SHUX’20 Update

If you were planning on attending SHUX in 2020, or even 2021, here’s everything you need to know. And if you weren’t planning on that, scroll down to the next image on this post for a fun surprise!

Local health officials have ruled that cons like SHUX will not be allowed until a date yet to be determined, conditional on at least one of the following: widely available vaccination, “community” immunity, or broad successful treatments – none of which look likely to happen by October 2020. This means that SHUX, as we currently know it, will take place in 2021 instead. We are locking in the exact dates as we speak, and hope to be announcing them very soon.

For more information on this, as well as what this all means for people who already bought a ticket, read on!

If you’ve already purchased a SHUX’20 badge it is now a badge for SHUX’21. You’ll receive an updated ticket via email when we have confirmed the new dates, and you do not need to worry about a thing.

If this change of plans doesn’t work for you, we absolutely understand, which is why we’re maintaining our policy of honouring refunds anytime up until 30 days before the actual event (meaning we will offer refunds through at least the end of this year). Details here. However, we’d love for you to hold off on that refund if possible – those sales have been used for our deposits on the convention centre next year, and continued sales would help us in planning SHUX’21. We promise we’ll make it up to you!

As past attendees know, we give away a free game and some goodies to everyone when they come in – for the next show, everyone who bought their ticket for SHUX ‘21 in 2020 (tickets for SHUX’21 still on sale here!) will get additional treats we’re cooking up as special thanks for championing our event and carrying us through this extraordinarily cursed moment in time.

For our partner hotels:
Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Downtown Hotel +1 800-207-4150 (toll-free) – Cancellation Info – How to Cancel – For guests with existing reservations for any future arrival date, Marriott Hotels will allow full changes or cancellation without a charge as long as the change or cancellation is made by July 5, 2020.

Coast Coal Harbour Vancouver +800.716.6199 (toll-free) – Cancellation Info – Should you have an existing reservation (made before March 12, 2020) Coast Hotels will accept cancellation of individual bookings until June 30, 2020.

So long as we can prioritise the health of our attendees, not only will SHUX ’21 happen, it’ll be the best SHUX yet. It might also be the last SHUX we’re able to do, since if this year has taught us anything, it’s that the future is a haunted forest. All the same, we can’t wait to once again host you all for a few incredible days. We’re going to build on everything we learned over the last 3 years, and add a dash of the unexpected to the already-tasty mix of friends, games and SU&SD that you love.

But what about October 16-18, 2020? I’m so glad you asked! Today, we’re also announcing AwSHUX, short for “Away SHUX”. A digital event where we bring a few of our favourite bits of the physical show and contort them into an online world, 100% free for attendees and publishers.

Luckily, doing things “on the internet” is where it all started for SU&SD, so we’re on very comfortable footing. We also can’t wait to bring SHUX to all sorts of people who would never normally be able to travel to Vancouver. An online show opens up some “dream” opportunities for us that we might never have otherwise had with geographic and budget impossibilities – we’re hoping to blow the doors off this one.

This has been an especially tough year for publishers and we’re going to do all we can to give back to those folks who give us all so much, and we’re going to give our attendees an opportunity to do the same. Here’s what we’re planning:

1. Community

· We’ve heard over and over again that what sets SHUX apart is how friendly and welcoming all of our attendees are. Naturally, we’ve put our top scientists on figuring out how during AwSHUX you can all connect and chat together, over the internet. Can it be done?! We think so, yes.

· SU&SD has always stood for having fun, but that can’t happen unless everyone feels comfortable. Our goal is to create the safest and most inclusive space ever seen online. If you’re rolling your eyes, you’ve never been to SHUX, because this event truly is about every single person in attendance looking after each other.

· People travel from around the world to come to SHUX, and now you can bring your favourite chair from home, because this year the world is coming to you!

2. Playing board games

· Playing our favourite games and finding new delights is what cons are all about. We’re partnering with Tabletopia to bring you thousands of games for you to play with other attendees, for free. Whether you’re on your own or traveling in packs, we’ll be using all the tools at our disposal to get you online and playing games in a silky-smooth fashion.

· Play from home with the SU&SD team! We’ve had some awesome experiments on Twitch, and we’re ramping that up to 11.

· What if we told you that in playing games online (or from home during the show), you could win prizes? It’s the truth!

· Want to get in on an RPG? We got those.

3. Incredible live events and special guests

· We will be running ONE Twitch channel 12 hours a day (with a replay of those 12 hours over the following 12 for a truly 24 hour, international event), 3 days in a row, with incredible live content:
1. Massive live games we will play with everyone watching.
2. Live plays of some of the show’s hottest launch titles.

· Many of our favourite convention memories are playing a game with a designer or a board game personality I admire – and we’ll make sure all our special guests are out there mingling and playing games, so keep an ear out for that recognizable voice in the games you’re playing…

4. An online Expo hall brimming with potential and excitement

· Seeing, trying, and buying the newest games the industry has to offer is a buzz that’s very hard to capture outside of a physical convention. But we have a plan! It involves a ‘virtual’ hall where scrolling down the page feels kinda just like walking down the concourse.

· Stop in when a game catches your eye to see a demo, ask a question, or sit down and play a couple rounds!

· Add a game to your shopping cart, and batch a basket of incredible new games knowing the publisher is getting a MUCH better cut of that sale than they would via the big online retailers, and support AwSHUX with that same purchase!

· SU&SD merch, available to buy online, for the first time in 4 years. The curse is broken!

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