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Gen Con 2024: The view from the booths

BoardGameWire spoke to a string of publishers who ran booths at this year's record-breaking Gen Con event, to get the inside track on highs, lows, opportunities and challenges at the show. Those responses were far more than we were able to use in our headline article - Gen Con celebrates record 71,000 attendance after event sells out for first time in history - so we've collected their views in their totality on this year's event here.

“A lot of luck and many contacts”: How small Swiss publisher Treecer tackled pitching Microsoft to create the Zoo Tycoon board game

Approaching large companies to use their IP in board games can be a daunting task - and they don't come much bigger than $3tn computing giant Microsoft. That didn't put off two-person Swiss board game publisher Treecer, though, whose successful pitch ended up with more than 5,000 backers committing about $600,000 to the Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game Kickstarter. Treecer co-founder Marc Dür took time out from managing the crowdfund for the game's New Shores expansion - which has raised almost $500,000 itself so far - to tell BoardGameWire how his company went about securing the licence, how their approach to crowdfunding has changed over the years, and lessons they learned from the original Zoo Tycoon campaign.

“The ride here wasn’t without its bumps:” Heat: Pedal to the Metal co-designer Asger Harding Granerud on his journey from board game distributor and retailer to BGG Top 40 designer

Heat: Pedal to the Metal co-designer Asger Harding Granerud has completed a full lap of the board game industry since he began designing games just over a decade ago, having launched a distributor, retail shop and design studio in addition to seeing his motor racing co-design accelerate into the BoardGameGeek Top 40. Granerud sat down with BoardGameWire to discuss his learning curve as a designer and publisher, the challenges of running a three-person indie studio, and how to avoid common pitfalls in bringing your game to market.