The last time I attended UK Games Expo in 2019 the world was arguably in a better, if still chaotic spot. Despite pandemics, political turmoil, and economic gloom, the 2024 edition of UK Games Expo is bigger than ever before. It seems that people are ready to return to large events and the Birmingham NEC is gearing up to welcome a cavalcade of gamers of every taste and persuasion.
Returning to this convention is an experience verging on the religious for me. I am not a man of faith, but when I walked through the doors of the NEC and caught a glimpse of the setup in the massive halls, saw the barriers for the anticipated queue for tickets, and giant illuminated signs welcoming us all to this massive venue, I had a strong feeling of nostalgia and love.
I’d had a tumultuous start to the day. Woke to the news a train had derailed between Edinburgh and Preston on the route I was going to take. A hurried message to friends and I found myself car pooling down the road a lot earlier than I was expecting. Massive thanks to David Wright for picking me up. I won’t bore you with details of a car journey but it was spent in the company of excellent folk.
On arrival my cohort and I picked up our press passes. They are obviously expecting a load of folk as the whole of hall 3 was basically a queuing system and the bring and buy. If you have never seen the bring and buy at expo it is absolutely enormous and can be like an antiques roadshow of games rare and unusual.
On the Thursday of Games Expo each year there is a press preview. I’ve never been entirely sure of the worth of it to me but it is useful to have a quieter moment with some of the exhibitors. I found it useful this year to spy games I thought looked interesting, making a note of where the stalls were in the halls, and getting some brief pitches of projects I wasn’t aware of.
The first thing that happened at the press preview was I got to meet Oliver! Despite having done numerous podcasts together and known them online for years, I have not met Oliver in real life! We even played some Long Shot together later in the day, the first of many games over this weekend I am sure.
Wandering the press aisles I talked to Leyline Press about their mech RPG salvage union. I’ve talked a lot about RPGs recently with folk, and more work on that is coming, and of my aims for the convention is to really get a taste of what is happening across the RPG spectrum.
A few steps later I bumped into Adam Richards from Punchboard. We last saw each other at Airecon 2023 so it was wonderful to see him and we just caught up a bit more over breakfast (i’m writing this at 8am on the Friday of the con). Adam is staying the same hotel as me, so I predict some late night gaming in our future.
Below is a few pics I took of games that caught my eye as I went around. I was especially pleased to see Gloomhaven Bugs and Buttons being demoed and I got a quick shot. It really does give that Gloomhaven feel in a tiny, adorable package! Also spoke to the folk from Hachette, the always lovely Flavian, Keen Bean Studios, Stop, Drop & Roll, Birdwood Games (lots of adorable looking dog themed games) and even Laser Edge Gaming, a wooden accessories company that were producing mimic style boxes. Forgot to take a photo!
I rounded off the day by playing Long Shot with Gavin, Rich, Oliver, and Jay and Amy from Bucket List Gamers. We chatted about podcasting and the benefits of various editing suites. Nice to make some new friends straight away!
Looking forward to the con proper, and do come and say hello if you see me!
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