Protospiel Chicago will be on Sept 11-13 at the William Tell hotel in Countryside, IL. This is an annual event in which tabletop game designers bring their prototypes for a full weekend of playtesting. It's a lot of fun.
If you were at ALA Annual this year, we had one of the designers in this group on our President's Program panel AND Protospiel Chicago had 10 designers at ALA Play doing playtesting demos. For librarians, this is an opportunity to see how a playtesting event works, which is helpful if you're considering running something similar at your library. It's also a chance to connect with local designers who might be interested in collaborating with you!
It's $15 for a playtester badge, and you'll very likely leave with a game worth much more than $15. (There's a Chi-Bingo mini-game that you play, in which you mark off a square for each prototype you playtest. Prizes are good games donated by publishers.)
https://tabletop.events/conventions/protospiel-chicago-2026
(This is not my event, sharing for a friend who is part of this design group)
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Rebecca Strang (she/they)
Outreach & Engagement Librarian
North Central College
Oesterle Library
ALA GameRT President Emeritus
www.ToPlayIsHuman.com------------------------------