GEN CON

Board Gaming Under Construction.

Weeks before Gen Con, the message was sent as far and wide as possible: construction was going to cause headaches for the tens of thousands of visitors to the heartland. The main thoroughfare that connects Indianapolis to its international airport was closed, which meant board game tourists were scrambling to find the easiest and fastest routes downtown. When it’s Gen Con, everyone wants to squeeze every minute out of their gaming vacation. Detours will always crop up, but some of those delays may yield a brand-new perspective.

This is just the first phase of big changes coming to Indianapolis, all for the glory of Gen Con. Two of the surrounding hotels and the Indianapolis Convention Center itself will be expanding in the upcoming years. Two new hotels are also set to begin construction in the next year or two with all of these changes coming to a head by 2023.

Yet the construction of Gen Con’s host city also reflects the gaming industry that Gen Con celebrates. The continued swelling and expansion of the exhibit hall is not only being tested by the growing behemoth of Asmodee who owns, represents, or distributes for nearly 50 publishers across the globe, but the continued growth of Entrepreneur’s Avenue where publishers get their first official booths at Gen Con. What was once the domain for niche publishers is now the home for international giants making their Gen Con debut (Fruerland, Hobby World) as well as publishers that are primed as up-and-coming (Weird Giraffe, Orange Nebula).