Michael Dutra (left) and Jake Deason (right) playing their game Festoon on Oct. 2, 2026.Thatcher Warrick Hess, AZPM News
Jake Deason and Daniel Dutra created their own tabletop game with an unlikely starting point: sugar packets at a diner.
The two Tucsonans would often play tic-tac-toe with the different colored packets while sitting across from each other.
“Then I said, ‘Well, what if we did hexagonal tiles?’” Deason said.
The game eventually came to be called Festoon. In it, players lay a stack of colored tiles flat on a table, with the goal of connecting four of their tiles in a row laterally — similar to Connect Four.
After developing prototype after prototype, Deason and Dutra decided to take their game to the next level: the annual RinCon Tabletop Gaming Convention in Tucson.
In 2024, they brought their first beta version of the game to RinCon’s venue at Casino del Sol, where they began collecting feedback from fellow gamers.
“We probably would have launched this game in the state it was two years ago,” Dutra said, “not knowing then, coming here to get all that feedback.”
That kind of feedback is at the heart of RinCon, a Tucson gaming convention that brings together players, game designers and <a href="https://comicvibe.com/first-look-of-series-bloodaxe-from-vikings-creators-out/” title=”First look of series 'Bloodaxe' from 'Vikings' creators out “>creators.
VIEW LARGER Karen Arnold Ewing speaks to an attendee at the 2026 RinCon at Casino del Sol on Oct. 2, 2026. Thatcher Warrick Hess, AZPM News
RinCon started in Tucson in 2008. It was helmed by Seth Jaffee of the Southern Arizona Gamers’ Association, or SAGA, until 2016. Afterward, Karen Arnold Ewing took over.
“Everybody is a gamer — some people just don’t know what their favorite game is yet,” Arnold Ewing said. “Humans love games. And one of the best things about going to a convention is finding your new favorite game.”
The convention, held at Casino del Sol, features traditional board games, card games, role-playing games, collectible card games, miniature games and collaborative video games. The event is run by volunteers, with people bringing games and running booths that continue throughout the year.
Behind the rows of roulette machines and blackjack tables at the casino is a 26,000-square-foot convention room which, from Oct. 2 to 4 this year, was filled with hundreds of gaming sessions – about 600 total.
Each RinCon has a theme. This year, it was “myths and legends,” although the games themselves do not have to fit the theme.
VIEW LARGER Gaming hall manager Becky Pusch stands in front of the open games shelf holding her emotional support dragon stuffed animal on Oct. 2, 2026. Thatcher Warrick Hess, AZPM News
Gaming hall manager Becky Pusch says the themes make scheduling the games a bit easier.
“We encourage people to run games that are on that theme, which helps make the schedule a little different every year,” she said. “Anything mythological, legendary, those are the games that we’re rewarding people for running.”
At its core, Arnold Ewing said, the convention is about meeting people and having fun.
And this year, more people than ever showed up to do just that.
Arnold Ewing said 675 people attended this year’s convention. Many of them stayed late into the night, lining up to play until the doors closed at midnight.
The growing attendance is one reason Arnold Ewing chose Casino del Sol, which is located on Pascua Yaqui land. Other venues in Tucson simply were not large enough to accommodate the convention.
VIEW LARGER A gamer places down mini-figurines on the board of the game War of Ring on Oct. 2, 2026. Thatcher Warrick Hess, AZPM News
As the convention has grown, the name “RinCon” has taken on a deeper meaning for Arnold Ewing.
The convention is named after the Rincon Mountains east of Tucson. But Arnold Ewing said she also connects the name to its Spanish meaning.
“My connection to it is that in Spanish ‘rincón’ means corner, like your own cozy corner,” she said. “We’re making our own little corner of the gaming world.”
And inside that corner, new games are taking shape, tested out at the convention.
“They can showcase their games. They can play test games that aren’t even out yet,” Arnold Ewing said. “So our con-goers help them put the finishing touches on the games that are still kind of in the design process.”
VIEW LARGER An attendee paints a game mini-figurine at the Paint ‘n’ Take section of RinCon 2026 on Oct. 2, 2026. Thatcher Warrick Hess, AZPM News
That is exactly what happened with Deason and Dutra’s game, Festoon. The pair started with those hexagonal tiles and eventually found their inspiration in honeycombs and bees.
“We found out that bees festoon and that they literally build a chain and connect in a row. It was obvious,” Dutra said.
The game has since moved beyond the convention floor. Festoon is now sold in stores in five states and is manufactured by Delano Games in Michigan. A Kickstarter campaign to help fund the game raised more than $21,000.
But turning a board game into a business has not meant giving up their day jobs.
Dutra is in the U.S. Air Force and stationed in Southern California, while Deason is a private tutor. Both still carve out time to attend conventions and continue working on Festoon.
And as they grow the game, they want to keep their Tucson roots at the center of it.
“I don’t think that it will be quite as big as a name like Eegee’s, but we’d like to try and be the Eegee’s of board games for Tucson,” Deason said. “That would be the dream.”
