Pics from Gen Con 2026 II

Construction on a new hotel to the east of the Indiana Convention Center (ICC) in Indianapolis — Signia by Hilton — is blocking roads, sidewalks, and pedestrian walkways, but current plans call for the project to be finished by the end of 2026, with this hotel adding 800 rooms to the supply available for future Gen Con events, along with all of the other conventions hosted by the ICC, not to mention concerts and sporting events in nearby Lucas Oil Stadium.

The ICC is also being expanded with "new exhibit hall space, meeting rooms, and a new ballroom on the south side of the existing complex". Gen Con LLC media contact Stacia Kirby told me that the organization has not yet made plans for how to use the expanded space during Gen Con 2027 since it first has to get through this year's event, then ensure that construction will be complete before it divvies up the space.

Here's the requisite image of the crowd waiting for the exhibit hall to be opened on Thursday morning, the first day of Gen Con 2026. (Not pictured: thousands of other people elsewhere in the ICC.)

In one of the display cases in the ICC walking area, publisher Dire Wolf displayed some of the components included in Paul Dennen's Dune: Imperium – Conspiracy expansion.

Dire Wolf also displayed material for two other IP-based games: Invincible: The Hero-Building Game — Season 2, which debuted at Gen Con 2026, and War of the Dragon: The Wheel of Time, which was crowdfunded for more than US$1 million in June 2026 and which is scheduled to reach backers in mid-2027.

During one of my write-ups from Gen Con 2023, I expressed bafflement that game companies would not take advantage of long lines of people waiting to purchase Disney Lorcana by providing those waiting with an opportunity to play games...and learn about new designs available for purchase at the show.

On Wednesday, 29 July at Gen Con 2026, I got to see my wish fulfilled, with a Czech Games Edition representative showing off the newly available Codenames: Critical Role Adventures to those waiting to pick up their badges. The "Wanna play?" banner rising above the person's backpack is a nice touch as that's what first caught my eye while walking the hall.

Only after reviewing this image later did I spot the asmodee rep bearing the cigarette girl-style tray, so I'm not sure what they were demoing to folks in line, if anything.

At SPIEL Essen 25, I got an overview of Devir's line-up for 2026, but with more than a dozen titles on the Devir schedule, each individual game had to share the spotlight with others.

That's no longer the case at Gen Con 2026 as only SPIEL Essen 26 lies ahead, so now Dani Garcia's Gaudí sprawls over an entire shelf instead of having only one-third of that space. Here's the publisher's pitch:

Antoni Gaudí was a visionary Catalan architect born in 1852 who was renowned for his imaginative and distinctive style that blended Gothic and Art Nouveau influences. Players will travel through Gaudí's life and work, earning points in the three pillars that shaped his works: Nature, Catalonia, and Religion. To succeed, players must keep their progress balanced as only their two lowest scores among the three pillars will count toward final scoring.

Players gain points by playing cards and placing "Trencadís" tiles on their personal boards. "Trencadís" is a Catalan word that means "a lot of little broken things". While playing, you’ll discover some of these intricate details depicted on the cards and experience the creative joy of arranging your own trencadís patterns on your personal board.

The game unfolds over three rounds. In each round, players take turns moving around the central chandelier on the main board, drawing cards, and collecting various types of Trencadís tiles. These resources are used to play cards and progress up the pillars on their personal boards. Each pillar awards points differently: Nature points are mainly earned through cards, Catalonia points are mostly scored at the end of each round, and Religion points are primarily tallied at the end of the game.

Shugendo, a co-design by Alessandro Cuneo and Simone Luciani, is the latest title in Devir's "Kemushi Saga" line of games. The game features press-your-luck elements from in which you play cards to build a community with farms, wells, and other elements while trying to avoid seeing too many yōkai.

David Bernal's Níjar is from Spanish publisher Perro Loko Games, which attracted a lot of attention in 2025 for Orloj, and Devir distributes this publisher's games on a wider market. Here's a summary of this 1-4 player game:

Bathed by the crystal-clear waters of Cabo de Gata and under the white light of Andalusia stands Níjar, a small town in the province of Almería, Spain, with a pottery tradition dating back to the Bronze Age that gained great significance during the Muslim period (10th–15th centuries).

In Níjar, we travel back to the 1920s, when the local economy revolved around ceramics, esparto weaving, and the making of jarapas — that is, colorful textiles that remain a symbol of the region today. Over three rounds, you will extract clay, throw pots, fire them, paint them, and sell your creations at market.

I paid a visit to the BoardGameGeek "Hot Games Room" to snap a pic of the 700+(!) games that publishers donated to the library available to attendees during this four-day event. Many publishers submitted four or five copies of a game, which seems like a lot — yet Flamecraft topped the checkout stats during one BGG.CON primarily because so many copies were on hand to be checked out, so maybe publishers feel the expense is worth it. (All games shown here will be in the "new games" section of the BGG library during BGG.CON 2026.)

The trip from my hotel to the ICC featured many billboards featuring GLP-1 products, which seemed odd...then I remembered that the pharmaceutical business Eli Lilly and Company is headquartered in Indianapolis, so I imagine it wants to tout its wares to emphasize its importance in the local economy — and to find customers, of course.

To follow up on my July 30 post about Gen Con 2026, when I exited my hotel in the morning, I got to meet the cat who uses the bowls I saw the previous day. No name tag, but she was a friendly girl.