boardgaming in photos: playtesting at Apollo

7 Feb 2026. We had a playtesting session at Nasi Kandar Apollo on a Saturday afternoon. I didn't manage to take photos of every game played, not even every game that I played. I did a rough playtest of one idea I came up with just the day before. I wanted to make a simple card game that can be played on a road trip, needing no table. Everyone has a stack of 5 cards. They are ordered. The highest number cycles back to the smallest. Your deck represents a circle of rooms you will be moving through. Your topmost card is the room you are in. To move to an adjacent room, you either move your top card to the bottom, or you move your bottom card to the top. That means you will move to the next smaller or higher number. I get this idea from Revolver Noir. Every round everybody moves once, and then the active player announces a number. Then everybody shows their room. If you are in a room of that number, the active player takes your card and scores a point for it. You draw a card and insert it at the right place. It's very simple. The memory element is pretty heavy though. I'm not sure yet whether I will continue to work on this. I playtested this using just a normal deck of poker cards. 

This is Jon's money laundering game. The idea is we all run illegal businesses, and we have to launder our dirty money in order to fully use it. Money is victory points. There will be police raids and if you don't clean your money in time, you may lose your hard earned money. It's dirty money, but still, it's hard earned. 

Qing Ye lost lots of illicit goods several times, due to the unfortunate (for him) timing of the police raids. In this game you have to set up legitimate businesses in order to launder money. Not necessarily laundry shops. Restaurants work too. 

Faris brought one very pretty and complex-looking game, but I did not get to try it. All of us Malaysian designers are pinning our hopes on him to make it big in Eurogames internationally. He designed Philharmonix. 

This is Chee Kong's Slow Life Academy. There are four tracks where you get to advance your markers, and only the players with the highest and second highest markers will score points. There is a value marker you need to advance too, and it determines how many points the leaders score. You have cards numbered from 0 to 3, and you play them simultaneously. Only the highest card gets to advance. If you win with the powerful 3, you only advance one step. However if you win with the lowly 1, you get to advance four steps. If you win with a 2, you advance two steps. I find this quite clever. When you play a 0, you won't win, but you will advance the value marker. This can present a dilemma. If you give up on a track and don't want to waste any of your higher cards, the 0 you play will help the winner score more points. 

Another fun twist is the tracks wrap around. If the value marker or any of the player markers exceed 8, they go back to 1. If you do too well, you may accidentally end up losing. If the value marker gets pushed too far, it resets to a low value. I find this game promising and I'm looking forward to it. 

Jon has complained to me several times that he's not good at designing simple dumb games for the mass market. No it's not the type of games that seasoned gamers like us enjoy, but I told him he could do it. And he did. This is his haunted house game. It's a simple push-your-luck game. You flip over cards one by one and you try not to exceed 10 hearts. If you do, you gain nothing on your turn. You can stop drawing cards any time to take whatever you have so far. When the game ends, the player with the most cards wins. The player holding the fiery skull cannot win. If you go bust, you'll take the fiery skull. Some cards when drawn make the player with the fiery skull lose a card, after which if anyone else has the most cards, the fiery skull is passed to him. The game is very simple and I think this will work well for the casual crowd. I must say I enjoy it too. 

This is Qing Ye's Georgetown, about the various historical figures and organisations in Georgetown, Penang. You buy and sell goods, and manipulate the prices to your advantage. You build a tableau which helps you score points. It's a light strategy game with fun combos. 

With Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year) coming up, some of us met up for a lousang. Lousang is a Malaysian / Singaporean Chinese thing. It's a ritual where we wish for good fortune for the coming year. 

I playtested Pilgrim Poker with some of my BNI friends. They are trainers and coaches like me, and I did a sharing session about how I develop and playtest games. They found it fascinating. It was a good opportunity for me to playtest my game with people new to it. 

Jetta is a trainer friend from Hong Kong. I visited him in Hong Kong late last year, and I didn't expect we would meet again so soon, this time in Malaysia. He had a training job here. 

Jetta likes real-time games. I showed him Escape: The Curse of the Temple. We only did the basic game for our very first game, and we lost rather horribly. I thought we'd do okay since we were both seasoned gamers, and I had played the game before. It was fun to lose. This photo above was for a later game after we added the curses and the treasures. We won this one. 

Some of the curses I had

I showed Jetta Take Time. It's a little easier as a 2-player game. I enjoy it more with four because it's more challenging. Still we didn't always win, even at Level 1. I should play this like a campaign. Find three other people who will accompany me to do this whole thing over several sessions, all 40 challenges from Level 1 to 10. 

When we played Cat Between Us, we had a perfect tied game. For three consecutive rounds both of us had perfect scores (or purrfect scores), landing exactly where the cat was. So it was a perfect tie. Maybe this game is a bit easier to play with two players too. 

Popcorn

Popcorn is a game about running your own cineplex. You buy screening rights for movies, you attract cinema-goers and you upgrade your cinema halls to provide great movie experiences. You have to keep your list of movies fresh, taking down movies before customers completely dry up and showing new movies to attract customers. While scoring points (points are called popcorn here), you need to take care of your cashflow because you need money to buy new movies and upgrade your theatres. 

You have three halls at your cinema and they will show different movies. Cinema halls can fit between one to three customers. Some seats have special abilities. You enjoy these benefits only if the customer you arrange to sit there match the seat colour. Grey seats are wild, so as long as you have a customer, you get the benefit. In the third hall above, the seat is blue, so you need a blue customer there to be able to earn that extra money. 

Customers are handled using a deck-building mechanism. In Popcorn this is physically implemented as bag-building. Depending on your audience level, you draw a number of customers from the bag every round, and you try to seat them in your halls. Customers you manage to seat will give you benefits not only based on the seats, but also based on the options offered by the movie. When your bag runs out of customers, you return used customers to your bag and continue drawing. During the game you can take customers of specific colours from the common supply or from other players, and you can also remove your own customers from circulation, returning them to the common supply. Depending on the kind of movies you have and the types of seats you have, you will prefer customers of specific colours. In this game colours mean movie genres, like comedy, action, drama. 

Movies have a limited lifetime. There are four segments on the left side of a movie, showing four different benefits. The right customers can help you claim these. At the end of every round, the bottommost visible segment will be covered and becomes unavailable. When all four segments are covered, the movie expires and you can no longer show it. Of course you don't necessarily have to wait until then to replace it with a new movie. You can do so earlier. 

Your actions are pretty simple. You buy movies from a common pool. You buy halls. If you have invested in marketing in the previous round, you can attract specific customers to your pool of customers. After everyone has performed actions, you move on to screening movies and scoring points and other benefits from doing so. 

One of the ways to score points is through the objective cards (those on the right in the screenshot above). You start the game with one, and during the game you can draw more. Objective cards specify conditions you need to fulfil by game end in order to score points. They can be in the form of sets of customer + movie + seat of a specific colour. You keep all movies you have shown throughout the game. However when you replace a hall with a new one, you don't keep the old hall or the seats in it. Your pool of customers can change during the game. You can add or remove customers. Others may steal your customers too. 

Popcorn was much more fun than I expected. I had not heard of the game before, and I didn't really know what to expect. It didn't seem like much from playing the tutorial on BoardGameArena.com. However the movie theatre theme really does kick in and I found myself enjoying the game. The movie spoofs are funny. I have to be on my toes preparing to buy the next movie before a currently showing movie runs dry. Even Titanic will eventually run out of viewers. You have to watch your opponents. If you are going for the same colour as another player, it will likely be painful for both of you. You'll be fighting over the same customers, movies and halls (seats). I find some of the objectives rather hard to achieve, especially those that require that I have few white customers. I think I need to specialise in a certain genre from early on to be able to achieve such an objective. 

Some parts of the game are tactical. When an opportunity arises, you grab that movie or that hall. There are some quick wins you shouldn't miss. This is about analysing the current situation and recognising patterns. You should still have a longer-term strategy, specialising in some genres, and working towards some of your objectives. The four genres in the game have different characteristics. Action movies get you points quickly. Comedies let you increase your audience. Dramas help you with money and objective cards. Looking at it this way, this sounds like a deck-building game. 

At the end of the game, it is satisfying to review all those movies I have screened at my cineplex. I have Top Gun, Fast & Furious and The Godfather! And I think that's Pretty Woman. 

Popcorn is a light- to mid-weight strategy game. It will work as a family game. You get to enjoy the fun bits of running a cineplex without worrying about the downsides, like cleaning up all that popcorn on the floor at 2am. 

Miams

In Miams (I think it means yummy in French) you roll five dice and try to get combinations which will score you points. Normally you get one reroll, and you get to choose which dice to reroll. Throughout the game you gain abilities which let you manipulate the dice and do other things which help you score points. The game ends when anyone reaches 50 points. 

The die faces are different types of fruits, and one cross. That cross helps your opponents. You always have at least one reroll. Which dice to reroll depends on what you are aiming for. Sometimes you take risks. When you already have a pair, you may choose to reroll one of them to attempt to make five different fruits. You might fail and get nothing. Or you may choose to sacrifice a full house to attempt a four of a kind or five of a kind. When you reroll a fruit die, you are also taking the risk of rolling a cross which will help your opponents. 

On the player sheet you can see all the combinations you can attempt. Most of them are simply rolling multiple dice of the same fruit. Then there's a full house, and 5 different fruits. Whenever you manage to make a combo, you score the next available number in the row by drawing a heart around it. If an opponent rolls a cross, you get to cross off a number on your sheet. You don't score it, but crossing a number makes the next one available, so you will potentially score more points on your turn later. 

At some positions you earn stars. This is a currency for you to buy those power cards on the right. That column of power cards work like a sushi belt, always moving downwards. The bottom card is always free, so you can always take one card on your turn even if you have no star. These powers are important in helping you make good combos. They can also help you score points in other ways too. Some of these are ongoing abilities, like being able to treat one fruit as another type. Some are single use, for example scoring 3 points per orange rolled. 

Sometimes you get extra rerolls. Sometimes you get to roll an additional die. All these help towards making better combos. Sometimes combinations of powers can be particularly potent. 

The game is quick and easy. There is certainly some luck. However there are interesting decisions you need to make along the way. You want to make good use of the power cards. Stars are worth points when the game ends. Sometimes it's not easy to decide whether to spend them to help you cross the finish line faster, or to keep them for points. Which combo to go for is not always easy to decide. The game is a race to 50. It's exciting to watch what your opponents roll. 

Chu Han

Chu Han is a two player shedding game (or climbing game). You play multiple rounds, and you win a round by playing all your cards before your opponent. You score points based on the number of cards remaining in your opponent's hand. There are a few other ways to score points. The game ends when someone exceeds 31 points. 

Cards go from 1 to 9. There are nine 1’s, eight 2’s, seven 3’s and so on up to just one 9. There is also a single 0. There is no suit concept. When you play cards, you play either singles or multiples of the same number. There are no straights or full houses or any other combinations. Smaller numbers might be weaker, but it is easier to make bigger sets with them. For the higher numbers you can’t make bigger sets because there aren’t that many cards in the game. 

So far, nothing too peculiar yet. What makes the game come alive is the special abilities of some of the cards. Every 3 and 6 has a unique ability. The 0 is a joker and can be turned into any other number. If you manage to play six 2’s you immediately score 6 points, which is a lot. The 0 (joker) can help you with this because it can be your sixth 2 when you only have five. 

Every round after cards are dealt, there are still some left in the deck. You will have some idea which cards your opponent might have, but not precisely. This is something you have to be aware of. There are 46 cards in the game, and each player is dealt 15, leaving 16 in the draw deck. If you don’t have a card, there is half a chance that your opponent has it. You can draw two cards on your turn by taking a writ. There are two risks. You may draw bad cards which make it harder instead of easier to go out. Also if your opponent wins the round, he scores extra points based on the writs you have taken. 

The 3’s and 6’s have many different powers. One 6 can be played to specifically defeat the single 9. So your 9 is not necessarily invincible. Another 6 allows you to not respond, forcing your opponent to play the next set to defeat his own set. Using this power sometimes lets you win the hand because your opponent can’t respond. There is a 3 which lets you play a set of different numbers, and they are treated as the smallest number in the set. This can allow you to play many cards at one go, taking your opponent by surprise. It can even help you play a set of six 2’s and score the bonus. There is a card which cancels the power of another card just played. And then there is a card which cancels this cancel power. 

You can examine the discard pile, so the game becomes quite strategic. Based on how your opponent has been playing, you can make decent guesses at which cards he might have left. 

This above was one interesting situation. I played against Han. I had only one card left. He played a 9, the highest card in the game. Normally only one card can beat that, the 6 named Liu Bang. However my last card was Xiang Yu (also a 6). Xiang Yu's ability was to double the victory points for the rest of the hand while passing. Technically I lost this hand, because I passed, but I had played my last card, which meant I won the round. The various interactions of the card powers create interesting situations like this. 

Chu Han certainly offers the shedding game experience. You have to start devising a plan to go out right from the get go. Or if your hand is horrible, maybe you can only plan for minimising losses. The game is not about playing as many cards as possible immediately. You may feel a lot of pressure if your opponent plays many cards early in the round. However your ultimate goal is to go out. You don't necessarily have to rush. It is very much possible to come from behind, if you are able to keep playing sets that your opponent fails to respond to. Based on how your opponent plays, you get hints about what kind of hand he might have. 

The special powers of the cards create the character of this game. It is not just the card distribution and the core mechanism. The game becomes more fun after you get familiar with the characters. You start thinking about counter moves, and how to counter those counter moves. You can better anticipate your opponent's moves. I find Chu Han exciting and clever. 

Chu Han is designed by Tom Lehmann. His Race for the Galaxy is one of my favourite games, a game I have played more than 2200 times. Chu Han is published by Matagot, and so is my game Dancing Queen. It's exciting for me to know that I share this link with the designer of one of my all time favourite games. 

Altay: Dawn of Civilization

Altay is a civilisation and 4X game built on a deck-building engine. It is played on a simple map. Each player starts with just one small village. They defeat barbarians around them and build new settlements, expanding their territory. 

The map shows different terrain types. Specific terrain types that you control can help you boost your production of certain resources. Some territories with banners are worth bonus points and may be contested more fiercely. In this screenshot many territories still have defense tokens. These are the barbarians you need to defeat before you can settle those lands. These tokens are worth points, and some give you a resource when you claim them. 

There are four different tribes in the game, and they have different starting decks. You can categorise this as a deck-building game, because everything you do is subject to the cards you draw. During the game you can buy better cards to improve your deck. There are ways to remove weak cards too. 

Some cards simply generate resources for you. Resources not spent at the end of your turn will be converted to gold. In future turns, you can spend 5 gold to buy any single resource. It's a poor exchange rate, so ideally you try not to have any leftover. Some cards allow you to build a new village or to upgrade one. Every player has a number of village tokens, and the game ends when one player uses all his tokens. In battle, when you defeat your opponent you take one of his village tokens from the map. These are worth points. 

This is one example of a card you can buy. Some cards have point values (purple banner). This Worker card can produce one of three resource types. It gives you good flexibility. 

Some cards allow you to attack or defend. You can attack either a neighbouring barbarian, or a neighbouring opponent village. The village you attack from counts for your attack strength, for example when attacking from a size 2 village (you can call that a town), your base strength is 2. When you are attacked, you can play military cards to defend yourself too. 

You are going to construct buildings for your civilisation. These are divide into three tiers. Each higher tier building must be supported by a lower tier building. You can never have more buildings of a higher tier than a lower tier. All buildings have special abilities, and the gold tier ones help you score points at game end. You also get your own unique gold tier building, and that's something you can plan for from the start. You don't necessarily have to build it, but since it's something you already know from the start, you probably want to customise your play around it and plan to score many points from it.

The Triumphal Arch is a gold tier building - a monument. Buildings often take several turns to complete, as you accumulate the required resources. You can only work on one building at a time. 

So far I've played two games of Altay, and both were 3-player games. The first one was rather lopsided. Han and Jon started next to each other, and fought a lot in the early game. That left me free to develop my civilisation without any interference. I happily bought better cards and grew my empire on my side of the map. By the time they declared a truce and separately expanded towards me to contain me, I already had a strong lead and proved unstoppable. The second game was more normal. 

It is tempting to build big cities, because of their military strength. They are easier to defend, and they are strong in attacking adjacent territories. You can effectively create kill zones next to them. However  one way you score points is based on the number of territories with your villages, so if you are only controlling a few territories, you will lose out on this part of scoring. This is a little tricky. Building many small villages can give you many points, but they are more vulnerable. 

The deck-building mechanism is simple, compared to typical deck-building games. It is the core engine of the game. It's nothing fancy, so if you like deck-building games, you may not find this particularly interesting. It is linked to the board play, and not many other deck-building games have this. As a civilisation game, it feels a little generic and symmetrical. The tribes do start with different decks, and depending on which tribe you use, certain strategies might work better. The game system works. You get a decent civ game built on a deck-building engine. Come to think of it, I can't think of any games done this way, so I applaud this. I just get the feeling that the game works but it doesn't excite me. Logically and mechanically sound, but it doesn't tug the heart strings. Maybe the fictitious tribes don't work for me. Your mileage may vary. 

boardgaming in photos: Clans of Caledonia, Hanamikoji, Molly House, Caylus, Regicide

I took a screenshot of my list of games in progress at BoardGameArena.com. Just a snapshot of a moment in time. I spend much time in front of my computer, both for work and leisure, and I always have a browser tab with BGA open. Whenever it is my turn for one of the games I'm playing, a tiny triangle is animated at the tab. When I notice it I happily click to take my turn. 

I recently taught younger daughter Chen Rui to play Hanamikoji on BGA. This is such a lovely game. Only four simple actions per round, but boy they really make you pause and think! So much agony. We started with the standard game, but also tried some variants. The core rules are still the game, but the four action tiles are different. Hanamikoji has become a modern classic and I think that is well deserved. 

Caylus, arguably the first worker placement game. It was highly popular when it first came out. It popularised the worker placement mechanism in boardgames. I own a physical copy of this and so far it has survived every purge even though I have not played it for a long time. It is a milestone game in the modern boardgame history. 

The game takes quite long to play in asynchronous mode. I made several embarrassing blunders, e.g. claiming a spot to exchange money and cloth for a favour, and forgetting that I'm only getting that piece of cloth at a later building activation. It's fun to revisit an oldie. From 2005. 

I almost played Clans of Caledonia when I was back in my hometown, and now I have actually played it online with a different group of friends. This is another game with a long gap since I last played, so I had to relearn the whole thing. When I play such games, one thing I do is I reread my own blog post about them. It helps give me a brief summary and a strategic overview. At least I hope this helps avoid stupid mistakes from my previous plays. 

I took the MacKenzie clan, which specialises in brewing whiskey. I earned some extra money for brewing whiskey, and if I stored and aged them, I could make extra money too. 

There is contract fulfilment, and buying and selling goods affecting their prices. 

I played A Feast for Odin. I had many occupation cards but I didn't know how to utilise them well. They seemed to be useful only for very specific situations. I ended up not playing most of them, and for some I only played them for the four points. 

I played Molly House. This is quite a difficult game to learn to play because the rules are unusual. Although I have played it before, I still don't quite grasp the game. The first game we played ended abruptly with the following results. We didn't manage the gossip pile well, and there was a major crackdown. Everyone lost. 

When you chat on BGA, they are quite strict about the language you use and will warn you if you use potentially inappropriate language. So we couldn't joke about these results, which people familiar with contemporary Malaysian politics would probably make fun of. 

I thought I was getting pretty good at Regicide. I am currently not subscribed to a paid membership on BGA, but this is free to play, so sometimes I play it solo. I feel I know all the important tactics and I feel I apply them well. Sometimes I win comfortably and confidently. Yet sometimes I get into a losing streak. This is such a great game! Regicide Legacy will be reaching Malaysia soon, and I'm looking forward to that.