Rincon director Boyan Radakovich speaks on the convention's future

October 27, 10:30 AMPhoenix RPG ExaminerBerin Kinsman

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Boyan Radakovich (Tucson) is the public face for the Southern Arizona Gamers Association (SAGA), a 501-c (3) non-profit corporation whose charter is to promote a culture of family gaming and to foster a closer relationship between the community at large in Southern Arizona and hobby games industry. He is also the director of RinCon, and the lead designer for Shifting Skies Games.

RinCon '09 has already earned a reputation as being an Epic Convention. What are you most proud of about RinCon '09?

Thank you. The RinCon '09 directors worked very hard to put on a great local show for the gaming community here in Arizona and we're getting a lot of great buzz coming out of '09, both locally and around the country. Beyond being most proud of my volunteers, I'm really proud of the fact that in this hard market our attendance numbers not only increased, but more than doubled. And it did so while being very inclusive and welcoming to all of our female attendees. Most gaming conventions are happy to get a fifteen percent female turnout. We easily more than doubled that number as well. I feel that our inclusive approach to a broader demographic is the best way of growing the gaming community. I think we got such amazing growth because our attendees could really feel our emphasis on quality of game experience -- both our excellent scheduled events and the amazing open gaming library we provide -- and also our high caliber special guests. A very common highlight for many of our guests was being able to play their favorite games with the actual creators in such a personal setting.

I know that you didn't have a lot of time to just be a gamer at the convention, but you did get to play a bit. What did you enjoy most about the con?

Very few of the directors got a chance to play in the scheduled events, but I did sneak in some games here and there. I played in James Ernest's Celebrity Poker tournament Friday night. We had professionally-trained dealers in Old West attire dealing to some of the best players I've seen outside of Vegas. At my table alone, I had a World Series Poker player, game designer Shane Hensley and Wil Wheaton, who has played in several professional tournaments. That was a blast! I also played some High School Drama with Young Adult author Janni Lee Simner, Bohnanza with best-selling author Jeff Mariotte and his family and some Castle Panic with Munchkin Czar Andrew Hackard. I was a little sad not being able to play Rock Band with my friends onstage with all the cheering fans, the concert set up and light show, but it was really great seeing everyone having such an amazing time at our show.

You got a hang out with all of the special guests. Any candid, behind-the-scene anecdotes you'd like to share? 

All the special guests are personal friends of mine and I see most of them on a fairly regular basis. I'd hate to say something embarrassing in public. But if you listen to all the podcasts, watch the videos and check out the flickr streams coming from RinCon '09, you'll catch a lot of the stars owning up to it themselves.

I know you're already planning RinCon 10. What can we expect next year?

We do have a fairly ambitious plan for growth for the gaming community in Arizona and of course for our crown jewel, RinCon. My personal goal as Convention Director for '09 was to establish RinCon as the premier local gaming convention. I think we reached this goal when game designer Mike Selinker called RinCon '09 the "local game convention of the year." The focus for RinCon 10 will be in keeping the momentum and creating a regional convention that will attract the top publishers and corporate sponsors. This way, everyone will know that Tucson is not only Arizona's Gaming Mecca but also the must-attend convention for the Southwest. We were pretty close to reaching the Fire Marshal's attendance cap for the space we had reserved at the Tucson Convention Center (TCC) for '09. Obviously, we'll need to expand our physical footprint to accommodate our anticipated rate of growth. Luckily, the TCC has room for us to expand without ever having to move locations. In short, you can expect a lot more at RinCon '10. For the most current information, please check www.rincongames.com for details.

One of the coolest parts of RinCon '09 was getting to play games with their designers.You're also a game designer, and you have some things in the pipeline with various publishers. What games will we get to play with you at RinCon 10?

I do have several games releasing next year. I have three titles with Catalyst Game Labs, one with Z-man Games and another that I still can't talk about due to non-disclosure. I'd love to do something like Andy Looney does at conventions where he plays multiple games at once and you try to beat the creator. For '10 my catalog will include Zephyr, a racing game where all the ancient pilots of mythology are brought together to prove who among them is the best; Alphabet Soup, a word game that uses both puzzle-solving and word generation skills; High School Drama Varsity Edition, a board game where you play a teenager in high school trying to get your clique to take over the school; Monster Liner, a title I helped develop where you play classic movie monsters on a sinking ship and then maybe even a couple more if the production cycle picks up. So there'll be lots of opportunities for "Bo vs All" in 2010. Players love telling stories about their games and I don't think there's a better story than "I actually played this game with the creator and beat them."

In the mean time, are there any other Southern Arizona Gamers association (SAGA) events coming up, to tide us over?

SAGA always welcomes players to our weekly and monthly gaming events. They're completely free and provide a great chance throughout the year to reconnect with all the new and old friends you met at RinCon. Every first Saturday, we hold an RPG Meetup where we play a lot of the most popular storytelling games at Espresso Art by the University of Arizona campus. Also, every third Saturday is our Ides of Gaming event which is mostly tabletop board and card games. This is also held at the large community room at Espresso Art. I even give away free games to our players. We also hold free educational seminars and help local and international charities. SAGA even holds social events at local restaurants and movie theaters and participates in national game days to help promote new product releases. RinCon is just the bright shining ornament on top of a much larger and growing community. But for those players who need those marathon sessions of intense gaming action that you can only get at larger gaming conventions, you can find us lending our support at some of the other local shows in Phoenix and Tucson -- TusCon, DarkCon, RandomCon and Phoenix Comicon. But SAGA is always looking to provide support to our other geek cousins in Arizona. If you know of any volunteers or organizers looking for support in the community, we'd love to help them succeed at their dreams as well. Helping others succeed does not diminish our own success. In fact, it only strengthens both. I hope to see your readership at one of our many SAGA events. It's a good time to be a geek in the Southwest! Play games! Have fun!