Gen Con 2026 Most Anticipated!

0:00 Welcome to the new MVM set.

0:03 In progress.

0:04 Yes, it's very much in progress. We're sorting through things. We've got games stacked up in front of us. None of these games, or very few of them, are going to be at Gen Con. But today we're going to talk about a lot of the things that we're anticipating from Gen Con. Not only the games, but some of the events. Uh and we thought we'd take our first MVM field trip. Ryan and I are going to go downtown Indianapolis, show you a few of the sites, and along the way we're going to talk about some of our most anticipated things for this year's Gen Con.

0:30 Yeah, let's go.

0:31 Of course, living in Indianapolis does have its conveniences for Gen Con. We don't have to get a hotel downtown, necessarily. But it does mean we have a bit of a drive each day. Uh sometimes there can be traffic, but it gives you time to think about all of what the day holds, all of the games that you're going to play. And of course, Gen Con is about the games first and foremost. We might meet old friends we haven't seen from across the country, play old games. We're going to be demoing games that aren't even out yet. And of course, all the games that are for sale at Gen Con.

1:05 Now, some of these games come as surprises to us, but some we've known about for a while. Like the first one I want to talk about today, I actually got to go hands-on with this game at Gamma. And this is the standalone expansion to Tag Team called Arthur's Legacy. This is six new characters for Tag Team, which is a game David and I loved, a two-player auto battler. But now, we're bringing characters inspired by Arthurian mythology. Like even Excalibur, Merlin. You can mix and match these characters with the old ones, or just play right out of this box.

1:38 The next game is one that I've been looking forward to for quite some time, at least since Gamma of this year. And that is Drilers from CGE. This has some Lost Ruins of Arnak vibes, but it is a deck builder that involves multi-use cards. So you're going to be using your cards that kind of feel a little clankish as well. So, there's going to be a lot of other games that I think this thing pulls from, but the whole idea is that you're going down, drilling down, collecting resources, buying more cards to help you do those things. A lot of engine building going on. And this has kind of become the kind of game I associate with CGE, and it just looks amazing, and the miniatures in this thing also look amazing. This is probably my number one game that I'm looking forward to.

2:25 Okay, well, if you want to talk about most anticipated, I'm going to cheat a little bit because it's a game that I worked on. This is War of the Dragon Wheel of Time. Dire Wolf is going to have demos available for this game at Gen Con. Uh but shameless plug aside, I'm actually also looking forward to Dune Conspiracy. Huge Dune Imperium fan. They're timing the release of this game with the third movie coming out later this year, but we're going to get to go hands-on with the game at Gen Con.

2:52 And to see any of the games we've talked about or some of the ones that we haven't yet talked about, you're going to have to navigate downtown Indianapolis. You're going to have to navigate the convention center. Uh there is some construction going on, and as of filming right now, we actually took a look in the convention hall. It is empty. This is the biggest space I've ever seen. Uh it's going to look very different. Uh but like I said, there will be a Gen Con map to help you navigate even that.

3:19 So, we've navigated our way through the construction to a very popular Gen Con stop, and that's Steak 'n Shake. But there are so many great restaurants. Honestly, the food is one of the things I'm most anticipating about Gen Con. We've got places like Harry and Izzy's, St. Elmo. We've got Hotbox, which always does their special Gen Con pizza. And then we've got the Gen Con block party, which has a ton of food trucks, including my favorite, Cupzilla, which I will be eating probably two or three times during Gen Con.

3:47 So, now that we are fueled up again uh with some food, we have a few more games to talk about and a few other things to look forward to at Gen Con. One of the games that I'm really looking forward to, as well, is Entropy. Now, we've had a chance to play this. We've had Entropy for a while, uh but they did a pre-order and they had the option to pick up your game

4:09 Yeah.

4:10 at Gen Con.

4:10 I love I love that option.

4:12 It's a sweet option. I think almost every publisher with a Gen Con release should consider this, unless you're doing one of those like shadow drop type type of things. But, we have a whole video on this if you want to take a look at it, but Entropy is I thought a medium-weight game. Ryan said he was surprised that I liked it so much because it was heavyweight.

4:31 I would say heavier than maybe you normally play. It's heavier.

4:35 it's slightly heavier, but what I will say, regardless of its weight, is that it is a refreshing Euro with a lot of beautiful color, with a lot of beautiful design, and a theme that felt like you're effectively cultivating new planets and solar systems.

4:50 Very cool.

4:50 That felt, I don't know. We haven't gone there too much in Euros, but take a look for that. I don't know if they're going to have like extra copies or if you had to pre-order it.

5:01 a good question.

5:02 But, definitely go check it out. They'll definitely be demoing it, for sure.

5:06 Yeah, and I want to talk about mythologies because this is one that strikes me. I mean, it's on the mind. We got Odyssey out in theaters right now. Like, this whole idea of these big mythologies, and I've been a mythology fan my whole life. So, the fact that this game is letting you pick you pick four different mythologies. So, the game comes with a bunch of different like pantheons, and you choose four. So, every game you're going to have access to different cards.

5:28 Oh, one of those.

5:29 So, right. So, you're choosing four of these sets of cards, and you're playing with just with those, and you're drafting those cards, you're putting them into like kind of your pantheon and triggering, you know, it a little bit like Veil of Eternity vibes. Heavier heavier, but just the way that

5:42 trying to lure me into it now?

5:43 I am a little bit trying to lure you into it, but I but appeals to me. The fact that you're have this engine builder or these cards that are triggering off each other, but the fact that every time you go into the game, you're using the different sets of mythologies, so you're going to have different sets of combos.

5:56 Did you remember Citizens of the Spark?

5:58 Yeah, a little kind Yeah, I do. Yeah.

5:59 you're choosing and putting

6:00 a I think a bit on the heavier side compared to Citizens of the Spark. This is more of a Euro style game.

6:05 This did look good. I took a look at the video uh Rado did I think a play through of it.

6:10 top 10 for him.

6:11 Yeah, I mean Rado likes a lot of things, but like I can tell the tone of his voice that he really likes this one. I will say this. We haven't played it. We do have a copy of it now. Uh but the box is one of the best boxes right now in board games.

6:25 You love those white boxes.

6:27 Oh, I love that stuff. I love a stark white with a cool image interrupting it. If every board came with then I wouldn't like it.

6:33 That's true. It'd be saturated.

6:35 Uh there's also some demos that we wanted to talk about. Uh I don't think any of these are purchasable.

6:42 No, I did I talked about Dune Conspiracy, which is one I'm really excited about demoing. Um I'm also really excited about demoing that Kingdom Come Deliverance.

6:50 If we can get a demo of that, I would love it. They just announced this. If you're not familiar, Kingdom Come Deliverance. This is from Vlada and Thomas Holik who was on a tear last year and Vlada you know Mage Knight. In fact, I'd be shocked if this didn't have at least some Mage Knight type vibes to it.

7:08 I'm sure it has a little bit.

7:10 bit. This is what looks to be a wildly open world sandbox game. Um the mechanics I don't know we don't know too much about it, but it looks really good. They made a giant and massive uh announcement for it with some teaser videos with the two of them. Uh and then a full-blown trailer and then I think both of them played through a little bit of it to show people what it was It was great great presentation. So, I think everyone in the industry is looking forward to this thing. I don't think this is It is just demo cuz I think it's going to be potentially available for pick up at Essen.

7:43 Oh, real Oh, that quick even?

7:45 Yeah, I think this is coming this year.

7:46 Wow.

7:47 I I believe. I don't think they're running a crowdfunding. I think this is just like announcement and then it's going to be available. I could be wrong about that. I'm sure everyone's shouting at me in the comments.

7:56 should have it available at the demo.

7:58 Yeah. Uh now this one uh the next one You know what? We totally forgot about this. This isn't a demo. Although I'm sure you can demo it. It's Flip Tunes.

8:05 Oh, Flip Tunes season 2.

8:07 Season 2. Uh Flip Tunes Was that just last year?

8:09 I think it might I think it was last year.

8:12 Let us know in the comments. Was it last year or the year before?

8:14 together at a certain point.

8:16 Flip Tunes took people by surprise. It came out of the It came out of the Gen Con. Everyone was loving it. Everyone still loves it. I think it's played quite a bit on BGA.

8:26 I'm always in a BGA game.

8:27 Uh and this is effectively season 2. Uh it's stand-alone, right? It's not just an expansion.

8:32 It is It is stand-alone. There's rules to mix and match. It is already on BGA, so I've been playing season 2 quite a bit.

8:38 on BGA.

8:39 Pretty fresh on BGA, yeah, just within the last week or so. And it's just completely new set of cards, new set of starter cards, so some new strategies and things like that. But still the Flip Tunes that you love. It It doesn't complicate the game. It just adds a ton of new cards.

8:52 Any other demos?

8:53 Uh so there's one for a friend of the channel, guy that we love so much, John D. Clair has a new game. Yeah.

8:59 I I've had I've had enough of him.

9:01 I don't think I ever heard hear you say that.

9:03 I I If if we want quality designers on this No, I'm kidding. I love John.

9:08 is an all-star, and so he's got a new game Electrify.

9:11 Electrify. This looks really cool. From AEG, no surprise there.

9:14 Yeah, right. Although he does stuff with other companies.

9:16 he does a prolific amount of stuff. He did that Mistborn deck-building game.

9:19 Yeah. So yeah, this one looks unique and interesting. I can't remember the name of the game. There's something Empires that he did recently.

9:27 Oh, yeah.

9:27 Visually, there were some things going on that I made me wonder whether or not there's some some similar mechanics going on here. But we're always on board to check out what John's got going on. And yeah, this one will be demo only. I assume you'll be able to demo it at the AEG booth, but I'm not really 100% sure.

9:46 Yeah, I supposedly it will be there in demo form. I mean, there's always a ton of great demos, and we do have Essen right around the corner. So, some of these games that we're demoing might be coming out at Essen.

9:54 And they have their big game night, too.

9:56 Oh, they do. Big game night this year is supposed to be huge.

9:59 Oh, really?

9:59 Yeah.

10:00 Okay. They'll probably have it there.

10:02 They'll they'll probably have it there. And I'm I'm always excited to see what they have in those big game night boxes. I'm we're big AEG fans. Uh anything else you want to demo while you're there?

10:09 I don't have any other demos on my list. What about you?

10:12 want to talk about So, for those who don't know, David and I both over the past year have started jobs, you know, more in the board game industry on the side of things. So, like I I want to talk about these games because I am excited about them and because people are loving them, but I I want to talk about size-wise. And I I do I work for Game Head. I do marketing for Game Head. Um but even if I didn't, this is a party game that I'm just I'm really excited about. A lot of reviewers out there are really excited about it. It's been on a lot of most anticipated Gen Con list. So, I feel conflicted talking too much about it because I do work for them, but this is Scott Brady's new game, and he's like a master of party games.

10:47 Yeah, in the future, you should talk about the Asmodee stuff.

10:50 That's what I should do.

10:51 And I should talk about the Game Head stuff. Um and like I said, we like Ryan just said, we don't want to often blur the lines between what we do out here and what we do in our other jobs that are also in the game industry. But with that said,

11:04 Right.

11:06 my plug, and genuine plug as well. And speaking of demos, like Ryan said,

11:10 Ask you about that.

11:11 demoing at the Asmodee booth in our little crowdfunding corner. We're going to have Zombicide: Dead of Winter Tales.

11:17 was hoping it would be here.

11:18 So, you'll be able to play the most recent Zombicide that we had on crowdfunding, which is really exciting. And then we also have Squid Game expansion for Zombicide. You can demo it and if I'm correct, there will be copies of that for sale here at Gen Con. Um, but both of those will be demoable, if you will, uh, at the Asmodee booth. I want to say 817. If I'm wrong If I'm wrong, I've put text below, so follow that. Um, but yeah, other than that, uh, and then thank you for allowing us to shamelessly plug those things. Uh, and speaking of shameless plugs, uh, we have an MVM plug that we want to do.

12:04 Uh, the last few years we've had an event. This started, what, four or five years ago, maybe?

12:09 with just a dinner.

12:11 And it was just a dinner. A A very hot dinner at Buca di Beppo.

12:14 Yeah, I think our first one was Buca di Beppo.

12:16 our second one, I think, was also at Buca di Beppo, but the air conditioning was working.

12:20 we did

12:21 And then we did one at Rathskeller, and that was also hot again.

12:25 Like, it was legendarily hot. I'm still I still hear about this from people every year. But the last three two years, and then this year as well, we've had a nice event space. Uh, and we're going back to the same event space for our 10th anniversary Gen Con celebration.

12:42 that it's been 10 years of MVM coming to Gen Con.

12:45 MVM has been around for 10 years, and that means that this is our 10th Gen Con as MVM, which is pretty exciting. The channel has gone through lots of different changes. We'll probably have some changes, you know, even going forward to the kind of thing

12:59 but our new set that we're building, doing a lot of stuff this 10th year.

13:03 Anyway, if you're going to Gen Con Saturday night, from 7:00 to 11:00, and I'll have the details. There's a link down below in the description of this video that has all the details. Uh, there are tickets available. We did open it up a little bit more this year to allow more people to come. So, there are still tickets available. We've got pizza. We've got prizes. And we've got about four hours of just hanging out, playing games, having a blast. Last year was such a good time.

13:31 year was a blast. We had a lot of good giveaways and we're still doing working out some of the details, but some of the games that we've even talked about at the list will be there to be playable potentially in in some version. One that I'm really excited about I didn't mention this, but but it's going to be there is Galactic Cruise Excursions. So, they'll actually have if you're dying to get your hands on Galactic Cruise Excursions, they will be there with a copy for you guys to demo.

13:55 To demo.

13:56 During the event.

13:56 We're not giving away Galactic Cruise Excursions.

13:58 I can't give that away yet. It's not out yet, but

14:01 I don't want to irate people in the comments.

14:02 No, no, no, it's to be there to see and to play for the I think like the first time for a lot of people to get their hands on it. So, I'm very excited about that.

14:09 Yeah, the event is genuinely is a lot of fun. We couldn't have been happier with it over the last couple years and last year in particular. We've got the same place. So, join us. Go down, check out those details, and come there. And if you're not coming to Gen Con, we'll have some content up, but we probably won't kill ourselves this year during the show getting a lot of content. We might do some shorts here and there, but no significant thing. We'll wait until after Gen Con and then come back with kind of a Gen Con thing.

14:39 a on a cool brand new 10th anniversary set.

14:42 If we have it built in time.

14:44 haven't built it in time.

14:44 It's really it's coming around the corner and you saw it earlier. It's not at all built. So, we've got a lot of construction to do. But anyway, until then, until you go to your first Gen Con, until you see us at the event, make sure everyone has fun at the table and at our party, and hopefully we'll see you there.