Point of View: Circus Island

This is a microgame. This was given away for free at the 2024 Essen game fair. I should call this a brochure game, because it was given away by a guy walking the halls just like how brochures are given away. It's an advertisement. It's a free sample. Maybe this should be called a sample game. The idea is if you like the sample game, you'll visit the publisher's booth to try other games or buy the main game. 

These are all the game components - that small deck of cards above. Even the "game box" is just a folded card. This is a cooperative game. The key idea is four players are looking at the same scene but from different angles - north, south, east and west. Due to the different perspectives, what they can and cannot see are different, and they have different understandings about the situation they are looking at. The players are given several questions which they must answer together. They each get one card which they have to study and cannot share with others. They can only discuss what they see on their card. The more answers you get right, the higher you score. 

Point of View: Circus Island is just a demo game. The story is about a circus troupe stranded on an island. This photo above shows the perspective of the player to the north of the island. The three other players get different pictures. A question posed to the players may ask them to count a certain item. Some are only seen by only one player and blocked from view from the others. The player who can see it must alert their teammates. Some items might be visible to two or more players. When counting these, you have to be careful not to count them twice. Some questions may ask you about what you think has happened. You will need to look at clues in the pictures to piece together what might have occurred. 

This is a puzzle game and everyone works together to solve it. Everyone must contribute, because you are the only one who can see your picture. The copy I have is in German, so I needed to use my phone to translate while I played. If this sounds interesting to you, go look up their main game. 

Great Western Trail: El Paso

The Game

Great Western Trail: El Paso is the little brother in the Great Western Trail series. It is a simpler and shorter game, but it retains all the key elements of the original. This is not a children’s game version. This is still a mid-weight strategy game. Think of it as a game for the boss. The boss is busy and does not have time to waste. Get to the point and leave the details to the workers. El Paso gets rid of some details, and focuses on the core messages and decisions required. It is an executive summary of Great Western Trail. 

Every player has one cowboy which moves in a circuit, herding cows from the starting point to El Paso, and then returning to the starting point again to deliver a new batch. Every turn you move one to three steps, and you get to use the function of the building you stop at. You can build your own private buildings during the game, which will give you more options. 

Herding cows in this game translates to manipulating your hand cards to be as valuable as possible. The value of your hand is the card values added up, but only one card per colour is counted. So you want a hand of all different colours. Whenever you arrive at El Paso, you score points or gain benefits based on your herd value. You then discard your hand, and draw a new hand for the next cycle. This part of the game is a deck-building game. There are many ways you can increase your chances of having a high valued herd. You can buy higher valued cattle cards. You can permanently remove low valued cards. Some buildings allow you to sell cards. You get to discard cards to your discard pile and draw new and hopefully better cards. One action allows you to draw and discard. There is also a way to increase your hand size. All these help in improving your herd value.

You will recruit workers. El Paso handles this differently from Great Western Trail. I find it very clever. Workers are now cards, just like cattle. Okay this sounds wrong but I’m talking about game mechanism. Workers are now part of the deck-building mechanism. When you recruit, the worker is placed before you, ready to start work. Once you use a worker, they go to your discard pile. You have to wait for the next reshuffle for them to become available again. Whenever you draw a worker card, you immediately place it before you and draw another card. If you are lucky, after each reshuffle most of your workers are near the top and they all become available again quickly. 

There are three types of workers, plus a joker. Not joker as in they don’t do work and only fool around. Joker as in wild - they can do any task required of them. You need workers to buy cattle, buy buildings and use train carriages. The higher valued a cattle card is, the more workers you’ll need, and the more it will cost. The same goes for buildings and train carriages. Train carriages let you gain various benefits, like claiming missions to score points.

Whenever you complete a circuit, you are given an orange cow. This is just an average class cow. Useful in the early game but not at late game. You can’t choose not to take it. It’s something you have to manage. When the orange cow deck runs out, the game enters its last leg. How soon the game ends depends on player actions. If everyone speeds through the circuit, it will be a shorter game. 

The Play

El Paso is a strategy game in which you have to do long term planning. You need to keep increasing the value of you herd. You need to recruit employees and use them to get you better stuff. Despite the complexity, on your turn it comes down to just deciding to move between one to three steps. That's a good way to reduce decision paralysis. You only choose between 1 to 3. There may be a lot you want to do, but for now, just think of which one of the three is most relevant. This is almost like a life lesson. Stop worrying about the one hundred possibilities, just choose one thing to do and do it well today. 

Every time you complete a circuit, you must place your token on a space to claim a reward. The higher your herd value, the better a position you can use. Generally you can only use each space once, which means you are under pressure to perform better and better, otherwise you may not be able to place your token, which is bad. Being able to outdo yourself every cycle is satisfying. You do small things to keep elevating yourself. 

The Thoughts

In the Great Western Trail family of games, El Paso occupies an awkward spot. There are already several heavy weight games. A simpler and shorter version will not be interesting to players who already like the heavy and complex older brothers. These players are not going to mind the complexity and the longer play time. I find that El Paso has all the most important elements that make the original game fun, and it presents them in a cleaner and more succinct manner. You get the same fun with fewer rules and a shorter play time. But then that's me. I doubt I can convince people who like the original to like this. Many fans of the original enjoy its complexities. Removing some of the complexities is fine by me. I am not very attached to the original. I think the publisher decided to create a simplified version of Great Western Trail because they wanted to leverage its popularity to reach out to a new audience. People who are not interested in the original may be tempted to try a simpler and shorter version. If they like it, maybe they can then be enticed to try the original and others in the series. Gosh, I'm making them sound like drug dealers selling gateway drugs. 

Asian Board Games Festival (Malaysia) 2025

The Asian Board Games Festival (Malaysia) was held at 1st Avenue Mall, Penang, on 11 - 13 Jul 2025. This was the second time this event was run. I was there last year too. This year it was held over three days, Friday to Sunday, compared to just two days in 2024. This meant more stamina needed. Elder daughter Shee Yun went with me last year to help out, but mostly I did the demos and game teaching. This year she didn't join me, and I looked for local assistants through the organisers.

Four of us travelled together from Kuala Lumpur to Penang - Jon, Nick, Buddhima and I. This was our fresh and energetic "before" shot. We took it so that we could compare it with an "after" shot at the end of the event. 

The event started on Friday, and by Wednesday the tables and chairs had been set up. Exhibitors could start preparing on Thursday. We arrived Thursday afternoon. The event space this year was much larger than last year. The event was held on Ground Floor and First Floor in 2024. This year it was all in one single larger area on Second Floor. 

After doing our setup, we took the opportunity to play some games. This is Jom Burger, the latest game from Specky Studios. This is a light dice drafting game. 

Hiro is a designer and publisher from Kyoto, Japan. We had connected on Facebook some time ago, but this was the first time we met in person. I tried his new game Olenon and was really impressed with the design. I immediately bought a copy and also asked for an autograph. 

Friday morning and ready to roll! (still at full batt) 

This time I had my own little wooden display rack

Helmer (left) is a gamer from Norway. He read my blog on BoardGameGeek.com and my upcoming game Malaysian Holidays caught his attention. That was how we got connected. This was the first time we met in person. He is an expert in Asian culture and history, including holidays and celebrations. 

Giant Trishaw Frenzy

Pinocchio's first public play after launch

My cousin Jackson lives in Penang and came to support me. 

My booth stamp this year featured Pinocchio

“If you lie, you die!”

Group photo Friday evening (courtesy Kee Sit)

Saturday (Day 2) morning and we were already showing some wear and tear

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was published last year after ABGF, so it wasn't at ABGF 2024. This year was its first ABGF too alongside Pinocchio. However quite a few visitors had already played Ali Baba because I had distributed it to Penang through retailers. 

The booth of Meja Belakang - one of the most successful Malaysian publishers

Pinocchio in play

This group wanted to play Pinocchio but I still had another group at my booth. I hunted around for an unoccupied table so that I could teach them to play while my assistant taught the other group at my booth. That's why the tablecloth is not red. I use red as my brand colour. 

Thank you for your support! Quite a few visitors told me they had already played Ali Baba before and that they liked the game. That was nice. 

A group of six playing Pinocchio. Pinocchio plays 3 to 7 players. Later this group moved on to play Snow White and the Eleven Dwarfs. When I show people Snow White at conventions, the first reaction is often "how do you get such a game played at a convention?" However I do usually get it played despite the minimum player count of seven. People are attracted by the art, and they come ask whether they can play. When they don't have enough players in the group, I ask them to go grab strangers to play with them, or I try to grab other people passing by. Most of the time we manage to assemble seven. 

I taught Dancing Queen to this publisher team from Indonesia - Whatt Play

I knew Gazelle through a business community. Prior to this we were only connected online. She lives in Penang and came to visit, and this was the first time we met in person. 

We had our lunch + dinner at 11pm, after the end of Day 2

Sunday (Day 3) we had dimsum / yumcha before showtime

Freddie of Ludus / Larong Atin is an industry veteran in the Philippines. I asked for his help to give me feedback on my games Dancing Queen and Pinocchio, in particular whether they would be a good fit for the market in the Philippines. He also bought some stock of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Pinocchio to sell in the Philippines, to test the market. Friends in Philippines if you are interest in either of these game titles do reach out to them. 

The biggest gain for me this trip was getting to know many industry players from other countries in Asia, especially South East Asia. I learned a lot from speaking to them, and that's something money can't buy. 

Heng Hee's Papermade Duel made an appearance

Sunday was a very busy day. My booth sales was better than the previous two days. 

This year I engaged several helpers for my booth, so I had the opportunity to go try the games at other booths. Last year I was 100% stuck at my own booth and I didn't get to play other people's games. This year I was able to meet many more people and have good conversations. Getting decent sales is good, but more important is the publicity, marketing, networking, exploring collaborations and opportunities, and learning from others. 

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

Over the three days, my booth was almost always fully occupied except for Day 1, which was Friday and a work day. I was lucky to get a booth right at the front. I had a very visible spot. 

BGN from Thailand had a giant poster

Thank you for supporting my game!

At the end of Day 3 I had a game exchange with Play Logue from Singapore

It always makes me happy to see a happy customer, and dayum he looks 5x happier than I am

Nicholas was of the helpers who assisted me at my booth

Tom (小东老师的卓游乐园) from Taiwan brought many fun party games and also showcased a few small and clever abstract games. After trying Coco Boom (爆爆椰) and having a blast I bought a copy. I'll write more about it later. 

Behind the scenes: packing up after 10pm on Sunday

Movers at work

We still looked full of energy, but actually we were all exhausted. I only had 3 or 4 hours of sleep every day. However it was great working together with friends who share the same passion and mission. 

Just to be a show-off, I quickly made this Instagram post after the event. I should have brought more copies. I was pleasantly surprised when Note from Wisebox (Thailand) told me that Snow White is being sought after in Thailand, and he wanted to buy all the copies I had with me in Penang.