Lock & Load GameFest 2015 is just more than a month away—six weeks at the time of this writing, likely less by the time this article finally hits the website and is in front of you. Yesterday Michael Plummer talked a little bit about the history of Lock & Load. Today I want to talk about something new and very exciting for this year—Hangouts.

I’m not a soothsayer; I’ve never pretended to have the gift of future sight. Just the same, I can 100% tell you that right now, the very instant when you read this, the halls of Privateer Press are a bustle of frenetic activity, a mixture of electrifying excitement and last-minute jitters as we all work to make sure this Lock and Load is the best one yet.

Lock & Load 2015 will mark the fifth time we’ve done the show, and while you might argue it should get easier and more predictable the more you do something, my reply to that would be such things only happens if you don’t strive to constantly push the envelope. Much like everything we do at Privateer Press, we’re never content to rest on our laurels. Every year since the event’s debut in 2011, we’ve put our all into making the next year’s Lock & Load more awesome and epic than the last.

While there is a whole bunch I could talk about for this year, I think one of the biggest innovations for this Lock & Load aren’t about more space, more gaming, or even more prizes (of course we have all that). Instead, I think what will prove to be the cornerstone of the Lock & Load 2015 experience will be that we’ve pulled out all the stops to give attendees and staff more interactions.

For the last four years, Lock & Load has offered attendees unprecedented access to the people who make up Privateer Press. We worked our hardest to give everyone an inside look at the “secrets” of the Privateer Studio, Game Development, Sculpting, and the Writing teams through a diverse collection of seminars and presentations. And while we’ve been quite happy with how those worked out, we knew we could do better.

One of the best things about Lock & Load has always been the opportunity it gives both staff and our players to interact with each other face to face. Seminars also expanded this to a greater degree, but the problem was that the classroom environment seemed to stifle some potential for a more open and free-form dialog. In addition, the rigid scheduling requirements meant attendees sometimes found themselves stuck choosing between a game or an event that ran a little long or the seminar itself.

So, after some lengthy discussion, we came to what now feels like the obvious conclusion: get rid of the classroom and instead open up the format of the seminars to truly be a relaxed community event where attendees could come and go as they please, ask the questions they want to ask in a very personal and casual setting, and, depending on the topic, even engage in some hands-on experiences with the staff hosting the event.

Thus was the idea of the Hangout born. And it’s one I really think is going to make Lock & Load 2015 unlike anything that’s come before as attendees can do some painting under the direct guidance of Ron Kruzie and Matt Dipietro or talk about the world of the Iron Kingdoms with Doug Seacat and Matt Goetz. You can even drop in and play games with the actual designers while discovering more about the process of how we go from ideas to final products with Ed Bourelle and me.

Best of all, there’s no registration or appointments required to participate, and no requirement to hang out any longer than you want. Got a single question? Drop in and get it answered. Want to spend a couple hours talking about all the random and wonderful minutia of western Immoren? Then this year is the one for you.

So come on—personalize your own Lock & Load GameFest 2015 experience with us this June at the Maydenbauer Center in Bellevue!