SEX

 

True story. 

I recently met an attractive lady at a business networking event. She is an interpersonal relationships consultant and coach. This is somewhat related to my full-time work as a leadership trainer. I do sometimes cover the topics of interpersonal relationships and personality analysis. I mentioned to her that one thing I do in my training is I use giant boardgames to convey leadership concepts. I told her I have a side gig as a game designer, and that I have published a few card games. She said she enjoys boardgames  and card games too, and one recent game she likes a lot is SEX. I was stunned for a moment. I carefully said I have not heard of this game before. If this were a guy, I might have come up with some naughty joke. At that moment I didn't really know what to say. Then she elaborated further. The name of the game was spelt S, E, T. SET. Oh! Then I have heard of this game before, just that I have not tried it yet. The event was a little noisy, so I had misheard her. Thank goodness I didn't say anything inappropriate. That would have been embarrassing. 

If you would like to try SET, you can get it from my friends at BoardGameCafe.net. I'm not making this up to help them sell SET okay. 

Photo above from Wikipedia. 

misc notes: Pegasus pitching session

In September Pegasus Spiele held a 3-day pitching session, called Designer Days. They welcomed game designers from all over the world to do online pitching sessions with them. You are given 10 minutes to pitch a game. This was my first time participating in an activity like this. Applications opened about a month before the event, and about one week before the event they notified everyone their allocated slots. I pitched Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Although I am already self-publishing it, I am only able to market it in Malaysia and I do want to look for an international publisher for it. 

It was a great learning experience! That means I didn't get past the selection process. But truly it was a good experience seeing how the professionals worked. My slot was 3:10pm Malaysia time or 9:10am in Germany. I went online about 15 minutes early. There were two Pegasus representatives in the waiting room. There were already two other designers in the room when I got in. I assume they were coming for the 9am slot. The reps were friendly and professional. They joked that we could relax and not feel too nervous because the guys in the pitching rooms were friendly. 

I think there were two pitching rooms. I got Room 2. There were two assessors in my room. After I got in, we just did short greetings and I started immediately. We only had 10 minutes so every second counted. I had prepared slides beforehand. In fact I spent quite a lot of time on them, mainly to do a semi-automated demo of a round of play. I used slides to show game setup and some game components. I explained the core gameplay verbally with the support of photos of the game in play. I think the assessors were pretty happy with my presentation, because it was clear and concise. I spoke for about 7 minutes, and we moved on to questions. Their questions went straight to very specific details about the game. They only needed 2 or 3 questions. Then they could already tell me they would not proceed further. They explained why too. They thought the player might feel helpless due to a lack of options. They where quite humble and quickly added that this was their view based on the quick introduction I gave. I would know my game better and I should assess their feedback carefully to decide whether it made sense to incorporate it. I thanked them and said goodbye. All this done within 10 minutes. 

It was great to be able to practise pitching to an established publisher and to experience working with professionals. Pegasus seems to be this twice a year. I certainly plan to try again when I have other suitable games. 

I met online with my Hong Kong friend Jetta and we played on BoardGameArena.com. We were originally planning to play some premium games, but we only reactivated our subscription that day, and the reactivation was not immediate. So we ended up playing some free games. I taught him some games I knew. I don't play on BGA very regularly. They now have a ton of games. Not all the popular games are premium games. There are several which are free, which surprise me. This is really a public service. The BGA subscription is not expensive either. It's great value for money. 

I had not played Hive for years. I used to have a physical copy, but since I rarely played it, I had given it away. This is a good 2-player abstract game. 

I still have a copy of DVONN at home. I bought it many years ago when I was still building up my game collection. At the time I thought a proper gamer's collection should have at least one abstract game, so I wanted to pick one game from the YINSH series. 20 years ago this series was well known and highly respected. They are still good games. 

I taught Jetta Regicide. This is one of my favourite games in recent years. It is a cooperative card game from New Zealand. Only after playing on BGA I realised I had played one rule wrong. While fighting a boss, the cards used to attack the boss remain in the play area until the boss is defeated. Previously I played those cards directly to the discard pile. I think there is some impact but it's not too big. 

If you have not tried Regicide there is no reason not to give it a go. It's free on BGA. 

Essen 2024 note 5 - an old-timer's Essen first-timer experience

Essen 2024 was my first time going to Germany and also to the Essen game fair. I have been a boardgamer for 20 years. Essen is the biggest boardgame event in the world. Everyone in the hobby knows about it. For many years it wasn’t something I thought I’d go for. It’s far and expensive. But the day came when I thought I should go at least once in my life. It wasn’t about just playing and buying games. It was also about being part of a congregation of tens of thousands boardgamers from around the world coming together to celebrate this hobby of ours.

Having now returned to Malaysia and also having had some time to gather my thoughts, here are those gathered thoughts in a not very organised manner.

I now have to admit to myself I’m not a heavy eurogamer anymore. That has been my identity for many years. I had noticed the change in my gaming tastes, but I had not been able to let go of this identity. During Essen 2024 there were many more simple care games which attracted me than complex strategy games. I realise I now tend to see most heavy eurogames as yet another resource conversion exercise. There are simply more and more convoluted ways to score points. I admit sometimes convoluted is fun. It's just that now, to me, convoluted is mostly just convoluted. Maybe I've come to the grumpy-old-man point in life where you just don't have patience to go around in circles. I want games that get straight to the point, that have something new and clever to offer, without wrapping multiple layers of busy work around them. I'm now a Japanese minimalistic game fan.

Good art is important. I've seen so many games with excellent art at the fair. If your art is drab or does not look professional, people will ignore your game. Generally I think this is a good thing. As an industry we are improving. The minimum expectation is increasing.

I like the art of Joyride Turbo

Keep the Heroes Out is a game from Canada

Forests of Pangaia

So many themes are overdone. But then, maybe I'm just being a Karen. With more than 1500 new games being released at Essen 2024, of course there are many games which clash in themes. There were two tea games. There were many Japanese themed games, not necessarily from Japan. Chinese themed games. Tons of fantasy themed games. Space games. Civilisation games. Cat games. Even a cat poop game. The nature theme is popular. Horror. Rock bands. Cities, traveling and locations around the world.

One theme I found interesting was the game 1984, based on George Orwell's book of the same name. Another one was Age of Comics, which was first released last year.

1984

Age of Comics

I think I saw some Azul rip-offs. I saw a few games with Azul-like tiles grouped into sets.

Essen is about celebrity spotting. The first celebrity I spotted during the fair was Bruno Faidutti. I was having a chat with a publisher in their office, and Bruno popped his head in to say hi to the publisher. It was in French so I didn't understand a word. In my head I was going OMG that's Bruno Faidutti I've been following his blog and playing his games for 20 years should I go and shake his hand and take a photo before he runs off? Eventually I had to resist the urge since I was halfway through a discussion. During the fair I spotted Friedemann Friese, Martin Wallace, Eric Martin and Zev Shlasinger. I saw Matt Leacock standing quietly in a corner when someone approached him and spoke for a while. I thought they were talking business, and only after some time I realised the guy who approached him was a fan too. He spoke for quite long and I was thinking c'mon don't take up so much of Matt's time. Matt looked like he wanted to escape but was too polite to do so. When the other guy finally left, I quickly went up to Matt to shake his hand and chat a little. I promise, just a little. I thanked him for making many great games which my family and I have enjoyed.

I went for a signing session of Reiner Knizia. It was on Saturday 4pm, and I only found out about it on Friday. I arrived around 3:35pm, and there was already a queue. I'm glad I was a little early, because that queue grew much much longer afterwards. My turn only came around 4:35pm. It was great to meet a designer I greatly admire who has made so many games I've played.

For a Malaysian Chinese, going to Essen is like going to Hong Kong. You get so excited when you spot Hong Kong movie and TV stars on the streets.

Essen is four days of speed dating / speed pitching. Those four days were intense. I wanted to look at every booth at the fair. Every interaction with a booth is a mini pitching session by the booth to me as a visitor. I look at the booth to assess what it sells. If it's not something I'm interested in, I can make the decision to skip. This is probably a 2 second decision. If they sell something I might be interested in, I come closer to take a better look. Is the art attractive enough? Does the production look professional or amateurish? Does it look like just-another-game-I've-seen-before or does it promise to be something a little different? Many questions and evaluations already go through my mind before I even decide whether to ask the staff to explain to me what the game is like. So that's the next step in the process. I don't even ask to play the game. I want an overview first. And that's assuming there's someone available whom I can ask. Sometimes the booth staff are too busy teaching others to play. Sometimes I pick up the rulebook or the game box and read it myself to find out more about the game. Having someone give an overview of the game is usually quicker.

At the fair, most play tables were occupied most of the time. I didn't often get to choose what I played. It depended a lot on what was available. I could only choose whether to sit in those free seats I was lucky enough to encounter. Sometimes I passed because the game didn't seem interesting. More often I would settle on watching others play a game that looked interesting, or I'd skim the rulebook or the back of the box, or I'd ask for an overview. If it was a game I was interested to try, but there were no available seats, I didn't wait for a table to be freed up or sign myself up on the play schedule (some games had those). Too time-consuming. I found that among the games I had played, only a handful ended up being purchases. Most of the time it was for me to understand how the game worked, and I could decide it wasn't really for me. I didn't play all games to completion. In many cases I just played a round or two to understand how it worked. Only some shorter games were played to completion.

Imagine this non-stop speed dating process, for four days. Thousands of games getting to different stages of catching (or not catching) your attention. Most games stop at the first few stages. Some make you want to spend a bit more time to learn more. Some make you want to sit down and play a round, or a full game. It's a mentally demanding exercise. Imagine you are an HR manager looking through 1500 CV's and interviewing hundreds of candidates over four days. That's a lot of work!

After the event, I read other people's reports on the fair, and I noticed that the games which they wrote about and liked were not even registered in my mind. I might have completed missed those games, or I did see them, but my brain auto-filter had already failed them in the initial scanning stage. I probably missed many good games this way. But that's okay. You can't play every single good game in the world. Just be happy you have good games to play and good friends to play them with.

R-Eco is an older game from Japan and a successful one. 

A series of dexterity games from itten, Japan

A game from Lego

A deluxe version of Ra from DiceTree

Language tags is a good idea. At many booths the staff wore a tag indicating the languages they spoke. When I imagined myself going to Essen before I had decided to do so, I imagined myself wearing a small placard saying I spoke English, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese and Malay. I never got around to doing it, but hey, now I know this is a good idea. Just a simple and small tag was sufficient. No need for a placard which would look awkward. I didn't see any visitor wear any language tag. Just staff. One thing that surprised me a little was how much English was used at the fair. Basically all the people I spoke to at booths spoke English. Some might be less fluent, but they managed to explain how the games worked. So Essen is pretty international.

I remember one particular guy showcasing a fantasy battle game related to King Arthur and Mordred. I think he was American, based on his accent. He was super enthusiastic when explaining the story and the game. So energetic. He reminded me of roleplaying game players. They really know how to create drama and they seriously get into character. Now I realise I never took any photo of the game. It wasn't a game I was interested in. I don't even remember the name of the game. But I remember the guy's enthusiasm. If I ever recruit anyone for a booth, I'd want someone like this. And I should learn to introduce my own games to others like this.

My wife said the international edition of my game Dancing Queen will probably be out by Essen 2025, and asked whether I would want to go again. It would be a meaningful trip because it will be the first time my game is released internationally. I did this Essen 2024 trip purely as a gamer, and not a game designer or publisher. I was a consumer spending money, not a business trying to be profitable or trying to create business value (e.g. marketing). I think as an indie publisher in Malaysia, it's difficult to make a booth at Essen profitable. The cost is high, and I'd need to sell many games and gain many benefits for such an expenditure to be justifiable. If I get a lot of good exposure which in the long run leads to more sales, that's good. If I get connected to other publishers or retailers and work out business deals to license or sell games to more countries, that's good. It's not easy to work out the numbers. Maybe Malaysian game designers and publishers need to pool resources together, like how Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese and Thai publishers have done and are doing, to make trips to Essen more efficient, cost-effective and productive. Or I can be just happy going again as a consumer. 

I probably won't be making Essen trips an annual thing. It's expensive. Before I went, I had been thinking this might be just a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Now that I've experienced it and enjoyed it, well, maybe I'll go again some time. And here's my humble loot shot. 

This will probably be among the smallest loot shots you see people share. Most loot shots have boxes stacked and you can only read the game titles on the sides. Most of the games I bought were card games. 

I bought two Carcassonne maps, Great Britain and Germany. Thankfully they were sturdy and there was just slight damage after the flight back to Malaysia. 

The large black bag and the lanyard (and also the boardgame Loot) are part of the loot bag sold as an add-on to the fair tickets. Not too expensive. I bought them as souvenirs when I booked my ticket. The other bag was given free by Saashi & Saashi the Japanese publisher at their booth. Clever marketing strategy. It was practical and I was grateful I had it during the fair. 

That wooden or bamboo coaster at the bottom left was the only non-game-related souvenir I bought this trip to Germany. The others were various free gifts at the fair. 

A gift from my game manufacturer MagiCraft

Joy from MagiCraft. She has been very supporting throughout both my projects with them so far. I knew they were going to be at the fair, but I wasn't sure whether she was going. I had only exchanged emails and messages with her throughout our projects. I thought it would be nice to meet her in person. I went to their booth on Day 1 of the fair, and the first person I met was her. We had a nice chat. 

So many versions of Exit. This was at the Dusseldorf airport. 

South Good Board Game Exhibition

 

I am collaborating with nPips Games to bring Dancing Queen and Snow White and the Eleven Dwarfs to Johor! Come visit the nPips booth at the South Good Board Game Exhibition. 

Let's go! 

Essen 2024 Note 4

This was the last selfie I took before I left the Essen game fair on Sunday, the final day of the fair for 2024. What an amazing four days it was. For many years I have been hearing other people share their Spiel experiences. Now that I was experiencing it first hand myself, whatever I had heard before still didn't fully prepare me for the real thing. It really is something that has to been experienced in person. 

By the end of Day 3, I still hadn't covered all the halls. I hadn't yet covered Hall 1, and I had only covered about a third of Hall 2. I was a little nervous starting Day 4. Was I going to be able to cover everything, and then also have time to buy some of the games I was undecided on? In the morning I decided to start with one corner of Hall 1, and then once done with Hall 1, to work on Hall 2 from the opposite end from where I started the previous day, and work towards where I stopped earlier. As I started on Hall 1, I was relieved to find that it was mostly dedicated to miniature games and trading card games. Also some roleplaying games. These were not really my thing, so I passed through those sections quickly. There was a lot to see for those who are interested in these, but not me. I only skimmed and enjoyed the pretty miniatures.

Lots of nice miniatures, and terrains, and dice, and holders for dice, and dice towers. There were miniature painting workshops running. 

There was an area for the Pokemon trading card game. 

Very impressive terrain for miniature games

You can buy swords and lightsabers for cosplaying. 

Terrain

This was one of the Dune games

This looked like a race game

The player boards looked like console game controllers

The race cars are nice

Colour My Kritters is an introductory deck-building game. I found it quite clever. Clever in how the designer managed to simplify the deck-building mechanism. This game would work not just non-gamers but also with children. The age range was 6+. 

Your hand size is three, and on your turn you always buy just one card, which goes to your discard pile. The cost of cards are along the bottom. The ability of cards are in the top left corner. Card costs are in colours. Colours is your currency in the game. 

Some cards let you draw more cards. Some cards have victory points but have no ability, i.e. just like the victory point cards in Dominion. This is probably the simplest and child-friendly deck-building game I have ever seen. The cards only have a handful of different powers. 

Ninja Academy is a dexterity game. At the moment I think only the German version is available. The game comes with many different dexterity challenges, which involve using cards, wooden ninja pieces, and wooden blocks. 

Some challenges are done with the participation of all players. Some challenges will be competitions between two players. When two are competing, the others don't just spectate. They get to bet and they might score extra points. 

The classic Tikal is getting the deluxe treatment. This is Tikal Legend. Sometimes I wonder whether such deluxification is a good thing. Wouldn't it be better to have just regular reprints of these great games and make them affordable to more people? 

Deluxe Tikal

Keep the Heroes Out is from Canada. Similar to Dungeon Lords, it turns the fantasy trope upside down. You are monsters defending your dungeon from the pesky adventurers. This is a cooperative game. You win by surviving a specific number of rounds. You lose if the adventurers achieve a certain objective. 

Each player plays a different monster type. The dragon is powerful, but you only have one dragon piece. The mice are not as powerful, but there are many mice running around. 

There is plenty of humour in the game. Monsters have different abilities and weaknesses.

The monster pieces are absolutely lovely. 

Joyride Turbo is a race game. However, instead of obediently driving along neat tracks, you drive in the open, and you have to pass through gates in a specific order to complete a lap, and you have to complete a specific number of laps. 

You have a hex map, and pairs of markers indicate the gates you have to pass through. 

The dice go from 1 to 3, and the numbers determine how far your car moves. Your gear determines how many dice you have. It also determines how much you can adjust your direction. At the lowest gear, you can go in the reverse direction. 

Momentum is represented in the game, and I like how they do it. Of the dice you have, some make you move in the current turn, and others force you to move in the same direction next turn, before you are able to change direction (should you wish to). 

Based on the artwork, you might think this is a game which involves shooting at your opponents. No, there is no shooting (well, unless it's in some expansion or advanced rule). However you can push your opponents, change the direction of their cars, and even crash into them. Cars can get damaged with all this pushing and crashing, and damage affects maneuverability of your car. The art in this game is outstanding. 

Witchdom is light-to-medium weight card game about witches in training. You collect witches, spells and potion recipes. You use ingredients to brew potions. Witches need to brew potions in order to be admitted to the guild. Only those in the guild are worth points. 

The cards on the left are the potion recipes. The cards on the right are apprentice witches. The wooden discs are the ingredients. You play witch cards to collect one of these. The witch card played determines which region you have access too, mountains, plains or beach. 

Your player board is just a reference card. These two apprentice witches are eternal apprentices who can never be admitted into the guild. They are just your basic servants. 

By around noon, I had covered all six halls of the game fair. What was left was to go through those games I was undecided on, and decide whether I was going to buy them or not. I ended up buying most of them. Thankfully most of them were small box games and card games. Some of them had sold out. Too bad. That's life. Thankfully for the games I knew I wanted I had bought them on the spot. On Sunday I saw many booths offering discounts. Some were pretty steep. Of course there were also games sold out. 

One game that was a happy find this day was Ihtilal, a game from Turkey. It was a little like Twilight Struggle, but simpler, and of course it told the story of Turkey, from the 1950's to the 1980's. I'm looking forward to giving it a go. 

I didn't stay until the end of the day, i.e. 6pm. By 3pm I was done with my buying. I felt tired and didn't feel like looking for games to learn or play. So I decided to leave earlier, to avoid the crowd and to get some rest. 

It was an intensive four days of exploring the fair, checking out new games, listening to descriptions of some of them, playing some of them. I had information overload. I'm glad I did my sightseeing with my wife before the fair. I am now too tired to do any proper sightseeing. I need to catch up on some rest. I will be traveling home too. I'll write more about my first Essen experience.