for a mid-weight worker placement game.
Inkwell (DVC Games)
Before Gutenberg forever changed the written word through his brutalist-styled printing press, monks would painstakingly and reverently create illustrious manuscripts complete with gold leaf and ornate calligraphy. Under the watchful eye – and strained patience – of the abbot, Inkwell returns you to these abbeys as you utilize the supplies and techniques at your disposal before having to turn the page.
Death to the Wizard Kings! (self-released)
No gods. No masters. No idea what’s next! In this gaming mix of graphic novel and self-directed RPG, you’re an insignificant spawn that rose up and dethroned your overlord. But it turns out that was only the start of your adventure! Creator of the dark world of Casket Lands, I’m excited to see what Marie Enger has in store for us in this inventive and immersive roleplay read-along.
3-2-1 Countdown (Grandpa Beck’s Games)
Blastoff with shiny technicolor retro-modernism and classic playing card fun for 3-2-1 Countdown. Featuring streamlined rules and fun elements of deduction and bluffing, players take turns of playing single and sets of cards to get the lowest valued hand. When confident (enough) they’ve achieved that, it’s time to declare “countdown” in 3… 2… 1…
Lightning Train (Dire Wolf)
The staying power of train games might be even stronger than that of freight rail itself! In Lightning Train, players build networks across America to ship goods from source to station. Only getting a short description from the publisher, the main appeal seems centered on combining the popular gameplay of Ticket to Ride and Quacks – which did sound strategically fun – though maybe not strongly thematic. Are you all aboard?
Orbital Blues (SoulMuppet Publishing)
Welcome to the new rebel era. A time of bounty hunters and lawlessness. When the only things you can count on are the weapons at your sides, your ship, and your crew. At least, as long as you’ve treated them all alright. A science fiction RPG, Orbital Blues is every bit as set in the far reaches of the galaxy as it is indebted to the wild west and soundtracked to cassettes and bebop. In a word, cool. In two words, cool fun. See you, space cowboy.
Memento Mori (Two Little Mice)
Europe in 1347 presented terror unlike any other known to those that were forced to experience it. The Black Death was spreading to every corner of the continent, bringing with it an awareness of fear and mortality to all class levels of society. No one was safe. Reason had failed and so had privilege. Existing as part of a small group of drifters, you have already been exposed to these anthropomystic dark creatures. Each passing day makes you more like them and less like yourself. Will you be able to hold on?
Canvas (Tycoon Games)
Literally layering on the elements, in Canvas players stack transparent cards onto their paintings, creating entries for an art competition. As in all art, there is nothing new under the sun, however Canvas takes established gaming mechanics and implements them with immersive components and clever design. Icons, colors, and even titles overlap one another for scoring and narrative purposes. Attracting the eyes of critics and fans alike, a number of new expansions now continue to introduce new inspiration and movements.
And that’s the first of the games that we played at this year’s Gen Con! Be sure to check back in for more coverage and head over to our gaming section to see our other interviews and features!