Boardgaming in photos: about Malaysia and holidays

Once in a while I do a gathering with Ruby, Edwin and Benz, my ex-colleagues. This time Xiaozhu had a last-minute matter to attend to and couldn't join us. I asked them to help me playtest Malaysian Holidays. They are all big fans of Japan, so when the Japan destination card came out, everyone was keen to score it. 

I initiated a small collaboration project with fellow designers and publishers in Malaysia, to help one another promote and sell games. I place some of my games with them, and they place some of theirs with me. Whenever I attend any boardgame related event or gathering, or even on some private occasions, I bring a bag of local-published games to sell. Doing boardgame publishing in Malaysia is difficult. You wouldn't be doing it if not for a great passion for boardgames. The market in Malaysia is tiny. It is underdeveloped. There are Malaysian gamers. Most play international games and not many pay attention to local games. I was one such gamer myself. Local designers and publishers need to work together to grow the local market. 

A gamer from Belarus visited Malaysia, and bought a copy of Dancing Queen. I'm always excited to learn that Dancing Queen has reached yet another country. Even I have not been to Belarus. 

Those few days after the designer diary of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was released on BoardGameGeek, I received several international orders. They kept me busy packing games and making post office runs. I'm happy to be able to sell my games internationally. The effects of publishing this designer diary remind me that I need to do a better job at marketing my games. A big part of doing publishing well is marketing, and I know it is one of my weaknesses. Also it is not exactly what I enjoy doing. Just that I know I should be doing it. I still hope to find good publishers for my games. I would prefer to let people with the skills and the reach to do it than to do it myself. I enjoy doing the game design and development part. 

One first time experience for me was selling to a gamer from Saudi Arabia. Being able to sell Ali Baba, an Arabian themed game, to a buyer from Saudi Arabia is a wonderful feeling. 

I had the joy of playing again No Thanks. This is a game from 2004, which was roughly when I got into the hobby. I remember first playing it using cards from Category 5 (6 Nimmt). I also remember playing a copy at Witch House in Taiwan. For many years I never properly owned this game. Only last year I bought the latest version. Now it comes with expansions. I have not yet played the expansions. I find even the base game great fun. We did a 6 player game.

In this game you want to minimise taking cards, because the numbers on the cards are all negative points. Every round a card is revealed and when your turn comes, you either take it or pay money to a pool. Money is positive points. The pool will grow. When you take a card, you take the money in the pool too. So at some point the pool will be attractive enough for people to be willing to take the card. Sometimes someone will run out of money and will be forced to take the card. The important twist in the game is when you have consecutive numbers, only the lowest number in the sequence counts. If you have the 24, you do not fear the 25. The 25 card does not affect you, but it's minus 25 points to others. You will be happy to let others contribute a ton of money to the pool before you take the card. It's a simple game, but very clever. 

This is a game design I am working on - Sabah Honeymoon. This is my entry for a game design competition run by an organisation based in Singapore which promotes trade and tourism in Sabah. I come from Sabah, so I was excited to learn about a competition which is about my home state. This time I decided I needed to make a game with a board. I feel to make a game about tourism, having a map makes the game more relatable. 

Buddhima and Jon helped me playtest Sabah Honeymoon and gave me several good suggestions. 

My old friends Ah Chung and Moh Yen helped me playtest Malaysian Holidays. I have two works in progress related to holidays. I have decided that Malaysian Holidays will proceed to publication. I hope this can be released in 2025 too. However this publishing project may be a little different from my previous games. Hopefully it works out. 

Malaysia is a country with many public holidays. I wanted to make a game which is relatable for Malaysians, and I thought this topic of public holidays would be great. On social media, every year near the end of the year there will be people doing analyses about the public holidays of the following year. They list public holidays which fall on Mondays and Fridays, because these mean long weekends. They also list public holidays which fall on Tuesdays and Thursday, because by taking a one-day annual leave (on Mondays or Fridays) you can have a four-day stretch of holidays. You can plan traveling during these long weekends. This kind of thinking is common among Malaysians. The game aims to convey the joy of public holidays. Photo courtesy of Choon Ean.