boardgaming in photos: more Exit games

Around the end of last year I bought four different games in the Exit series at one go. I'm not actually a super big fan of the series, or of puzzle games in general. However my family enjoys games in the series. When my wife Michelle suggested that we get some to play as a family, of course I agreed enthusiastically. I have played quite a few Exit games before. I didn't buy every single game, but I consider myself a veteran. However it had been a while, so I decided to get one easier game among the four to ease us back into playing. Thus this one The Enchanted Forest. Difficulty level is 2 of 5. This one is interesting because it uses many fairy tale elements. 

A typical Exit game is essentially a series of 10 riddles. Many are quite creative. You play in a cooperative manner trying to solve all the riddles in as short a time as possible. In case you get stuck, you can read hints provided. If you still can't solve the riddle, you can look at the solution so that you can move on to the next riddle. This is really a puzzle and not a game. I guess it depends on what you define as a game. 

One common element in Exit games is that round device at the bottom right. Every game has something like this. It is not a riddle. It is a mechanism to help you check whether your answers for the riddles are correct. The solution to every riddle is a three digit number. Every riddle has a shape associated with it. For example, if you want to check whether the answer for the triangle riddle is 375, you need to line up the triangle, 3, 7 and 5 on the round device, then check the number visible through the little window. This sounds a little complicated, but once you play with it, you'll quickly grasp how it works. Anyway, it's not a riddle in itself. It's just a mechanism to facilitate playing the game. 

The other components in the photo are all unique to this particular Exit game. Every Exit game has quite a few unique components needed for its riddles. 

The Enchanted Forest is indeed rather easy. It is too easy for my tastes. Some riddles felt more like following a procedure to calculate the answer. They were clear as daylight. There was nothing to be puzzled about. Thankfully there were some harder riddles. Eventually we had to use some clues too. If you are an experienced Exit player, I'd suggest you skip this one. If you are new, this is a good one to start with. 

It was easy, but we didn't score the full 10 stars. We used the free mobile app for timekeeping, score calculation and background sound effects. 

The Deserted Lighthouse is a little different from other Exit games I have played. It contains jigsaw puzzles. Yeah, there are puzzles in this puzzle. The box is larger. Difficulty level is 4 of 5, so this is a bit more challenging. 

These are the game components. One difference compared to other Exit games is it doesn't come with a deck of cards. Normally the cards are used for checking answers and for reading hints. In The Deserted Lighthouse these aspects are done in a different way. You still have the round device. When you use that to check your answer, you will get a sequence of shapes. If you can find that sequence on one of the booklets, it means your answer is correct. Else, you go back to the drawing board. As for the hints, they are written at the back of the rulebook. You can look them up there if you need help. The slight disadvantage is you need to resist the temptation to read other hints on the same page. Not a big issue though. 

The Deserted Lighthouse is quite tough. It really tests your problem solving ability and creativity. Unfortunately for me, it was also tough in the sense that I didn't fully enjoy the experience. We played in the evening, and as the game went on, we felt tired. When we encountered some of the more difficult riddles, we gave up easily because we didn't have patience to think harder or longer. We went for the hints, and sometimes the answers. Had we played during daytime, it might have been more enjoyable. Another problem I had was related to the colours and the text. I found some colours on the drawings hard to tell apart, and some writing hard to read. Better lighting or playing at daytime might have been better. 

It took us two and a half hours. No wonder we felt drained. I must say the riddles here are creative and interesting. If you like a challenge, this will satisfy that need. Just be prepared if you have poor eyesight, the game will be hard in an additional way. Have your reading glasses ready. Maybe even a magnifying glass. 

Asian Board Games Festival Penang 2024

 

I will be showcasing my games in Penang at the Asian Board Games Festival 20 - 21 July 2024. Who's in town? Come visit me and I'll teach you how to play in person! My booth will be on the Ground Floor.

Easy Breezy Travel Agency

The Game

Easy Breezy Travel Agency is a quick card game for 2 to 4 players. You are travel agents, and you collect travelers to form trip groups. Whoever makes the most money from organising trips wins. 

The game is set up like this. The 4x4 grid is a ticket price chart. The four columns represent price, from $1 to $4. The four rows represent four destinations - Miami, Chicago, New York and New Orleans. The cards within the grid are drawn from the four small stacks on the left. These are the transportation cards. They can be buses, trains or planes. Different modes of transportation carry different numbers of passengers. The positions of the transportation cards indicate the ticket prices. Prices always start at $1, but they can go up to $4. 

The four face-up cards on the right are the passengers. Some passengers want to go to a specific city. Some (I think of them as cheapskate backpackers) are happy to get a free ride anywhere. In this game you collect passengers, and when you get enough to fill the bus / train / plane, you claim the transportation card and make money (score points). How much you make depends on the number of paying passengers and the ticket price at the time. Backpackers help you fill seats if you struggle to get enough passengers. Just remember they don't pay. 

A turn is very simple. The available actions are straight-forward. What you will do most frequently is to take a card from those four face-up on the table. Each time you take a card and refill the pool, the new card from the deck may specify a price increase for one of the four destination cities. When this happens, you update the grid at the centre of the table, advancing the relevant transportation card. 

When you have enough passengers, you will be able to perform the second type of action, which is to claim a transportation card. You discard the passengers and you score points. You keep the transportation card for game end bonus scoring. A new transportation card for that destination will be drawn. It is priced at $1. The game end scoring is based on whether you have collected many transportation cards of the same city or mode of transportation. You will score more points if you collect many cards of the same city or mode of transportation. 

You may have at most four cards in hand. If you have more than that, any surplus is placed before you on the table. The cards are still yours, just that they are vulnerable to attack. Now the third thing you can do on your turn is to reorganise. As part of this action, you may place cards from your hand onto the table, you may force opponents to swap cards with you twice, and then you may take cards back into your hand. This is where the "attacking" happens, and where the concept of unprotected cards comes into play. Anything you have on the table in front of you are at risk. 

Each city card stack in the game has only three cards, of the three modes of transportation. So there are only 12 city cards in the game. The game ends when one city card stack runs out. This is something the players can manipulate. 

The Play

This is a light and quick game. Most of the time you are collecting passengers. You need to accumulate enough to claim the transportation cards. It is a race, and at the same time you hope to time the claiming of the transportation cards when the ticket price is the highest. There is a little brinkmanship here. Buses take two passengers (no more, no less), trains three, planes four. You can see what passengers your opponents have collected, so you know who are competing with you. Whether to use free riders is not always an easy decision. If you are desperate to grab the transportation card, you may have to resort to using them. Even when you will be missing out on points. Some points is better than having an opponent take the card before you can, or the game ending before you manage to take it. Yet, maybe if you wait for just a little longer you can get the right paying passenger, and that will give you a bigger profit. 

Whenever anyone takes a transportation card for a city, the next card to come into play always starts at $1. So if you miss cashing in at a higher ticket price, your passengers will suddenly devalue. 

The game end situation can be exciting. When you have enough passengers to claim the last transportation card of a city, do you do it immediately? If you are obviously leading then it's a no brainer. But if you are not exactly sure, it's not so simple. Do you let the game go on a little bit more so that you can score more points? But will that also allow your opponents to score even more? 

 

I have an ideal situation here. I have four paying passengers who want to go to Miami (yellow). The plane tickets to Miami are at $4 now, the highest rate. I will be able to score $16 at one go. However in case someone else claims the last Chicago (red) transportation card, the game would end before I can score my $16. 

The Thoughts

This is a light and breezy card game, just like the game title suggests. The rules are simple, but they create some interesting situations and decision angst. I find it an enjoyable filler. 

Pie Factory

 

The Game

Pie Factory is a light card game about making pies. The cards in the game are ingredients. There are three types of ingredients - crusts, fillings and toppings. Pies can be just the crust (probably not very interesting), or crust plus filling, or crust, filling and topping. You score points by completing pies and selling them. The game ends after you go through the deck twice. 

This is a 2-player game in progress. The two cards on the right determine player order. Player order is checked and can change every round. On the left there is an assembly line of cards. You can take cards from this assembly line. 

You only perform one action on your turn. You can play a card from your hand, play a card from the assembly line, draw a card from the deck to your hand, or box pies. Playing a card means adding it to a pie or starting a new pie. You can work on at most three pies at the same time. If you already have three, you will need to box them in order to be able to work on a new one. To start a pie you will always need a crust. Fillings can be put on crusts. Toppings cannot be simply added to any filling. The toppings only go well with specific fillings. 

The text and icon at the bottom of the card indicate what ingredient it is. The icon at the top right corner indicates what it can be placed on. In the photo above, the card on the left is a crust, so there is no icon along the top. This means you can play the crust directly onto the table as a new pie. The card in the middle is a topping. Along the top right corner you can see that the meringue topping only goes well with lemon, lime or chocolate fillings. The card on the right is a filling. So in the top right corner you see that it must go on top of a crust. 

The point value of a pie (when you box it) is the dollar value of its topmost card. When you box a pie, you score it, putting the top card in your score pile. The other cards go to the common discard pile. 

When you take a card from the assembly line, you must immediately play it. If there is no valid play, you can't take the card. Only some of the leftmost cards in the line are free. To claim the rightmost card, you must discard two cards from your hand. For the middle cards, you need to discard one. During a game round, if a player takes a card from the assembly line, the assembly line is not immediately refilled. This is only done at the end of the round. So player order is important. The early bird can get the free cards and also have more options. 

When refilling the assembly line, the cards are first shifted left to fill any gaps. Cards are then drawn from the deck to fill the rightmost spaces. So newer cards will be more expensive. 

The player order of the next round is determined by cards played in the current round. There is a preparation time at the top left corner of the cards. Whoever has the shortest preparation time gets to go first next round. If you do not play a card, i.e. you draw from the deck, or you box pies, you automatically go last next round. 

Some cards have an icon at the bottom left. This is the area majority aspect of the game. There are three main icon types - presidents, foremen and secretaries. At game end, you compare who has collected the most in each category. This gives bonus points. The icon in the photo above is not the secretaries. It is the grandma. This is a special card. If you have the grandma, during the president reckoning, you may convert one of your presidents to a foreman or secretary. 

The Play

The game is generally simple. The art is lovely. I found the change in player order every round tedious. The game procedure feels unnatural and unwieldy to me. When you play a card, you can't directly put it on your pie. You have to set it aside first, because after everyone has played, you need to compare prep time to determine the new turn order. I played many rounds and couldn't get used to the round procedure. It felt convoluted to me. When you pick a card from the assembly line, it must go directly into play, but when you draw a card from the draw deck, it goes into your hand. This may be a small difference, but I got confused and it made the game feel non-intuitive to me. 

You want to make pies of high values, and that means you want to make pies with crust, filling and topping. This seems to depend a lot on the luck of the draw. If a topping appears but you don't have the right filling, you are out of luck. You can't take the card into your hand, since anything you take from the assembly line must go into play in the current round. 

I can appreciate the importance of player order. You get more options, and you are more likely able to get a free card. In our game, we often had few or no cards in hand. That limited our options. First we couldn't take those cards from the assembly line which required discarding cards. That means we could either draw from the deck, or take the free card. The free card was not always playable, which meant we couldn't take it. Then we were left with just the blind draw. Maybe I just played poorly and I shouldn't have allowed myself to get into a situation with no cards in hand. 

Taking a card from the assembly line allows you to put a card into play with just one action, compared to drawing from the deck to your hand and then playing it from your hand, which is two actions. Instinctively, taking a card from the assembly line is the better option. It has double the efficiency. However when you have no hand cards, you can only take the free card, which severely limits your choices. Spending two actions allow you to do some planning and saving up of good cards. The cards go through your hand and you can do your strategising. However the cards are blind draws. Then you are dependent on luck. That doesn't seem fun. 

During play, you have to keep in mind the area majority competition - collecting cards with customer icons. The points from these are significant enough that you can't ignore them. 

My score pile at the end of a 2-player game.

The Thoughts

Unfortunately this is a game I doubt I will play again. The art is nice. It's a generally simple game. However I find the gameplay unintuitive and tedious for the amount of fun I get out of it. It also felt restrictive and it didn't allow me to plan or strategise much. 

Furmation of Rome

The Game

Furmation of Rome is a light card game for 2 to 4 players. Rome is being established, and you are one of the leaders building the city state. As you build the nation, you are also competing to be the most influential. Whoever can obtain the support of the most citizen classes will become the first emperor of Rome. 

There are six citizen classes - consul, clergy, legionary, philosopher, farmer and brigand. Each has a different token. 

Depending on the number of players, you will remove certain cards. For example monuments are used for 3 players or more. Brigands are used only for 4 players. The number of cards in each citizen class is important information, and you can look up those number on these reference cards. 

Citizens in the 6 classes

A player turn is simple - you play a card and you take a card. When playing a card, you can use it in one of two ways. You either place it before you to make it your supporter, or you discard it to use the power written on it. Players compare the number of supporters they have in all classes, and the token always goes to whoever has the most supporters (cards) in the specific citizen class. Using the power of a card means not being able to keep the card as your supporter, but sometimes the powers are very helpful and can turn the tide. 

When you take a card, you choose from three face-up cards at the centre of the table. It is not a blind draw from the deck. You get to choose. However your opponents can see what you have picked. 

The game ends after the deck runs out and all cards at the centre have been taken. You play all your hand cards as supporters, and then do scoring. Every token you have is 1 point. The player with the most points wins. 

With three or four players, the monuments come into play. If you have the monument and also fulfil the requirement of having three specific citizens, it scores 1 point for you. 

Brigands are used only when you have four players. These "supporters" are not played into your own supporters area. Instead they are "gifted" to an opponent. At game end, the player holding the brigand token loses 1 point. There is aggression in this game. Trailing players can gang up on the apparent leader by using brigands. 

This is a two-player game setup. There are three face-up cards at the centre of the table. You always pick a card here when you refill your hand. Your starting hand is three cards. There is a mistake here. With two players, brigands are not in play, so there should not be any brigand token. 

The Play

Gameplay is simple and smooth. On your turn, you are just playing a card and picking a card. Which classes to compete in somewhat depends on your initial draw of cards. How well you can compete depends on what cards become available at what time. You must also consider who else is competing with you. This is an area majority game. That means you can't fight everywhere. You have to pick your battles. If you try to be everywhere, you will lose everywhere and end up with nothing. You would be spreading your resources too thin. Whether to make a card your supporter or to use its power can be tricky. A supporter seems to be more permanent and reliable. Yet sometimes the powers can be highly impactful. Some of the powers are offensive in nature, so there is a take-that element. There will be some politicking among the players. Being able to play the look-weak game can be an advantage. 

How many citizens there are in every class is open information. The whole deck will be used, so you can count cards. If you want to secure a class, you have to control more than half of the citizens of that class. This seems pretty absolute. However, some powers will throw your calculation and planning off. 

The Thoughts

Furmation of Rome is the first published game from Malaysian game designer Poon Jon. I got to know Jon through TTGDMY (Tabletop Game Designers of Malaysia) and we have been playtesting each other's games for some time. I've always felt he is a designer with good design sense. He is sharp. I admire his work and always look forward to try something from him.

I have played Furmation of Rome when it was still in development. Now that it has made its way all through to production, I am pretty excited to hold it in my hands. This is a well crafted and well thought out game, not just a random take-that game. The game is simple enough that casual players will be able to handle it and have fun with it. For seasoned gamers, they will be able to appreciate the intricacies and the thought that has gone into the design. It is still a light game, but it's nevertheless a strategy game with meaningful player interaction. 

I've got my copy. Have you got yours? 

BOXCON 2024 KLIA2

22 - 23 Jun 2024 was the 2024 BOXCON. This time it was done at a smaller scale, and it was done at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport Terminal 2. It was the airport management which reached out to the boardgame circle to invite us to have an event. They contacted Gray of Kaki Tabletop. I've never been an exhibitor at an airport, so I was keen to try it out. 

I brought two mobile phone stands to display my games. My box sizes were just nice for these stands. That highlighted box of Dancing Queen was just below a spotlight. Perfect! 

The other game I brought was Snow White and the Eleven Dwarfs. This event did not target gamers, so I did not bring games to be playtested. The audience was travelers, and we expected they would not have a lot of time or interest to sit down to play. I only brought published games that I could sell. No prototypes. However I did have a setup to allow visitors to try the games, if they had time. 

This was the first time I used the counter display unit of Snow White. I asked elder daughter Shee Yun to help me assemble these. Later after she assembles more I will pass them to the distributor to be distributed to the retail stores. The CDU is meant for retail stores. Snow White has a small box so it is not very visible. The CDU hopefully will make it more visible, and hopefully that leads to more sales. 

I managed to teach Dancing Queen to new players quite many times at this event, and that was satisfying. It feels great to see people appreciate the game and the nuances. This couple came all the way from KL to visit the exhibition. They were not travelers who happened to stop by. Thank you for supporting Dancing Queen!

Tim (right) was there too. 

Most exhibitors were local game designers. We also had some game retailers. 

Gray is the main guy behind the event. He had just recently done another game expo at Great Eastern Mall.

Group photo before we packed up at the end of Day 2. 

It was a smaller event this time, but I enjoyed catching up and exchanging ideas with fellow game designers and enthusiasts. 

boardgaming in photos: Snow White goes to Ipoh

8 May 2024. HELP University ran an open day welcoming secondary school students to their campus. It was a festival-like event, and vendors were invited to set up stalls. I was invited and I thought why not try going to a new type of event. It was a Wednesday, and I had time that day. The attendees were mostly secondary school students, so this was not specifically a boardgame or game audience. 

I met a lecturer that day who had designed her own card game to be used as a teaching tool. When she saw me selling card games too, she came over for a chat. Events are opportunities to meet people. That's another plus. 

I taught two of the students Dancing Queen. I was also able to showcase Snow White that day. When taking photos, I asked the students to do the Cili Padi Games hand sign with me. 

A player in Ipoh saw Snow White at Book Xcess, and took a photo to show me. That was so kind. Book Xcess stuck the price sticker on top of the title of the game, so you can't even see the name of the main character. You just see Ow Ite. 

I'm not sure whether he found another copy of the game where the sticker was at a different position, or he moved the sticker after buying the game for the sake of taking this photo above. Now the game title is visible, and so is Snow White herself. Unfortunately Prince Charming has to take one for the team. This actually reminds me of the Pixar movie Monster Inc, and Mike Wazowski. 

Mike behind the barcode. 

25 May 2024. I attended the TTGDMY playtesting session at Kajang. For the prior few months I had been busy with work and had not been making much progress with my game design projects. I had already missed quite a few playtest sessions, and I still didn't have any new or significantly updated prototype to playtest. So I went purely to help other fellow designers playtest their games. 

Poon Jon's first game is finally out. I played Furmation of Rome when it was in development. It feels great to have the final released version in my hands now. 

Goat n Goat

The Game

Goat n Goat is a game from Hisashi Hayashi, designer of Yokohama, Trains and Sail to India. It is a card game with an interesting hand management aspect. It reminds me a little of the classic Lost Cities. 

During game setup, you lay out the mountain cards in three colours at the centre of the table. Mountain cards are worth points, and players will compete to claim them. You will also lay out a row of six goat cards (right side of this photo). This is the card row from which players refill their hands. 

The numbers on the mountain cards indicate the requirements to claim them. You need to have a flock of 7 goats to claim the mountain numbered 7. 7 is at the same time the point value. Some mountain cards have different values on the two sides. You use the side relevant to your player count. With two players, the mountains 8 and 9 are in play. 

With higher player counts, the mountain values are lower. 

On your turn, the two mandatory actions are playing cards and refilling your hand. You may play any number of cards of any colours, as long as they all have the same value. Cards come in three colours, and they are numbered 1 to 5. 1's are most common, and 5's are the rarest. When you play cards, you set them before you to form up to three flocks of goats, according to colour. When adding a goat to a flock, the value must be equal to or larger than the previous goat. If you add a goat with a lower value, the whole existing flock must be abandoned. They go to a penalty pile which you keep until the game ends. This penalty is an important aspect of the game. 

As you grow your flocks, eventually you will use them to claim the mountain cards. You may only do this once per turn. It is an optional action. When you use a flock to claim a mountain, you discard the whole flock to the common discard pile. After this you will need to collect goat for the flock of that colour all over again. 

Trading a flock for a mountain card is optional on your turn. You can decide when the best time is to cash in. Refilling your hand is mandatory. The number of cards you must take from the card row is based on the value of the card or cards you have played this turn. For example, whether you have played a single 1, or three 1's, or five 1's, you will take just one card from the card row. If you have played a 5, you must take five cards from the card row. This is an interesting twist. You have a hand limit of eight. If you go beyond that, the surplus cards go to your penalty pile. Taking more cards is not always good. 

The game ends after the draw deck is exhausted twice. Your score is based on the mountains you have claimed, and you deduct points based on the number of cards in your personal penalty pile, i.e. for discarded flocks and surplus cards. 

The Play

The game looks simple, but once you start playing, you will realise it is not as simple as it appears to be. There are a few aspects that make you think. You need to plan carefully and think a few steps ahead. Instinctively, playing many cards is a good thing. Not necessarily so in this game. If you play many 1's on your turn, you are only going to replenish your hand with one card. Then suddenly you feel short on options. The hand management is tricky. The 5's feel precious, since they are rarer, and they let you take many cards. However I found out that they can be dangerous. They can easily make you go over your hand limit if you are not careful. When planning how to add goats to your flocks, you need to do so carefully too to avoid being forced to abandon a flock. 

One important rule is when the game ends, any cards left in hand go to the penalty pile too. When the draw deck runs out, everyone still has one more chance to play cards and to claim one last mountain. Because of this leftover cards rule, you want to plan for that last turn to be able to play every card in your hand. That's not exactly easy to orchestrate. 

In a two-player game, the game already ends when the deck is exhausted for the first time. 

The Thoughts

There is more to Goat n Goat than meets the eye. The rules are still simple, but the challenges it throws at you make you go mmm... I see what you did there. It is not as innocent as it looks. I like how clever it is. It is a pleasant surprise for me. You can't fully appreciate the trickiness until you play it yourself. Thumbs up!