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It’s probably safe to say that everyone at the Dragon Lord dinner had a great time – I think most of us spent more than an hour chatting after we got kicked out of the restaurant! 5.5 hours flew by in what seemed like minutes for me. I’m not going to post any pictures – others have much better quality pics, and CZE will be posting a pictures and a video in the pretty near future.

 

The CZE folks continue to be the most accommodating people I’ve ever had the pleasure of dealing with. As far as I can tell every CZE employee made sure they talked to every backer there. We probably learned a few new things (look for a post tomorrow), but, IMHO, the best conversations were about game strategy and philosophy.

 

Cory presented us all with autographed (by the entire development team) Hex posters (see the Hex TCG Facebook page). The “other treats” were definitely something really unexpected – a USB drive with the new Sapphire Dragon (Set 2!) art printed on it, and all of the hi-res art for the dragon and it’s card and equipment on the drive. You can see Zeedu here.

 

Zeedu USB Drive

Zeedu USB Drive

 

Zeedu USB Drive

Zeedu USB Drive

 

Pretty tired now, but I’ll add more details to this post tomorrow.

 

The first Set 2 card revealed!

 

Zeedu with Equipment

Zeedu with Equipment

 

Zeedu

Zeedu

I stopped by the Cryptozoic booth earlier today and got a chance to interview the Man, the Myth, the Legend – Mr. Cory Jones!

 

The Man, the Myth, the Legend... Mr. Cory Jones!

The Man, the Myth, the Legend… Mr. Cory Jones!

 

You can catch the RAW UNEDITED (I’ll take a pass at editing it, transcribing it, and reducing the background exhibit hall noise once GenCon is over) audio on SoundCloud. We discussed a wide range of topics including:

    1. Cory’s GenCon experiences throughout the years
    2. His thoughts on interacting with the KickStarter backers
    3. How much time he gets to play/test Hex, his favorite deck types and cards
    4. Some interesting thoughts on a number of PVE-related areas:
      • Gold Sinks
      • Rewarding players for recruiting other players
      • Spectral Lotus in PVE Tournaments

 

We’ll have more interviews from GenCon over the weekend! If you have specific questions for any of the CZE folks leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do to get you an answer.

 

Here a few pictures from this morning at GenCon:

 

Hex League PCs

Hex League PCs

 

 

Hex League PCs

Hex League PCs

 

 

Drew and Chris (the Rock Star) adding the Twitch.tv stream Orc and Flying Sapphire decks for Hex League Play

Drew and Chris (the Rock Star) adding the Twitch.tv stream Orc and Flying Sapphire decks for Hex League Play

 

 

The Man, the Myth, the Legend... Mr. Cory Jones!

The Man, the Myth, the Legend… Mr. Cory Jones!

 

I’ll be posting an interview with Cory shortly. Enter our giveaway in the meantime! Stay tuned!

 

Other than that, the line at the Hex League is INSANE today! 3-4 times as many people as yesterday. And a huge number of non-KS players – looks like the game is starting to really take off! I managed to win another game with the Burn Baby Burn Ruby deck – so much fun to play…

  • League play just about to begin...
  • GenCon13
  • My Mushwocky was so VERY hungry... He always is... Poor, poor bunnies...
  • Playing the demo at the CZE Booth
  • New Spoiler! From the demo deck at the CZE Booth.
  • New Spoiler! From the demo deck at the CZE Booth.
  • Funktion and Ben discuss the finer points of game design...
  • CZE's Booth in the Exhibit Hall
  • CZE's Booth in the Exhibit Hall
  • Setting up the Hex League play area. A little behind schedule because of some logistics issues...
  • Sea of people just before the Exhibit Hall opened!
  • Sea of people just before the Exhibit Hall opened!

 

Here are some pictures from GenCon, the Cryptozoic’s (CZE) booth (Hex:Shards of Fate takes center stage, but CZE’s other games are also represented), the Hex League Play area, and some gameplay screenshots (and a couple of new spoilers and a VERY hungry Mushwocky!). Notably, and as promised, Cory delivered funktion’s hug:

 

Funktion gets his KS hug from Cory

Funktion gets his KS hug from Cory

 

Hex is awesome! It’s not perfect yet, but I’d be more than happy to play it the way it is. The UI is beautiful, the gameplay was really responsive, and, with minor exceptions, it was really easy to pick up and play. I played 4 of the decks: the ruby Burn deck was a LOT of fun (and lethal) and the blood/wild bunnies were awesome (and multiplied like, well, bunnies…). Some minor bugs, and some not particularly obvious gameplay elements, but I imagine they’ll get fixed pretty quickly.

 

Difficult day for the CZE folks – all of the wireless networks were completely unusable so they had to change course and do everything using switches and ethernet cables (which they had to procure). That added up to a ~5 hour wait for some of us to actually play Hex at the Hex League area. Not quite the day many of us expected, but pretty successful by the end of the night .The CZE folks were rock stars in the face of significant adversity! It took quite an effort to get us the game, but it was well worth it in the end.

 

We’ll have much more time to take (better) pictures and post more frequent updates tomorrow!

 

Remember to enter our giveaway! Return flights to/from HexCon, and iPad, and lots of other prizes could be yours!

 

 

  • GenCon 2013 Program

Hex Vault is at GenCon 2013!

 

Over the next few days we’ll have reports from the exhibit floor, our first impressions of Hex, and interviews with many of the Cryptozoic folks, including the man, the myth, the legend, Cory Jones!

 

Here is the “Golden Ticket” – just under 8 hours before we get to play Hex for the first time!

 

Golden Ticket

Seems like the oversized GenCon 2013 Promo Cards are ready!

Cory GenCon

 

Anyone else excited for GenCon? GAX was previously spoiled on July 12th, but can anyone make out the name of the second, previously unrevealed, mercenary?

 

Enter our giveaway! Win an iPad, flights to/from HexCon, and many other prizes!