After a few years off from con-going, it's weird to see a convention pivot so quickly. The slow, steady demise of physical media sales has seen vendors go all out on the merch. I could not find any RPG manuals from this decade nor any of the manga I meant to catch up on that month, but I could find any Funko under the sun, plus t-shirts galore. Okay, enough of my old man ranting. This show has developed a really strong how-to and advice tracks for illustration and tabletop game development with some real industry professionals; it’s a delight far beyond the by-the-numbers "Q&A with some famous people" and "all-day anime viewing" uses of conference rooms, even if they did get the whole cast of Rocky Horror back together.

But, it's not all fan stuff for me. I attend this show on a press pass and I do have to put some work in. I got a chance to speak with Robert Schwalb, late of Green Ronin currently of Shadow of the Demon Lord, and a chance to play few upcoming games including Ni No Kuni II, Far Cry 5, and Assassin’s Creed: Origins. Links to all those down below.