The Museum of Inuit Art...

If you live in or are near the Toronto area this spring, I might recommend visiting the Museum of Inuit Art near the harbour front.  On their blog they are discussing an upcoming exhibit on the Art of Play which will include traditional Arctic gaming and also some non-Inuit exhibits, including modern board games such as Fleet.

I managed to see the exhibit on ancient Chinese gaming in the ROM last year and it was fantastic.  I'll definitely be catching this one... and taking pictures, too, if they'll let me!

(Tipped from BGGNews...)

Game design camp!

If you're in the Toronto area this coming weekend, you should probably try to check out Gamercamp Lv. 3.  Although it looks catered more to video game design, there is a board game jam session on the Friday where a bunch of people get together and create board games on the fly.  Awesome.

Man, I wish I had this Friday off work!

Gaming at FanExpo 2011...

So I spent last weekend at Canada's biggest comics, horror, fantasy, film, media, (insert obsession), and gaming convention.  Almost every year my very talented partner sells his beautifully spooky artwork there and I usually stand behind the table all weekend and help him out.

It was nice to see a bigger and much more organized board gaming section this year and what looked like organized game tourneys all weekend.  Steve Jackson Games even had a booth set up in the games room!

The games library provided by Snakes and Lattes

Epic connect four.....   Still totally solved.

The games room.  Packed.



Gifts for the dog-sitter and extended family.  (Laura, don't show the kids!)



Vince and his booth of artwork where I spent most of the weekend

Seems like FanExpo is quickly becoming one of the top Con's in North America.  Hopefully the hobby gaming section will continue to grow as fast as the convention!

Games at FanExpo...

Spent the last weekend in Toronto surrounded by superheroes, anime characters, and serial killers. I must say it was pretty surreal working a booth at FanExpo. It was a crazy busy weekend but I did a chance to take a couple pictures and check out the gaming section.

Our booth selling Vince's artwork in the Festival of Fear section.

Board games piled upon board games in the gaming section.

More games sponsored by the Toronto Area Boardgaming Society.

Looked to me like the board games section was also sponsored by Fun Games Cafe out of Mississauga, Ontario. I sadly was so busy at our booth that I didn't get a chance to actually play any games this weekend. I did, however, pick up a copy of Z-Man Games' Endeavour at quite the cheap price from the Fun Games Cafe booth. This game has been a huge hit at the latest conventions including GenCon and has been likened to Puerto Rico and Goa. I am very excited to play and review this one for you very soon...

FanExpo in Toronto...

This weekend I will be working at FanExpo at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in downtown Toronto. It is an enormous sci-fi, fantasy, horror, comic, and video gaming convention. Total geekfest. My partner is a graphic artist so we will be selling shirts and prints in the Festival of Fear section. If you're curious, you can check out his blog here and artwork here.

Why am I writing this in my "gaming" blog? Well, there is a HUGE board gaming section! Lots of game retailers everywhere to find obsure copies of things and an open game section run by the Toronto Gamers, I think, where you can play to your heart's content. I'm hoping I can sneak away from the booth for a game or two....

If you're at the convention, stop by and say hello!