August 14 and 15 was WellyCon Weekend, the fantastic annual gaming tournament organised by Andy Rae (of the recent “Your Weekend” article fame) and his right-hand men, Ian Anderson and Peter Freer.
Sam and I headed down, taking a swag of games, including some I’d worked on in various capacities. Here’s us deep in a game of Small World:
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Sam and I helped out with a Family Session organised by Andrew Rae, which attracted about 14 kids. Andy’s looking to increase the family quotient at Wellycon, something I’m happy to support.
We played three games of Halli Galli (with lots of bruised fingers!), one game of Happy Sheep, three of The Adventurers and lots of Toppletree. I’m sure there were other games going on too.
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The session went on an hour and a half longer than planned, so I figure that’s a success! I saw two young kids that I taught The Adventurers and go on to teach it to some adults: brilliant. I also noticed one adult sit down alone with Toppletree obviously thinking “Hah, how hard can it be to build a tree?”. A few seconds later he was picking up pieces off the floor. The noise of happy children and sound of Toppletree pieces falling… ah, music to my ears!
Wellycon keeps going from strength to strength, and I like the focus of making it as inclusive as possible. They’re a very friendly and fun crowd. I’m also keen to see it as a venue for supporting and raising the profile of NZ game inventors and developers, and look forward to doing even more towards those ends at Wellycon 2011!
If you want to read more about the weekend of gaming madness, here are some links:
wellycon.blogspot.com
Great times at WellyCon 2010
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