Blog

Gwon

Cryptozoic Crashes Chicago

The past two weeks have been busy for myself and Cryptozoic.  We visited Las Vegas for the GAMA Trade Show (GTS).  While there we made big announcements about upcoming products that Cryptozoic is set to release.  We announced trading cards for the franchises Walking Dead and Vampire Diaries (with a few more).  We also announced that we will be working on Lookouts, the high fantasy, boy scouts comic from Penny Arcade. The Big Bang Theory board game, Bazinga!, and Food Fight were also

 among the games that were on display in our booth. GTS was a great show for Cryptozoic, all of our panels were full with the first couple overflowing into the hallway. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to stay past Tuesday because I was off to the windy city, Chicago.

For the remainder of that week and through the following Monday, I was slated to run the Cryptozoic activities at C2E2 and have the privilege of visiting stores in the Chicago area.

I was able to take in some of the tourist attractions that Chicago has to offer.  My travels took me to the Cloud Gate, United Center, US Cellular Field, and Millennium Park.  It was cold and cloudy, but I was still able to enjoy some of what Chicago has to offer to their visitors.

Cryptozoic@C2E2

The Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo is held in Chicago at the McCormick Place near downtown each year.  Its main focus is on comics, but this year it branched out into more movie, pop culture, and gaming.  Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse had fairly large booths.  Acura brought out and displayed their new model for S.H.I.E.L.D.  There were plenty of tattoo artists and artist ally was full. 

If you were in attendance, you could have found Cryptozoic at booth 345.  We were right by the American Library Association and at a cross section of the convention floor that saw a ton of traffic pass by our booth.  Demos were full all weekend and the convention special of an Epic Collection and a Class Starter Deck for $40 was popular amongst new players that were looking to jump feet first into the game. We also had a couple artists stop by the booth and pass along contact information and samples of their portfolio.  Their work looks good, hope we are able to work with them on a future project.

Beginner events and a Spectral Safari were on tap for the gaming area.  The gaming pavilion was packed for most of the weekend and the new players really enjoyed the casual, new player friendly environment of the beginner events.  Overall it was a good show for Cryptozoic and we will definitely be back next year!

I want to thank the volunteers who helped pull this show off.  I could not have done it without each and every one of you.  You are an invaluable asset and I’m lucky to have been given the chance to work with you.  Thanks goes out to Thomas McKelvey, Daniel Janick, Anna Schmidt, Nick Zimmerman, and Benjamin White.

ChiTown Store Visits!

While I was in Chicago I was able to visit some of the stores that carry our product and some that don’t (was gauging interest in the rest of the community). Some of the stores I visited were Pastimes, The Gaming Goat, and Chicagoland Games: Dice Dojo.  Unfortunately, Galactic Force was closed on Monday so I wasn’t able to go see them.  All of these stores support the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game and either are currently or going to be running Battlegrounds in the near future. 

I want to highlight one of the stores that I visited in particular.  Out in Elgin, IL, The Gaming Goat is a store that currently supports Cryptozoic products and runs Battlegrounds consistently.  The store is rather new.  It has only been open since the beginning of the year.  The store is very clean and carries a selection of board games, card games, and miniatures. They have seating for about 80 players. Nick Zimmerman, an outstanding Champion of the Black Flame, heads up the WOWTCG operations at Gaming Goat. Nick has taken the community from zero to about 8 or so players consistently.  They are hosting a Darkmoon Faire Warm-up event on 3/26 and have a Realm Qualifier on 4/10.  If you live in the Chicago area or are traveling there for Darkmoon Faire Chicago, I encourage you to go and check out The Gaming Goat.  Their Battlegrounds are on Thursday nights.

The Gaming Goat
2090 Larkin Ave, Suite 2
Elgin, IL  60123
(224) 856-1388

If you see Nick Zimmerman at Darkmoon Faire Chicago, be sure to tell him I said hi!