Persons of Interest in Gen Con Card Theft Are Game Designers

At Gen Con earlier this month, a pallet of Magic: The Gathering playing cards price $300,000 was stolen from the conference middle; the product belonged to Pastimes, a gaming store and MTG vendor. In an replace from Indianapolis information station WTHR 13, police have recognized two folks of curiosity within the case: Thomas J. Dunbar and Andrew Pearson Giaume.

Dunbar and Pearson Giaume have been attending Gen Con 2023, and may need been current to help their very own card recreation, Fortress Assault. Within the photographs taken from safety footage, such because the one which seems above, a person that the police division has recognized as an individual of curiosity (assumed to be Dunbar) could be seen sporting a darkish tee shirt with what seems like Fortress Assault art work and logotype on the again.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Division has launched a collection of photographs to the general public in an try to collect extra details about the individuals of curiosity. The picture above was taken by a safety digicam on Tuesday, August 1, two days earlier than the conference opened on August 3, which implies that the 2 males pictured may need been there early to work alongside distributors on the conference.

Fortress Assault is a 1-2 individual card recreation that was revealed in 2015, and based on the Fortress Assault Fb web page, the sport had a presence at Gen Con in 2017, 2016, and 2015. Fortress Assault was efficiently Kickstarted in 2015, and appears to have loved a small quantity of recognition.

The sport was revealed by MomentumVolsk, though Fortress Assault seems to be the one recreation this writer has produced and isn’t at present obtainable on the market on their web site. In line with Board Recreation Geek, Dunbar and Giaume haven’t labored on any video games since.

Beneath, in one other image offered courtesy of the IMPD, Giuame and Dunbar are proven in entrance of the playmat for Fortress Assault. The crossed swords brand within the background can be from the sport. This picture is just not dated.

If Dunbar and Giaume are chargeable for stealing the Magic: The Gathering playing cards from Gen Con and Pastimes, it’s a career-ending transfer for the 2 designers. If they’d ever hoped to publish a second recreation and even an growth, there will likely be only a few folks left keen to work with them. A lot of the board recreation trade depends on networking and connections—and conventions are often locations the place folks pitch video games and make good with manufacturing firms. No matter who stole the playing cards, in the event that they make board video games, they’ll very probably by no means work within the trade once more.

It is a growing story, and we will likely be updating this text as extra data turns into obtainable.

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