The 2024 Cleveland Gaming Classic convention, Sept 20-22 at the I-X Center went bigger with arcades, games, vendors, special guests and non-profits. 

This year, thanks to more special guests and activities, the convention was more lively with gamers coming from as far away as Oregon and California to Cleveland to meet people like Ed Boon, one of the creators of the famous fighting game Mortal Kombat.

In this year's convention, Indie games such as Echo Blade made by Sunset Arctic Games returned for gamers to test out.

New games were also on display for attendees to test their skills.

“I started getting interested in game development in high school because it had a game development class but I'm mostly self-taught,” said Mike Thomas programmer at Wither Studios. “Most of the skills I learned honestly was just going online and looking at different ways you can make games because back then the game engine Unity wasn't even around so for me I would play around with modding games like Skyrim and making smaller games.”  

Wither Studios only consists of six people who were able to show off for the first time a demo of their new game “The House of Hamelin” a rouge-like card game with horror elements that requires players to think carefully to make progress. 

The game is still a work in progress and has no release date. Check out Wither Studios Twitter for more updates. 

The convention also hosted one of the biggest reunions for Mortal Kombat with Kerri Hoskins and Sal Divita who did motion capture and voice acting for iconic characters like Sonya Blade and Nightwolf. Co-creators,  Boon who has worked on Mortal Kombat for 30+ years and John Tobias who also worked on the original games, were also present for the Q&A.

“I suppose I would summarize Mortal Kombat as something that's been part of my life longer than it's not been in my life and it's allowed me to celebrate with good people like you guys,” said Boon, co-creator of Mortal Kombat, Chief Creative Officer at NetherRealm Studios and voice of Scorpion. “I'm hoping that someday it's considered, a forever franchise something that just lasts a long time kind of like DC, Marvel and Star Wars.”

After the Q&A Co-Founder, the President of the Raiden Science Foundation Tommy Pham explained that the Mortal Kombat reunion and many of the events were not only there to celebrate gaming but were there for the Cleveland Gamings non-profit campaign “CGC for the Cure” to raise money and reach the goal of $50,000 for the Raiden Science Foundation to help kids like his son Raiden, a four-year-old boy battling the rare UBA5 disorder.

If you would like to support or donate click this link for more information.

The Cleveland Gaming Classic Convention will return next year in the I-X center on Sept. 20, 2025.