2016 Special Guest and #AwesomeSauce Notices
Texicon is very pleased to announce that Ray Wehrs and Chris Leder of Calliope Games will be joining us
as this year as our Special Guests.
Ray Wehrs on His Gaming History
“So, we go back to the year 1999. My brother-in-law Jordan
Weisman came up with the combat dial system that was used on
Mage Knight, and we launched WizKids. Before then, I knew
nothing of gaming. I didn’t play games, on an occasion I would
play a “gateway” game…a family style game. The first Origins that
I went to opened up my eyes to a brand new experience. I didn’t
know all of these wonderful people existed. So that was an
awesome experience.
Calliope Games (the second brand) is always about building the player base. Not from within the gaming
community, but from outside the gaming community. So everything we’re doing is targeted at adults, but it’s
playable by kids that are 8 years of age. And it’s playable to a point where they can succeed and win the game and
beat the adult without the adults throwing the game. So, that to us is key. And if we can make that happen and stay
under $40.00, we think that we can actually reach outside the gaming community and bring in new gamers and
introduce them to this wonderful hobby. So that’s what Calliope is really about.
People – non gamers – may know games exist, but they don’t know the quality of the games that are within the
hobby. When they think about games, they think about Scrabble, they think about Monopoly, they think about
Hungry Hungry Hippos. Those are the games they are thinking about. So for us to be able to be able to introduce
them to Tsuro, and to Roll For It!, and to games they can absolutely understand and play and have a lot of fun, they
just don’t know they exist. So we spent a lot of time with moms trying to get them to introduce the games to their
families. Because many of them are looking for alternate means of entertainment, so the games are perfect.
2016 Attendees of Note
Chris Leder is a game designer and behind-the-scenes gaming industry utility
player.
He has been a part of Calliope Games since 2012, when they signed his game
Roll For It!, which has had great success since its launch. His other game
designs include Trainmaker and City of Gears.
In his role with Calliope, Chris has assisted in testing, development, marketing,
customer service, and myriad other fun activities. He also stays active in the
game designer community, working with others when it comes to collaboration
and playtesting.
He lives in Illinois with his wife, two children, a couple dogs, and turtle, and a
fish. In his spare time, he plays as many games as he can.