Today is a big day for the 2019 ENnies and for me. The 2019 nominations and Judges Spotlight winners were announced this morning, which means my work as an ENnies judge is 95% complete. If I weren’t going to Gen Con I’d be completely finished. Since I am attending there are the small matters of spending some time at the ENnies table while I’m there, as well as giving a short speech about my Judges Spotlight pick, plot ARMOR.

That short speech is why I’m not going to wax poetical about the game here. Except to say, if you want to check out a smart, challenging, single-player story game by one of the smartest folks in the industry right now, head to itch.io at the link above and pick it up. Then grab everything else dungeoncommandr has available. Then follow them on itch.io (which I realized I hadn’t done and hastily fixed) so you don’t miss anything else. You won’t be sorry.

A big congratulations to everyone nominated this year. Submissions were excellent this year and there was some pretty fierce competition out there. Our job as judges was tough as a result, but I think we put together a solid nomination list. Now, of course, it’s up to the members of the hobby to cast their votes and see who wins. I’m looking forward to the announcements at the award ceremony.

A huge thank-you to Hans and Stacy, and all the volunteers that keep the ENnies ticking along. As hard as we judges may have worked this year, all of them worked as hard or harder keeping everything running smooth so we could focus on the judging. I hope the ENnies continue to grow under your stewardship.

Last but not least, thank-you to my fellow judges, Alex, Ben, Brian, and Chris. I’m going to miss our Sunday morning conversations about gaming and the submissions. I learned a great deal talking with you all and I hope my fifth of the conversation was at least as interesting. Best of luck to those of you hoping to continue on for another term!

And now I’m going to take a little break from reading gaming books, maybe get started on some novels and comics that have gone by the wayside over the last year. After all, I need to cleanse the palette for all the new games launching at Gen Con.