It's again that time of the year, Gencon time. As the old-timers know, I run a small retail operation here in Finland in the interest of making the best of indie games available here. I still haven't figured out a better logistical method than using a cat's-paw to gather games at Gencon, so that's what me and esteemed Jonathan Walton are doing again this year. Jonathan will wander the convention, collecting games I've paid for and gathering them into a large parcel feasible for sending overseas all at once.

Now, I spent far too much time yesterday contacting indie designers about their games - some were refills after we sold out their games during last winter, some were folks who published a game at last year's Gencon but managed to slip through my fingers. I generally try to retail all "good" indie games by my own criterion, to give folks here a reasonable selection of the new and the old games.

Anyway: if you're a designer with a good game and I haven't offered you a retail deal, it's either because I didn't find your game attractive (most of the time this is because I find it too conventional for my tastes) or because I don't even know it exists. That latter is something of a worry of mine in these days of Forge diaspora. Last year I was completely blindsided on many fronts - I didn't even hear about games like Primitive, Perfect, Hero's Banner or Agon before the window of opportunity closed. Of course I'm rectifying these this year, at least getting a copy for personal use if nothing else, but it would have been nice to buy the games hot off the press.

Therefore: if you have a new or low-profile "Forge-style" game and we haven't discussed retailing it, contact me. Likewise, if you know of such a game, feel free to give me a hint - I must be going blind or nobody is releasing anything new this year, except ashcans. The time around Gencon is convenient even if you're not going to be there, as Jonathan can of course take stuff by national mail and add it to his parcel as long as it hasn't shipped. If previous years are any indication the shipment probably leaves sometime in September, after folks who miss Jonathan at Gencon mail him things.

However, if you're in UK...

If, by chance, you're a designer in UK, we have a personalized shipping option for you as well. Some Collective Endeavour members will be coming to Finland for Ropecon, so it's possible to get your game to them, and that way to me. Of course, it's not that expensive to ship stuff in Europe anyway so this is not that time-critical.

Eero wrote:
If, by chance, you're a designer in UK, we have a personalized shipping option for you as well. Some Collective Endeavour members will be coming to Finland for Ropecon, so it's possible to get your game to them, and that way to me. Of course, it's not that expensive to ship stuff in Europe anyway so this is not that time-critical.

I already discussed things with that Dead of Night guy Andrew Kerrick; he's going to send some books to one of you.