I had a fantastic time at Protospiel this past weekend, although it was unlike any other game convention I’d ever been to. I played lots of games, many of which were excellent, and every one of them was a prototype the designer hoped to get published someday. Many thanks to all the excellent people I met, particularly Mike Petty and David Whitcher, who set the whole thing up and invited me to join them.

My seminar on Saturday seemed to go well. Everyone stopped playing to listen to me for a bit, which meant a lot with this crowd. They even asked cogent questions. Afterward, I got to chat with my good friends Will and William Niebling and meet Alex Yeager, all three of whom hail from Mayfair Games. Brett Seymour, who comments here sometimes, also showed up for the talk, and I enjoyed meeting him and putting a face to the name.

I also managed to get out of the convention room a few times. It had been five or six years since I’d been back to Ann Arbor, and I was eager to explore a bit. Mostly it seemed the same, but here and there something new stabbed from the land like a non-native tree threatening to crowd out the original growth.

I ate at some of my favorite places: Red Hot Lovers, Blimpy Burder, and Mongolian Barbecue. I also got to see the Sullivan-Sain family, for whom my wife spent many years as a nanny back when she was in college. Plus, I managed to meet up with Dan Anderson, one of my great pals from college, who I hadn’t seen in over 12 years.

In short, great weekend. Now I’m scrambling to catch up with everything before I leave for Comic-Con.

This year’s nominations for the ENnie Awards are out. Congratulations to all the nominees. With all those great games and products on the list, this should be a sharp competition. Public voting opens July 17.