Gen Con Showcasing Indiana Connections
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAs the popularity of board games continues to rise, Gen Con in Indianapolis is helping to serve as a backdrop to highlight innovations in Indiana. The gaming convention runs through Sunday and includes the debut of German gamemaker’s new Lafayette-based subsidiary. LUDO FACT GmbH recently acquired Jessup Paper Box in Tippecanoe County as a way to enter "one of the most innovative and fastest growing games markets in the world." LUDO FACT says it plans to seek out U.S. games that emerge from crowdfunding sources like Kickstarter to build its portfolio in the U.S.
Gen Con is also a jumping point for smaller-scale entrepreneurs. In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Nuggit Games founder Sean Sullivan says he’s running social media contests coinciding with the event to gin up support for his custom game container and dice lines.
Sullivan’s business is based at the MatchBox coworking space in Lafayette and he says it has been helped along by the Purdue Foundry in West Lafayette. He believes it’s increasingly easier for game makers to take their concepts to market. "The barrier to entry for creating a board game has been lowering where you don’t need to be a big name company with a large group behind you. A person with a single idea can make and publish a board game."
LUDO FACT USA General Manager Butch Huber says the company has been looking for entry to the American market for some time. "When the opportunity arose to give the company a boost, I did not hesitate. With this new partnership (in Lafayette), we become a global player and will benefit from the vast experience LUDO FACT has in the games industry, a great complement to our in-depth knowledge of packaging." The company owns a majority share in Jessup Paper Box.
Visit Indy pegs the annual economic impact of Gen Con at $71 million.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Nuggit Games founder Sean Sullivan says he’s using the popularity of the event gin up support for his custom game container and dice lines.