Feeling a bit jet-lagged this morning after a marathon train journey back from the con. Very happy with going though – I’d not miss it. My head’s still buzzing with all the stuff I saw, all the people I spoke to, and all the new games I played, rummaged through, bought, and planned myself (worked out the bones of 3 new dice games on the way home). Lots of cool stuff and interesting ideas.
I did manage a small haul of shiny toys, which I’ll look at later. Not a silly amount, but enough to make my bags a lot heavier on the way back.
Despite some technical problems (90 minutes of MP4 interviews corrupted), I can remember enough to flag up some interesting new companies, products and possibilities. New to me, at least.
That last point is interesting though. The UK Game Expo is big enough for everyone to have a different experience. Even after 3 days I was still finding new stuff I’d missed earlier, and I spent most of those 3 days in the trade hall. There were several games I meant to get back to, or to play demos of, and which I never squeezed in. Of course, I also spent a lot of time networking, gabbling to old friends, making new ones, and that’s part of the fun too. It’s a very friendly atmosphere with lots of smiling faces – even when I sat down for a bite to eat I ended up in a long conversation with some random gamers, swapping stories of old role-playing adventures.
Good old Cthulhu does bring people together 🙂
Quirkworthy 
Ah one of my friends was pimping his roleplaying game there. Won’t plug it here – that feels a bit rude but small world and all that.
I bumped into all sorts of people I knew, some of whom I hadn’t seen for years. Gaming is a relatively small world 🙂
I kept an eye out for you but never mind. Had a brilliant day on saturday and will definitely be back next year. I can’t believe this was their first year using Hall 1, it looked so well organised and i can’t imagine all that crammed into just the Hilton!
It was very cosy at the Hilton. Even with the extra thousands of visitors, there was a bit more space to move about in the NEC, which worked well.
I wish I could have made it, but all three days managed to clash with prior commitments this year.
Did you happen to catch Chris Nicholls of Macrocosm demonstrating the “Ballmonsters!” game? Chris is developing the minis and I’m struggling to keep up by supplying him with rules for them. Very silly fun.
I played Chris at Ballmonsters, and even remembered to take some photos. Will go through that game later this week.
Excellent, great fun project.