UKGE 2025

First of all… WHAT A SHOW! Whilst I definitely have some “nots” regarding this years effort, I am happy to shout that UK Games Expo 2025 was a resoundingly positive experience for team Tesseract.

Sharing a moment with MWG Dave

I think it goes without saying that the best part about any event this big is always going to be the people. I (Stu) was lucky enough to share some really personal, rewarding and beautiful moments with people I mostly only know online, and it left me with such a feeling of closeness to the community.

From a heart to heart with the immortal James from Siege Studios/Siege Scenics, to SO MANY HUGS with all my friends, and my chat with Dave (after which we took the picture above), my heart is so full after spending time with my tribe.

Obviously, as well as a social event, expo is also a time when we all get together to do business too and talk about how we can find new ways to add value for the fans and customers of the games industry. I can’t reveal too much on that front just yet (It is only the day after the event!) but suffice it to say, there could be some BIG stuff coming from TMS, if it all pans out.

Of course no event is perfect though and so I will get my complaints out of the way early, so that we can get back to being happy bunnies.

Really my only strong criticism of the event itself is that the layout this year was… taxing. The event usually splits the halls by using halls 1 and 2 as the main exhibition, with the stairway between them creating a natural sectioning between them.

This year however, ticketing was moved from Hall 4 to Hall 1, along with the bring and buy. This left the first hall, the first part everyone sees, mostly empty, for most of the event.

Instead the bulk of the expo happened in halls 2, 3, 3a and a little of 4, with the rest of 4 being the usual organised play space.

This meant that once you were in the throng, it was just one HUGE, continuous and sprawling horse-shoe. It was both overwhelming to the senses, and made it VERY easy to get lost. This was a popular complaint throughout the weekend, so fingers crossed it will be seen, noted and fed back.

It would also be remiss not to mention that the Sir Coates Painting Masters by Two Thin Coats had some minor issues too, and I do want to briefly talk about those.

The SCPM Rules

In order to have this conversation, we first need to look at the rules for the different categories, which I’ve dropped in above.

My interpretation of these rules is that they make it sound like miniatures need to be mounted on their typical wargaming bases, rather than on plinths with elaborate scenery. They also, look to me, like they don’t contain any allowances for busts or non-wargaming collector style pieces.

Since both of the above tend to encapsulate my typical competition painting fayre, I prepared an entry especially for this competition, one which I was very proud of, but which I felt was far less showy than I’d usually go with, by necessity of the category rules.

As I’m sure you can imagine then, I was quite dismayed, when I arrived to see display pieces on plinths, special mini dioramas, and even a bust, all in the same category I was entering.

My piece didn’t receive any commendation or prizes, and honestly? I’m fine with that. All of the winners were incredible, and if I’m brutally honest, the best I could have hoped to deserve was a finalist pin. The piece I put up was outclassed by so many other entries.

But it also has to be noted, that such ambiguity in category eligibility could be incredibly damaging to first time competitors morale, and can harm the credibility of the competition too. I couldn’t help but feel a little deflated, knowing I had pieces I’d left at home, which far better represented my artistic ability, but that I thought weren’t allowed for this comp.

Now I want to point out - mostly for transparency, that I am good friends with the Two Thin Coats team, and I admire and respect Duncan greatly. I REALLY want to see SCPM become one of the premier competitions in the country. It has the right people behind it to be massive, so I really hope they’ll look at these issues and see what they can do to address them.

On the grand scheme of things however… I’m sure you’ll agree that these are minor gripes and didn’t even come close to spoiling what a wonderful event UKGE was.

Personally, I got myself some goodies from Realms of Tiberium (incredible display miniatures), the insanely talented Wird Design and a slew of new RPGs to dive into, from Soul Muppet Publishing. Cannot recommend enough that you check all three out, and make sure you’re following @tesseractminis on Instagram, in order to see more shoutouts for incredible vendors from the show.

UKGE has always been a calendar highlight for me. Maybe that’s because I don’t do many events and it’s the biggest and closest one that I do attend. But I much prefer to believe that it’s because every year it represents a coming together of the most passionate, innovative and inspiring creators in our little corner of the world of nerdery and geekdom.

On a personal note, I want to take a minute to shout-out all the people who made my event special… I’m not going to list you, I got selfies with most of you and I’ve been banging on about you on Instagram forever, but without you folks, my world would be a much duller place.

I also want to take a minute to say thank you to the event organisers, the people running demos, the staffers who are probably spending today rocking back and forth in a darkened corner. You’re all absolute legends.

If you’ve never attended UKGE before, firstly be warned it is BUSY (72,000 attendees over the weekend this year), it is sweaty and muggy and gross and it is SPENNY. However what it also is, is the best place in the country to see all the incredible indie developers and mass producers of RPGs, board games, card games, miniature wargames and all the associated accessories and paraphernalia that goes with them.

Thanks UKGE, thanks community and thanks traders. Can’t wait to do it all again in 12 months time.