Gamers roll dice in forming event drawing interest levels from around the board
Northeast Wisconsin Gameapalooza, NEW Game for short, welcomed board game enthusiasts November 7-9 for yet another year of gaming and excitement. Since 2013, NEW Game has served as a place for gamers to meet new people, play games, and explore different adventures. The event is held every fall at one of the UWO buildings; this year gamers from all over Wisconsin expressed their love for the hobby at the UWO Culvers Center.
Originally known as “OshCon,” it was founded in 2001 by Adam Loper who ran the convention with the help of some friends. Former attendee of OshCon, now founder and organizer of NEW Game, Heath Ruetten was asked to take over the game convention along with some friends in 2012.
“Adam joined my friends and I for games a couple of times in our game group called the polyhedral underground,” he said. “Adam was looking to get out of running the convention and he asked us if we wanted to take over for him and we said yes. We ended up re-branding it as NEW Gameapalooza and we’ve been running it since 2013.”
Ruetten continues to return with a smile on his face year after year, happy to help others in the community embrace their love for gaming as well as playing himself. He also enjoys the convenience of NEW Game compared to other conventions, not only for himself but for attendees as well.
photo by Tenna Ruetten
“When it was OshCon we would come back every year to support the gaming scene; it was our one local game convention. Since then it was just keeping that alive and providing a service to the gaming community,” he said. “I always liked the timing of it, after the busy summer. Compared to some conventions, who have them in the spring and summer, it’s always a nice time frame to play games with friends.”
Along with simply playing games, the con also offers concessions, merchandise, such as shirts, bags, and dice all with the NEW Game logo, various vendors, food trucks, mini escape rooms, raffles, scheduled games, a consignment shop to sell and purchase games, as well as a vast game library for attendees to pick from, play, and return.
Rebecca Backstrom, along with her husband and brother in law, came to NEW Game to promote their new business, By The Stream Games, as well as their two in progress games, Legion Bears and 8th Star.
“We came to NEW Game in hopes of promoting our games to other board gamers to try and gain some more interest and find some people who may be interested in following it and maybe backing it when we go live on Kick Starter next year,” she said. “So we’re just here promoting both of our games trying to get interest from other people in the community.”
The three seize every opportunity they can to promote their games and business, looking for different conventions in the area to engage with others who may be able to help them improve.
“We’ve been trying to find conventions to meet new people in person and get feedback on our games when they’re still in the prototype phase,” she said. “We’ve been trying to see more people in person, seeing people face to face to make a connection with them.”
Connection is what NEW Game is all about, attendees get to meet new people and connect with old friends all while playing fun games that they all love. Long time attendee, Brent Gallmann, sees NEW Game as a great way to enjoy his hobby and see familiar faces.
“I have been coming to NEW Game for over a decade and I just heard about it through word of mouth from other game players in the community,” he said. “NEW Game means reconnection with people and enjoying my favorite hobby. It also gives me an opportunity to teach new games and to be with people who enjoy sitting down and playing games together.”
Similarly, another long-time attendee, Vaughn Van Astin, enjoys playing games with friends from past conventions.
“It’s been 10 years; I was just talking with friends about conventions and I searched for some local ones and I found it,” he said. “It’s fun, I see a lot of friends here, and it’s a very friendly environment. The games are great and it’s comfortable to be here.”
Another participant, Debrah Torrison, also enjoys meeting people and seeing friends through NEW Game. After getting into the hobby later in life, NEW Game also gives Torrison opportunities to learn some of the classics.
“I’ve found that I've made great friends through NEW Game,” she said. “Since I got into gaming later, I get to learn new games and classics from other people who already know them really well.”
Van Astin loves having such a local and easily accessible convention; he also appreciates the people who put in the most work behind the scenes to put this event together.
“It’s really great to have this in our community; the people that volunteer to run it are fantastic in that they give back in this way,” he said. “I know how much work it is to run it, and it’s really nice that they do that for everybody here. It’s also a super affordable way to have a good weekend of fun.”
One of the people who put this amazing convention together, Amy Hacker-Ott, started out attending OshCon and NEW Game and came to love it for its welcoming community and accessibility. After nine years of attending, she offered to help out on the staff.
“When I first got into the hobby I didn't really have anyone to play games with so I was looking for groups and conventions to find other games to play and I came across OshCon in 2006. Part of what drew me in at that time was it was one of the more affordable options and it was close to home,” she said. “Everyone was so welcoming and I got to play a lot of great games. I’ve always loved it so back in 2017 I offered to help however I could and became a part of the staff after that.”
Organizing and running an event like this takes a large amount of time and effort from the team of staff. Of course there are always challenges not organizing and during the convention. Hacker-Ott feels the unknown is the biggest challenge when running NEW Game and any similar event.
“The biggest challenge is the thing that you don't know about, in an event like this where you're bringing in hundreds of people to a certain place, you try to plan for everything but inevitably there's something that comes out of the blue that you have to figure out how to handle,” she said. “We have a really great team who work very well and who make a lot of plans, but sometimes you can’t plan for the unknown. But our team is really good at navigating those bumps in the road that we don’t plan for.”
COVID-19 proved to be another challenge. The convention is finally seeing the turn-around they were hoping for after the pandemic.
“In 2019 we were on a really nice path of growth and then Covid happened. It feels like this year we are finally seeing post pandemic levels and growth, and it feels like we are back to where we were pre Covid,” Hacker-Ott said.
Ruetten also acknowledges the time it took to come back from the effects of the pandemic, noting that it’s difficult to get the message out there not only to new players but returning players as well.
“It took us six years to come back up after Covid, it’s always a challenge to find new members and get people excited to come back year to year,” he said. “Without people attending we don’t have a convention. We rely on people to run games, as well as players to show up. So trying to get attendance up is always a challenge; our group isn’t the best at social media, so trying to get the word out is always difficult.”
Ruetten hopes to continue to expand what NEW Game offers to keep members coming back and to entice new members.
“We are always looking for new things to get people excited about coming without changing the overall feel or vibe of the convention,” he said. “Other cons have computer games, physical type things, and other non gaming type of efforts, and we want to make sure we are the go to place for just sitting down and playing games with not a lot of other fluff.”
The staff also hopes to increase attendance in order to expand the convention physically, looking to use more of the space in the Culvers center. Hacker-Ott feels it’s also important to continue the welcoming community that NEW Game is known for.
“It would be really nice if we could rent out all of the Culvers center. One of the hopes for next year is that we can get all three sections off and fill it up,” she said. “For me I hope that it continues to be a place where people can come and feel welcomed and play games, and that we continue to be something that offers that opportunity and has a welcoming community.”
Gallmann believes the addition of new and exciting events only makes the NEW Game better.
“Every year the convention gets bigger and better. I think that a lot of investments are being put in to make it a really good experience. Not only is it tabletop gaming but I see a lot of side events and some more social activities that are going on for the people that like big group activities, so it seems to grow every year.”
Hacker-Ott feels that gaming is something for everyone to enjoy, which is why NEW Game is such a welcoming environment for everyone and a place to try something new.
“When people think about board games they usually think about monopoly or clue but the board game hobby as a whole is a lot bigger and continues to grow,” she said. “There’s a lot of different games out there, so even if you’re a really experienced player who really likes a challenge there is something out there for you. If you’re someone who’s new to the hobby there’s something out there for you that's fun and engaging as well. If you’re not familiar with the hobby I would encourage you to come to NEW Game and give it a try.”
by Tenna Ruetten
Published December 1, 2025
Oshkosh West Index Volume 122 Issue III