Capital City Gaming Con 2026

Welcome to Capital City Gaming Con!

Capital City Gaming Con is the Des Moines area board gaming convention. We believe in bringing people together through board games.

Badges

Early Bird Full Weekend badges are available May1st-June 1st 2026. Full weekend and single day badges will be available once Early Bird closes. Badges are available by clicking the "Buy Badges" button to the right. Once again, to honor our loyal attendees, we will be offering a discounted Early Bird Badge. We will offer these for a limited time before badges will return to full price. Badge sales will pause a week before the convention to allow us time to prepare and print. Badges will be available for purchase at the door.

Game Library, Play-to-Win, and Prizes

Your badge includes all these benefits!

We are excited to bring back Board Game Wagon to provide our game library. They will have a curated selection of more than 1500 games for you to choose from! Library Hours (approximate) Friday: 12pm-11pm; Saturday: 8am-11pm; Sunday: 8am-3pm

We will also have play-to-win games (play a designated game and be entered into a drawing to win a copy of that game), tournaments with prizes, and prizes for helpers!

Events & Tournaments

Badge holders can reserve tickets for the events and tournaments during Capital City Gaming Con. The tickets are free (except for some special events where listed) and allow the badge holder to reserve a seat at the table for that particular event or game. Event signups close a week before the con and we will transition to in-person signups for events. The event signups will be located in binders at the registration desk. Reserving tickets is a great way for people new to the convention to get started.

Capital City Gaming Con will also host a series of "special events" that includes tournaments (with prizes) and events hosted by the con or community partners like local/regional board game businesses or influencers. We strive to offer a variety of experiences for badge holders.

Badge holders can also host events. Attendee submitted events will transition to our convention page on the Meeple Meet app. Check out their site for a demo on how the app works. Sign up dates will shift as we transition some of our scheduling to Meeple Meet. We apologize for the push back of the sign up dates, but think you'll love the real-time app to schedule games.

Children

Children ages 5-10 can register for a $10 kids badge or get a regular badge. Kids badges cannot be used to checkout games or be entered into the Play-to-Win drawing. Children 11+ will need a full badge.

Food

Due to our contract with the hotel, we are not allowed to bring in food trucks or other food sellers. The hotel offers breakfast from 7am-9am dinner from 5pm-9pm, and the lobby bar is open from 5pm-10pm (except Sundays). There are many local food options available by delivery through third party delivery services like Door Dash, Uber Eats, and Grub Hub.

Parking

The convention has a dedicated entrance. The best place to park is on the north end of the building, where there is a separate entrance for our convention! There is also a very large parking lot around the north and east ends of the building (400 free parking spaces!).

Policies

To see the rest of our attendee policies, click [here]