Games Stores Across Canada

So how many independent boardgame stores are there across Canada (not including large chains like Chapters, WalMart, or Toys R Us)? When I first launched the Canadian Heritage Collection a little over a year ago, I counted a little over 300 online and brick and mortar retailers.

One of the resources I came across at the time was an excellent BoardGameGeek Geeklist by Shawn Woods of Halifax, where he maintains a running tally of Canadian Game Retailers. While it's not comprehensive, he's been updating it again lately and is currently sitting at around 130 stores. If you spot any gaps where your friendly local game store should be, you can correct the issue by sending him a Geekmail via the BoardGameGeek website.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 1st Birthday, CHC!

I launched the Canadian Heritage Collection in September of last year and, as I compile the 2011 Master Catalogue of Canadian Games, I'm excited to see the project taking on a life of its own.

The 2011 catalogue contains another 50% more games than last year and lots of new and updated trivia about the designers, publishers, games, companies, organizations, and awards that make the Canadian specialty game market such a fascinating topic. We're currently tracking games from 25 Canadian publishers and almost 50 individual Canadian designers. Barring any last minute additions, the content is now largely complete and the advertising continues to come in. For those of you who've already spoken to me or who remain on the fence, a gentle reminder that the deadline for advertising assets and payment is the end of September as the 2011 catalogue will be releasing early in October.  Contact me if you have any questions.

A Little Help From My Friends

Two By Two is expected to make landfall somewhere along the Pacific coast this Sunday. From there it will go to the warehouse of central wholesaler Publisher Services and then out to various distributors such as Lion Rampant here in Canada, ACD in the US, and Alliance for the US and worldwide. Online and brick & mortar retailers will include Two by Two in their regular orders from these distributors and the game should ultimately start appearing on store shelves sometime around the end of the month. The publisher had a few advance copies flown over from the actual print run (rather than preliminary proofs). Many of those will be going out to different reviewers and industry press but one should be arriving on my doorstep sometime tomorrow.

So, with the game almost in the hands of the general public, I thought now would be a great time to offer my thanks to all of the people who've helped along the way.

Announcing the Canadian Heritage Collection

As I alluded to in my previous post, I've been doing a lot of thinking about the Canadian board game industry, its long history of innovation, and the robust and very active state in which it currently finds itself. Despite that long tradition and current health, however, there appears to be a bit of a disconnect at the retailer level. In speaking to retailers, I've found that many are unaware of the full extent of that heritage and all of the exciting new developments that are occurring right here at home. Rather than simply blog about that disconnect, I've decided to take action and tackle it head on.


So, without further ado, I'm very happy to announce the Canadian Heritage Collection, a Canadian content education and labeling initiative for the specialty games market. The initiative consists of two parts:

Talking Shop

I've spent my last couple of weeks of evenings and lunch hours dropping in on the various boardgame retailers here in Edmonton. It's been a great opportunity to talk shop with the owners, and leave them with copies of a Two by Two Retailer Flyer that gives them some information about the game and where they can order copies. For those reading, go ahead and forward copies of that flyer to any retailers you think might be interested.

As a game designer, I'm way at the beginning of the pipeline but store owners are right at the very end, actually putting copies of my games into customers hands. It's always useful and interesting to listen to them, get a feel for the challenges they face, the markets they serve, and what I can do to help them sell my game. They were all wonderfully enthusisastic and very happy to take the time to talk shop and share insights into their business.