From Dungeons & Dragons to Magic: The Gathering — and even Monopoly — tabletop gaming is an integral part of fandom culture.
To celebrate all that goes into the tabletop gaming experience, San Diego’s Comic-Con Museum is hosting a free, two-day, virtual conference on June 5-6 through the Comic-Con Museum YouTube channel. Fans can look forward to chatting up tabletop gaming developers and designers alongside fellow enthusiasts, or even pitching their own game ideas to a panel of industry experts!
Some of the special guest speakers include B Dave Walters (lead developer at Into the Motherlands RPG), Ivan Van Norman (head of development at Darrington Press), Gabe Hicks (game designer at Roll20), Eric Lang (game designer at Marvel United), and Tanya Thompson (director of global product acquisitions at Hasbro), among others. They will cover topics ranging from the creation of play patterns, artwork, and graphics to how tabletop games are tested and improved before publication. The panels will also feature discussions of marketing and media in the tabletop game space, as well as how players and publishers can identify the hottest upcoming games.
For an even more enriching conference experience, D4 is offering the “Game Pitch Review” for established and aspiring game creators to pitch their tabletop concepts and designs to panelist experts. The experts will then provide feedback on the game itself and the quality of the pitch to help creators make their proper break in the industry. A fan’s idea could be the blueprint for the next biggest tabletop game — it’s history in the making, people!
The Comic-Con Museum’s physical location in Balboa Park, San Diego, has not officially opened yet, but it has plenty of virtual events in store for fans in the meantime. Once open, the museum will feature 25,000 square feet of space for rotating exhibits, including a year-round schedule of programs and experiences such as creator meet-and-greets, watch parties, eSports events, cosplay shows, and more.
For more information about the d4 Tabletop Creative Conference, and to register for the Game Pitch Review, click here. Fans can check out the event’s full programming schedule here.
