by Justin Bell

Every time my family joins me at an ice cream shop, the same thing happens: one or both of the kids want to sample a bunch of flavors before they have to commit, especially if we are at a new-to-us spot.

Is espresso-flavored ice cream going to work? Let’s find out. I had never seen the ice cream flavor “Superman” before moving to the Midwest, so even I had to find out what the heck Superman-flavored ice cream was all about before making a firm commitment. (The verdict: not for me.) There’s a local chain in Chicagoland called Rainbow Cone, and the signature cone includes five flavors, one of which is “Palmer House.” What flavor does the term Palmer House evoke? No idea…so, yes, please give me a sample.

The kids and I need to know what we are signing up for before I hand over some crazy amount of cash for a single scoop of ice cream. Buying new board games is the exact same experience for me…I much prefer to try a game before plopping down the cash.

This is why I am so excited for Gen Con.

“The Best Four Days in Gaming” is the trademarked tagline for Gen Con, the long-running annual tabletop gaming extravaganza descending upon Indianapolis starting this Thursday.

There are many reasons why I love heading down to Indy for this show. It’s only about three hours’ drive from my house. I get to spend time with extended family who live in the greater Indianapolis area. I eat as badly as my body allows for four days, between the hotel breakfast buffet (yes, I DO need one more hot waffle), the visits to Steak ‘n Shake (not “and”, not ampersand…just ‘n, like pork ‘n beans), and “dinners” featuring bowls of pretzels and Cheez-Its at media events scattered throughout the weekend.

I love the cosplay, I love seeing so many familiar faces from the industry, I love the open gaming, I love watching the 10 AM “gold rush” on Thursday when people make their way into the expo hall (from above, of course, because I like to observe the fray from a safe space).

The main reason I love Gen Con is the games…specifically for the chances to demo games in order to make a buying decision. I use my time at conventions to chat with a lot of publishers and attend meetings and sit through presentations with other creators; that is certainly important, particularly to understand what’s coming to future shows. But in-between the business of the show, I carve out a couple hours each day and a few hours on the final day of Gen Con to demo as many games as possible, all in the hopes of discovering a new title that will bring me joy for years.

My favorite Gen Con demo experience took place at the Renegade Game Studios booth about ten years ago. That year, I made a beeline to the booth in the hopes of trying and/or buying a certain game, only to find that demo table completely full when I arrived.

There was an empty demo table off to the side of the main retail area in Renegade’s booth, and on a whim decided to sit down there as a consolation. That table featured the game Covert, designed by Kane Klenko. As it happened, the person leading the demo’s teach was Kane himself, and he and I played a round of Covert together. Date night with the game’s designer!

Kane wrapped up the teach then we played a round, and I found that I liked the game’s mechanics enough to be interested in a purchase. Covert is a dice placement game with a spy theme, with some recipe fulfillment tied to completing missions with things like guns, forged passports, binoculars, and recording machines.

I stood up after the demo and thanked Kane for the time. “You know,” he offered, “Covert works well at all player counts, but I actually like it most at exactly two players. If you think that fits for you and your wife, I would give this a look!” I was intrigued, because I did enjoy that single round and I thought my wife would like it as well, so I picked up a copy and paid that familiar slightly-over-retail convention price to ensure I left the show with the game.

And as it turned out, Kane was right. I brought Covert to a game weekend with some of my high school friends the week after returning from Gen Con, and we played Covert four times back-to-back; everyone loved it. To this day, Covert has been the game my wife and I have played at the two-player count more than any other game in our “hobby” collection. The wear and tear on our copy is significant, but the game still lands and always ends up being a blast…and most importantly, she never turns down a chance to play it, so game date night remains a thing at Casa de Bell.

I always take the same approach when I get to the expo hall at the Indiana Convention Center: walk every aisle, browse every booth (not just the big ones, but the small and medium-sized booths as well), and if there’s a demo table with open seats, I will try a few games I hadn’t heard about before. Sure, I will definitely try to grab a seat at demo tables for some of the “hot” releases at Gen Con 2026, and my hit list certainly includes a few of those big titles.

But from our Gen Con preview list of more than 600 titles, I’m excited to try a few that have many fewer thumbs than Entropy, the top vote-getter on the preview page so far.

Look, if you call your game Use Up All Your Sick Days, I’m gonna try it, so that’s certainly on the list, because I’m the weird American corporate soldier who really does use all of my paid time off. The publisher Playte creates the kind of intrigue that has me excited to get my hands on titles like Big Shot and Stereo Mind, especially with the latter title featuring a box that looks like my waterproof yellow Walkman from a thousand years ago (give or take). I’m doing a scheduled look at Horrible Guild’s new title The Amazing Journey, as well as a scheduled demo of Whisperwood and at least one other title that I am very keen to learn more about this weekend.

Happy Camper’s new game Bring Your Own Book had a blurb that was absolutely enough to hook me: “use any book to find funny out-of-context text to match the current prompt.” That blurb made me wonder if my kid book collection could turn Bring Your Own Book into comic gold. I don’t really know what Size Wise is about, but the cover art and the designer (Scott Brady) were enough to convince me that I need to find out how Size Wise plays.

The list goes on and on. dnup is a title I need to try. CGE always has massive amounts of demo table space so getting a shot at Drillers is high on my list. Allplay has so many titles on the “hot” list (seven of the top 10!) that I’m going to have to spend an hour or two during the show demoing the new-to-me games on display at their booth.

But it’s the empty demo tables that intrigue me most. Any chance to try a game for a round or two, spending 20 or 30 minutes hearing the pitch about a game that is not on my radar, is a chance worth taking. In an industry where new game releases are a sea of options that have become impossible to navigate, I’m always looking for the next Covert…and going hands-on is the only way to know for sure.

One year, a demo play turned into my ongoing love affair of City of the Big Shoulders. Another year, there was a discovery of the game Photograph. Some years, it’s the games that I think I will love, then do a demo and realize the game is not for me after all, which might be even more useful as I consider which games I want to buy and which games I need to skip.

I’m looking forward to the adventure once again. If you are going to Indy, enjoy the show!