Southeast Board Game Convention 2026

Our Story

In late 2023, we started something simple.

Every Thursday, we gathered people in Enugu to play board games.

There was no convention. There was no established tabletop scene to build on. There was simply a group of people who believed that games could bring people together.

We kept showing up. New players discovered games for the first time. Friends brought friends. People who had never considered themselves “gamers” found themselves sitting around tables, learning rules, competing, laughing, and making new connections.

About a year later, that community gave us the courage to try something bigger. We created SEBCON — the Southeast Board Game Convention.

2024 - SEBCON 1. We self-funded our first convention as a proof of concept, taking the risk ourselves. More than 120 people came. They played, competed, learned, met people, and formed new friendships. We had our answer: there was a community here, waiting to be built.

2025 - SEBCON 2. We returned for a second edition and grew the event further. We also launched our first Kickstarter — and learned some hard lessons (more on that in Risks & Challenges below). SEBCON happened anyway. The community still showed up, and The Spiel Foundation stepped in to support us — a relationship that has since grown into an official partnership for 2026.

Today. There are more than 10 game-night communities and recurring gaming spaces across Enugu, and the culture is spreading. People and communities in other parts of Southeast Nigeria are embracing tabletop gaming too, with support from the network we've been building through Nzukọ Games and SEBCON. That work also includes taking games into schools and creating spaces where students and new players can discover tabletop gaming for themselves.

The goal was never just to run one good event. It was to build something that keeps growing after the event ends. SEBCON is becoming part of that.

What is SEBCON — and Why It Matters

SEBCON - the Southeast Board Game Convention is a tabletop gaming convention in Enugu, Nigeria, bringing together players, families, students, designers, creators, and gaming communities for a day of play, competition, discovery, and connection.

We believe games are more than something to do when you have nothing else to do. A game can give strangers a reason to talk. It can challenge people to think strategically, communicate, and solve problems. It can give a designer a way to tell a story, and a creator a way to express an idea. And it can give someone who feels like they don't belong anywhere a table where someone says: “You can play with us.”

Southeast Nigeria has millions of people, enormous creative energy, and communities full of people who love competition, storytelling, and social experience; but for a long time, there were very few dedicated spaces for modern tabletop gaming. We wanted to change that. SEBCON gives Southeast Nigeria its own seat at Africa's growing tabletop table, and we want to connect that seat to the rest of the continent and the world.

During SEBCON

For one day, Enugu becomes a meeting point for people who love games — and people who are discovering them for the first time. Here's what's on the table:

• Play 100+ games — from classics to the newest  Nigerian releases

• Meet African game designers and creators, and see their work up close

• Discover new games you've never played before

• Attend a workshop or industry panel

• Join a tournament or friendly competition

• Learn chess and strategy games across generations

• Get matched with a Game Master — someone who'll help you find a game you'll love and teach you the rules, no experience needed

Because sometimes all it takes to become a gamer is for somebody to sit beside you and say: “Come, I'll teach you.” 

 

Our Ask

For our first two editions, SEBCON ran largely on personal commitment, volunteers, and community support. That proved SEBCON could exist. Now we want to prove what it can become with the resources to grow it properly.

We're raising £3,800 (approximately US$5,000) to invest directly in the areas that will make the biggest difference to the 2026 experience — from venue and production, to the volunteers and Game Masters who run the day, to reaching people who've never heard of SEBCON before.

Here's exactly how it breaks down:

Rewards

We've deliberately designed every reward to be digital. International physical fulfillment can be expensive, unpredictable, and time-consuming, and we would rather put the campaign's money into the convention itself — the tables, people, outreach, and experience, than spend a large portion of it producing and shipping rewards. 

£10 — TABLE ALLY

You believe in what we’re building and want to see more people around the gaming table. Your support helps us put together a bigger and better SEBCON 2026.

REWARD:

• Digital thank-you from the SEBCON team
• Official SEBCON 2026 Supporter Badge

£20 — TABLEMATE

You’re not just supporting SEBCON — you’re joining the table. Your contribution helps us create more opportunities for people to discover, play and connect through tabletop games.

REWARD:

• Everything in Table Ally
• SEBCON 2026 Digital Wallpaper Pack
• Digital SEBCON Supporter Badge

£40 — COMMUNITY CHAMPION

You’re helping us bring more people into a growing gaming community. Your support helps SEBCON reach more players, families, students, designers and game lovers across Southeast Nigeria.

REWARD:

• Everything in Tablemate
• Your name in the digital SEBCON 2026 supporter credits
• Official Community Champion digital badge

£60 — GLOBAL TABLE MEMBER

Distance doesn’t stop you from being part of the table. You’re helping connect Southeast Nigeria’s tabletop community with players and supporters around the world.

REWARD:

• Everything in Community Champion
• Personal digital thank-you from the SEBCON team
• Early digital access to selected SEBCON 2026 recorded panels and sessions, where available

£100 — SEBCON AMBASSADOR

You’re helping carry SEBCON beyond Enugu. Your support helps us tell the story of Southeast Nigeria’s growing tabletop community to the wider world.

REWARD:

• Everything in Global Table Member
• Digital Nigerian tabletop art/content pack
• Official SEBCON Ambassador digital recognition
• Special acknowledgement in our digital supporter records

£250 — INDUSTRY & COMMUNITY SUPPORTER

You believe in the future of tabletop gaming in Nigeria and want to help us build something that lasts. Your support gives SEBCON greater reach and helps strengthen the community behind the convention.

REWARD:

• Everything in SEBCON Ambassador 
• Name on gaming table
• Prominent digital recognition as an Industry & Community Supporter
• Recognition across selected SEBCON 2026 digital campaign and post-event materials

£500+ — CONVENTION PATRON

You’re helping us build the future of tabletop gaming in Southeast Nigeria. This level of support goes beyond backing one convention — it helps us create a stronger gaming culture that can continue growing year after year.

REWARD:

• Everything in Industry & Community Supporter
• Personalized SEBCON Convention Patron digital certificate
• Special Patron acknowledgement from the SEBCON team
• Prominent digital recognition across selected SEBCON 2026 materials

Stretch Goals

Our first goal gets SEBCON 2026 funded. If the community takes us further, here's what we'll unlock:

$7,000 — Bringing communities to the table. We'll support gaming communities from Jos and Port Harcourt to travel and attend SEBCON — connecting more of Nigeria's tabletop scene in one room.

$10,000 — Growing school game clubs. We'll expand our school game club program — building on what we've already started at Roseville Secondary School — to reach more schools and put games directly into more classrooms.

$15,000+ — A home for gamers, all year round. Our long-term dream: a permanent board game space in Enugu, a boardgame cafe, somewhere gamers can call their own, year-round. A place to play, discover new games, meet other players, host events, and build community long after SEBCON's one day on the calendar ends. 


 

The Coming Years

SEBCON 2026 is one convention. It isn't the whole plan.

In the years ahead, we hope to build:

• More progressive gaming communities across Southeast Nigeria, not just in Enugu, but in every city willing to pull up a table

• Stronger local and international networks — connecting Nigerian designers, creators, and communities with the wider African tabletop movement and with the global tabletop community beyond

• Real international collaboration — more designers visiting, more Nigerian games reaching international audiences, more knowledge flowing in both directions

• A thriving African tabletop games economy and ecosystem — where designers can make a living, publishers can manufacture and distribute affordably, and games are treated as a serious creative and economic sector

SEBCON is one part of proving that tabletop gaming can grow anywhere people are willing to build community around it.

 

Other Ways to Help

Not everyone can back a Kickstarter and that's okay. Here are two other ways to be part of this:

Donate a game. If you're a designer or publisher and you'd like your game played and discovered at SEBCON, we want that too. Send us a direct message or send an email to nzukogames@gmail.com 

Share. Tell someone. Post it, forward it, mention it to the one friend who's always said they'd love to try board games but never had anyone to teach them. Maybe one day, they'll be the one sitting at a SEBCON table.

The Team & Partners 

See You at SEBCON 2026

In 2023, we started with a game night. In 2024, more than 120 people came to our first convention. In 2025, we returned, learned from our first Kickstarter, and kept growing. Today, more game nights are appearing across Enugu and Southeast Nigeria.

Now, in 2026, we're asking you to help us take the next step.

Whether you're a lifelong gamer, a designer, a publisher, a creator, a parent, a student, a community builder, or simply someone who believes people need more reasons to come together, there's a seat for you at this table.

Help us bring more people to the gaming table.