The summer heat is intense, but it’s not as hot as Gen Con 2026. Soon gamers from all over the world will descend on Indianapolis for North America’s largest board game convention. Just like in past years, hundreds of new board games will make their debut – over 600 this year, an overwhelming number. But never fear, the Meeple Mountain team is here to help you find the gems among the coal. Our staff have scoured through the upcoming titles to select our most anticipated games of Gen Con 2026! So without further ado, here are our picks!

Check our past recommendations and see how we did!
Gen Con 2025 | Gen Con 2024 | Gen Con 2023 | Gen Con 2022 | Gen Con 2021

Andy Matthews

Class of '89

As someone who graduated from high school in 1989 I am, as the marketing literature says, “the target audience” for this upcoming release from Paverson Games. Class of ‘89 is set back in time when hair was…

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Full disclosure: I know nothing about the world of velodrome racing (aka indoor cycling); other than they ride bicycles, really fast, at angles that would make a mountain goat sweat. But the brightly colored artwork for Spokes, the new release from Radical 8 Games, drew me in. And while you might not be able to judge the game by its cover, you can guarantee that it will get my attention.

I don’t know anything more about the sport after several plays of Spokes, but I can tell you that I had a lot of fun. Let me tell you about it!

The track is calling. Are you ready?

In Spokes, 1-6 players speed around an oval track, trying to be the first to complete 3 laps. You accomplish this by moving along routes, composed of colored bars (spokes), initially placed randomly on the track. Move as far as you can on a single color, before ending your turn.

Each player has a personal board that guides and restricts your movement for a turn. On your turn, you move the spoke marker cube on your player board one, two, or three places clockwise.

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Geekway has been on my bucket list for years and years. A well-regarded board game convention only a handful of hours from my home in Nashville, and the birthplace of the “play and win” library? It seems like a no-brainer. I was finally able to attend, and now I’m adding my thoughts to those of Kevin Brantley, who attended Geekway in 2025.

Full disclosure: in addition to being a gamer, I’m also a convention organizer with ten years of running Nashville Tabletop Day under my belt. While I did want to do some gaming, my main reason for attending this event was to observe the Geekway team and processes to find ways to improve my own event. So be aware my thoughts about the event are going to be colored by “event organizer glasses”.

Arrival and Initial Thoughts

Geekway runs from Thursday morning to Sunday evening, although I could only attend Friday afternoon to Sunday. After arriving in St. Louis, checking into my hotel, and driving over to the St. Charles Convention Center, I arrived at the gaming hall around 1pm.

Registration

Registration was smooth, with pre-printed badges displaying a barcode (more on that later). The badges were full-color, double-sided, pre-printed, laminated, and came with a high quality lanyard. By the time I arrived on Friday, they were already…

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The Best Gaming Experience With My Kids - Andy Matthews

When my 4 children were younger I played games with them all the time, easily several times a week, and sometimes every day. In addition to time together, it was a chance for me to instill important values like fair play, good sportsmanship, and how to win (and lose) gracefully. Early on I came across a game called Zombie Kidz, a small box cooperative game about preventing zombies from escaping a cemetery. It featured cartoony artwork and a simple game loop: roll a die, put a zombie out on one of the corresponding 9 spaces on the board. Then, you could move your character to a nearby space and potentially eliminate a zombie there. The goal was to put locks on all 4 corners of the board and win the game. My kids loved it, and it gave me a chance to teach them about teamwork and the consequences of choice. Eventually, they grew out of the game, and we stopped playing it.

That is until I heard that the publisher was releasing a sequel called Zombie Kidz Evolution, targeted at a slightly older audience, exactly where my kids were at the…

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At this year's GAMA Expo I had the opportunity to play Symbiosis with some industry folks. I was charmed by it's artwork and card size, and delighted by the simple decision space and speedy game play. I brought home a copy and reviewed it for you. Check it out!

What is Symbiosis?

In Symbiosis players are growing and improving their pond in an attempt to earn the most points. They start with a 4 x 2 grid of face down cards, 1 of which is turned over at the beginning of the game. An additional 4 cards are turned face up in the center of the table, and serve as the market.

On your turn you select a card from the market and do one of two things:

Replace one of your face down pond cards with the card you selected from the market. Your pond card is placed face up into the market and becomes available for other players to select.

Alternatively you can take one of your face up cards and swap it with a face up market card. If you do this, you must flip one of your remaining face down cards face up.

“Why”,…

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