Thailand Board Game Show 2025: My Trip

The Thailand Board Game Show was held at Union Mall in Bangkok 7-9 Nov 2025. This time there were six publishers from Malaysia participating. Chee Kong, Jia Xian (Meja Belakang) and I (Cili Padi Games) were there last year. It was the first time for Jon (nPips Games), Buddhima (Specky Studio) and Rizal (1+1 Studio). The show has expanded this year. Last year it took up two areas at the mall. This year there were three areas. 

From left: me, Chee Kong, Buddhima and Jon. This was taken at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. We took the same flight to Bangkok, arriving Thursday afternoon. 

This year I took Malaysia Airlines, so we landed at the bigger main airport of Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi). This was further away from where we stayed and where the show was. The airport was super busy. Going through customs, collecting our luggage and waiting for our Grab car took about two hours! Jia Xian flew in from Penang and he took Air Asia. He landed at the smaller airport Don Mueang which was less busy and also much nearer to where we stayed. I had booked Malaysia Airlines because the flight times were more suitable. 

We stayed at the same hotel - TD Bangkok. Well, more a rest house than a hotel. It's very near Union Mall so it is convenient. Food is available nearby too. And two 7-Eleven's. 

We were assigned the same area as last year. Last year there were five publishers, and this year six. The area could fit six tables. Last year we had one table dedicated to displaying and selling all our games, while the other five were for demoing. This year we had a different arrangement. No common table or centralised selling. There were six of us so we handled our sales individually. Last year I forgot to bring my standing banner, but this year I remembered. Bringing this banner was a little troublesome. It had to be checked in as oversized baggage, which meant a separate check-in counter and also a separate collection counter upon arrival. The banner after being packed up isn't that big. It's just slightly longer than a large suitcase. 

My new game this year was Pinocchio. However this was not the first time Pinocchio was available in Thailand. In August Choon Ean helped to bring some copies of Pinocchio to the Bangkok International Game Festival. 

This chilli on my head is part of my uniform now. I bought this on Shopee. 

When I saw the Thai version of Samurai I knew I had to take a photo to show to Allen, to ask him whether he wanted a copy. He's a big fan of the game and owns multiple copies. 

I contacted Chris who was my assistant last year to ask whether he could help me this year too. This year he helped me for all three days of the show. 

Yoyo from Swan Panasia, Taiwan was there too this year. I showed him Pinocchio. Several other Malaysian designers also took the opportunity to show him their games. Chee Kong had shown Yoyo Zodiac Go last year, and as a result Yoyo signed the game. Now they are working on publishing a version for Taiwan, China and Hong Kong. 

An art piece at the underground station

Rizal showed Duo Quest to Yoyo. Buddhima, Yoyo and I played it as a three-player game. This was my first time playing the game. I knew the general concept, because Rizal and I have been to several game events together, but this was the first time I actually played the game. Now I understand even better why it is popular and why it elicits so much laughter. 

Union Mall is an old mall, but in recent years efforts were made to reinvigorate it and to attract visitors. The crowd was great at the show. On Saturday and Sunday morning, when the doors opened, there was an eager crowd rushing in to a TCG booth to buy a limited edition booster pack. It was mad! People literally running to the booth. This is a local TCG. It is amazing how they managed to create such a strong following. 

This is another game which received much attention. It is about flirting at the bar. The designer is a university student. He had cosplayers at his booth. Unfortunately he did not manage to manufacture the game in time for the show. Otherwise he would have made a lot of sales. He could only take pre-orders. His business cards came in 10 different designs, featuring 10 characters from the game. When people asked for a business card, he did not let them choose. He gave one randomly. There were people asking him for business cards so that they could collect all 10 characters. That's a great marketing tactic - creating scarcity.

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves in play

My customers purchased Pinocchio

Chris is animated when he explains games

I am not a coffee person. Right across the street from our rest house there is a coffee stall. All my friends who had coffee there said it was fantastic. I couldn't resist trying it, and ordered a cappuccino. It was indeed excellent. A wonderful blend of bitterness and sweetness, with an amazing aroma. I ordered another the next day. 

This is the coffee stall

The Meja Belakang booth gave out coasters. These cats are from their upcoming game, a children's game about searching a picture for cats and counting them. 

When we arrived on Sunday morning, all of us found a gift bag at our booths, courtesy of the BGN team. So thoughtful of them! 

I asked Milk of BGN (organising chairperson of the show) to help take a look at my game in development Rebels of the Three Kingdoms. I wanted to ask her feedback on whether this would work in the Thai market, and what would it take it make it work. I was surprised to learn that the Thai are familiar with the history and the characters from the Three Kingdoms era. There is a Thai version of Killers of the Three Kingdoms (三国杀) called War of the Three Kingdoms. All these names like Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Sun Quan and Zhuge Liang have Thai pronunciations, and the pronunciations are somewhat similar to Cantonese. I learned something new this trip! 

I told Milk we must take a photo together, because we both had things growing from our heads - chilli and sprouts. Jia Xian held up that box behind Milk so that it was easier to see the sprouts.

I took the opportunity to show Rebels of the Three Kingdoms to several other people. Buddhima and I have agreed to publish this game under Specky Studio. Specky Studio focuses on the Malaysian market. So I try to pitch the game to publishers outside of Malaysia. I showed the game to Collin, a boardgame scout who connects designers and publishers. He is an American who now lives in Japan. I showed the game to Yoyo as well, and Note from Wisebox / Board Game Academy (Thailand). They gave me great advice and also shared with me what they know about the markets they are familiar with. These are valuable insights. 

This sushi place is super popular. Whenever I walked past it there was always a crowd waiting for their numbers. 

Dr Nipat and I are in the same business - leadership training. I got to know him through social media, and this was the first time we met in person. He too uses boardgames in training. We exchanged games. 

Prior to the show I had not known about Take Time. I discovered it during the show. It is stunningly beautiful. It is a cooperative abstract game. Paul (right) is the Thai translator for the game. He patiently explained to me many of the games at the booth. Jon (middle) was the assist in this sale. When I hesitated about buying, he kept telling me to just buy it. Well, I do the same to him so I guess that's fair. 

My assistant Chris (Apiwat Toey Jaturongparatipat). The term "assistant" is not exactly accurate. He didn't assist me. He was doing all the work himself. I don't speak Thai, so it was him demoing and teaching the games over the three days. Only once in a while when a customer needed an explanation in English I would take over. 

I did contribute some

At the end of the show, we asked Milk (BGN) to help us safekeep our remaining stock and to help us sell in Thailand. If you are in Thailand and want to buy any of our games, you can reach out to BGN. 

We the Malaysian team did a post mortem after the event, reviewing what went well, what could be better, what we gained, and what we learned. Before we were done the mall had to close down. So we bid farewell with the many friends we met, and returned to the rest house to continue. 

The guy with the red bag is Buddhima's customer. This photo was taken after the event had ended. This customer came earlier in the day, and told Buddhima that he would come back later to buy the games. However by 9pm he still had not shown up. All of us thought he wouldn't be returning. Still, Buddhima set aside several games for this customer. It was around 10pm that he came back to look for us. We were all surprised and welcomed him enthusiastically. He was probably a little shocked by the Malaysian hospitality. 

The Malaysian team and the organisers - husband-and-wife team Wat (5th) and Milk (4th). 

Milk brought us out to dinner - the visitors from overseas. Nationalities represented here include Malaysia, Thailand, USA, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Indonesia. I cheat a little. Yoyo is a German living in Taiwan. Simon is a German living in Indonesia. Collin is an American living in Japan. 

Boardgame influencers are huge in Thailand. We met a few this trip. Their numbers of followers and views are shocking. They are fast too. F1RST P1ayer played Ali Baba on Saturday, and that evening they released a post. 

All of us from Malaysia stayed at the same rest house. This was the last photo we took with all six of us together, after we completed our post mortem. It was almost midnight on Sunday. We were all exhausted. Rizal had to go to the airport in about three hours. He had a 6am flight to catch, because he had an appointment at noon the next day. The rest of us flew back to Malaysia on three other different flights. 

The various Thai snacks from BGN

This trip to the Thailand Board Game Show felt like a smaller version of visiting Essen. I had the opportunity to explore many new games. Most of the time I asked for a quick rundown of the game, and I did not sit down to play the full game. I did not explicitly plan to buy games, but I ended up buying some anyway - Take Time and Cat Between Us. Where & Which was a gift from Dr Nipat. 

This trip made me reflect on several things. When I observe and learn about the boardgame industry in Thailand, I compare it to Malaysia. What can Malaysian boardgame businesses learn from Thai businesses? Will what works in Thailand work in Malaysia? How should the Malaysian boardgame industry grow? I also reflect on my own journey as a game designer and indie publisher. Am I using the right business model? What do I want to achieve? What is the long-term strategy? There is much to think about. 

One thing I appreciate from this trip is being able to chat, brainstorm and exchange ideas with my friends. In the past few months I have been feeling demotivated about running my little game design studio and publishing house. Now I have found new inspiration and passion to continue working on designing games. That's the power of being part of a supportive community. We encourage and support one another. I am keen to work on the next Cili Padi Games title for 2026. I don't know yet what it is going to be. I have several game design ideas which are still being developed. They have been left hanging for some time. It's time to get going again! 

Lorenzo il Magnifico

Lorenzo il Magnifico has some elements which I thought I would like. The first one is pain and suffering. At three checkpoints during the game if you don’t show enough piety to the church, you suffer a severe permanent disability. So at all times you need to think about how to put together enough piety. The second element I thought I would enjoy is making card combos. You buy cards with various powers in this game. Now that I have played the game, I do appreciate these two elements. Why the game doesn’t work for me yet is it mostly feels like a resource collection and conversion game. It’s more challenging than average, which is a good thing, but it’s still mostly that. I say it doesn't work for me yet because I feel I don't have a strong grasp of it yet. I might change my mind if I am able to learn to play it better. 

The core mechanism is worker placement. You have four family members (your workers) to place every round. Three dice are rolled every round, and the numbers rolled are the strengths for three of your four family members. These strengths apply to all players. Your fourth family member is a weak black sheep with 0 strength, but he has flexibility which can be helpful. 

Every round 16 new cards are made available for purchase. You need family members with high enough strengths to purchase them depending on where they are positioned. You can pay servants (a resource) to boost your strength. Cards have one-time benefits upon purchase as well as permanent powers. Some cards - territories and buildings - can be activated in future to generate resources for you. That's another thing you can do with your family members. You send them to activate either all your territories, or all your buildings. You can also send family members to collect resources, or to fight for turn order for future rounds. 

The circle is where you can place your family member to buy the card next to it. You have to pay for the card. The card cost is in the top left corner of the card. The die at the bottom of the circle indicates the minimum strength required of your family member. Those 7-pip die spaces mean even if you send a strength-6 family member, he still needs to be supported by one servant to become strength-7. The items in the circles are bonuses when you are able to place a family member there. 

This is your player board where you place the cards you buy. 

I did horribly in the first game I played. Often I could not do much because I was short on resources. I often resorted to using basic spaces which let you take a fixed amount of resources, or the turn order spaces which let you compete for turn order and at the same time give you a tiny amount of resources. A more efficient way to play would be to have good combinations of cards and to use them well to generate resources. I made one mistake in my first game. I arbitrarily decided to focus on buildings and not territories, thinking they were more or less the same thing. I thought if I focused on buildings, buying many of them, every time I activated them all, I would gain a lot. I later realised that buildings were mainly for converting resources, and territories were mainly for producing resources. I needed territories to produce my resources first, and only then I should be using my buildings to convert them into something more valuable, including victory points. 

This is why I say I don't have a good grasp of the game yet. I learned a hard lesson and I think I know the game a little better now. And then in my second game I took a hard hit for not having enough piety. So much for my learning. Halfway through my first game I thought this was a lousy game and I just had terrible luck. I kept rolling very low numbers. There was very little I could do. It was impossible to buy any card in the mid to high tiers. Then later I realised I was being stupid. The die rolls were shared by everyone. Everyone else suffered equally from these low die rolls. They did their best to survive and did not complain to me. I felt like a spoilt brat. 

When the game ended, I was surprised I did not come dead last. I was in second place out of four. That means the others were probably a little lost like me. For sure this is a challenging game. The key is to get yourself a good combination of cards, and to utilise it well. You will be constantly under pressure to amass enough piety for the three checkpoints. Sometimes you may have to take a hit because you are building up something else. Resources are tight and this is something you have to manage and plan for. 

Thailand Board Game Show 2025: Quick Takes Part 1

The Thailand Board Game Show in Bangkok was 7 - 9 Nov 2025. This was my second time attending the show. I was an exhibitor last year too. The show was three days - Friday to Sunday. My Malaysian friends and I landed in Bangkok on Thursday. The show organiser BGN (Board Game Night) had a gathering for exhibitors on Thursday. We were able to showcase our games and get to know one another. I happily checked out the many games at the gathering, asking the designers or their teams to explain how the games worked. I didn't play all, only a few. Most were Thai designed and a few were localised titles. 

 

Dishcraft is a push-your-luck game. If you are familiar with Japanese anime you will recognise the parodies. In this game you roleplay as fantasy characters, and you are all chefs going deep into a cave to collect cooking ingredients. 

 

That menu at the top lists the dishes you can cook. The ingredient combinations required are all based on poker hands. Naturally the harder the combo, the more points it will score for you. On your turn, you reveal cards from the deck one by one, until you decide to stop, or you reach your limit, or something bad happens. How many cards you can draw, and how many cards you can hold on to at any time, are all dependent on your character's skill levels. After every card you reveal, you need to think whether you are happy with what you have so far and leave with these, or you want to gamble and draw one more card, hoping to gain even more, at the risk of drawing something bad, like traps and monsters. 

 

Some of the bad cards

 

This is a character board. You have various tracks for your different skills. This character board is very well produced. I asked the designer where this was manufactured. It was China. He had considered doing manufacturing in Thailand, but for this kind of quality, the cost is double that of China. Dishcraft retails at THB1400, which is about MYR180. With this kind of production quality, this is a great deal! 

 

Another character in the game

 

Characters can be upgraded. This is the other side of the tile.

 

Synchro Horizon is a JRPG-style cooperative game. The box is very thick, which is not immediately obvious in this photo. This is a game for 1 to 4 players. There is a countdown mechanism. You need to equip yourself and level up, and at the same time you must push forward to defeat monsters and complete missions so that you can reach and beat the final boss before time runs out. 

 

Those books on the board are the missions. They have different combinations of monsters depending on the mission difficulty level. You don't need to complete every mission, only one mission per difficulty level. You start at the top left corner and need to get the bottom right corner to find and defeat the boss. 

This is the player board. Look closely and you'll notice it is 3D. You have slots for your character card, skill tiles and equipment cards. 

 

This is a Level 4 mission. You will face two Level 3 monsters and two Level 4 monsters. 

 

The game comes with a ton of these acrylic standees. They have spent a lot of effort to create so much art for the game. 

 

One of the bosses

The standard edition of Synchro Horizon retails at THB 3500, which is about MYR 450. There is a deluxe edition which comes with 3D printed miniatures. 

 

Tech Runner was launched on Day 1 of the Thailand Board Game Show. So I was there to witness it. This is a two-player fighting game. Each player has his own team of 2 or 3 fighters, depending on the game mode you choose. You can customise your card deck. The game mode determines how many cards you must have in your deck. 

This box cover shows two characters, but it does not mean they are opponents. They will probably turn out to be partners more often than not. The game system currently includes 8 characters, and they come in four different boxes. To play a game you need at least two boxes, i.e. 4 characters. 

 

There is a cooperative mode in which you work together to defeat a common enemy (that guy partially visible at the bottom left corner). 

 

At the moment the game is only available in Thai

 

This is another box, with two other characters. The fighter on the right was inspired by guardians you see at the gates of Thai temples. 

Sorry about the poor focus

 

Takoyaki is not a Thai design but a localisation. It is a simple real-time dexterity game. It works well as a children's game and a family game. A game takes maybe 15 minutes. Probably less. 

 

You compete to be fastest to make takoyaki (squid balls) in a specific pattern. Every round you reveal one mission card like this. Whoever is first to make this arrangement on his personal pan wins the card and scores 1 point. Score 5 points to win the game. 

 

The squid balls are ping pong balls. Every squid ball has a coloured patch. On the mission cards some squid balls are blank, and that means you need to turn the ball so that the colour does not show. You use two long thin sticks to manipulate the squid balls. The sticks are tipped with tiny hands. I'm not sure what the official rule is. The demo guy taught us that when we completed the mission, we had to use our tiny hands to grab and pull the card towards us. I find that hilarious. Imagine two grown men completing the mission and the same time and then using the tiny hands to fight over a card. 

 

Arbolito is not a Thai design either. This too is a dexterity game, and tests how stable your hands are. There is some strategy to this too. 

 

The cards are round, and have various colours. For each coloured section of a card, there is at least one notch. You add cards to the tree by using these notches. When you connect two cards, the colour where they connect must be the same. The whole idea is to rid your hand of cards by adding them to the tree. On your turn in case any cards fall off, you will be forced to take some back into your hand. 

 

This is a game from Thai designer Kampoong. His publishes his games under the Mii2 Games brand. He has 6 titles released by now, about one per year. Most of his games have naughty themes. This one is Kuangpriw. At first I thought this character on the cover is a fan, or a boomerang, or maybe some kind of bacteria. It turned out to be something I didn't expect at all. Take at look at the photo below and you'll understand what is spinning. 

 

The box comes with an outer sleeve which looks exactly like a male underwear. This game is about what juvenile boys play - pulling down one another's pants. 

You will hold a stack of cards in hand, with the highest number on top and the smallest at the bottom. Players attack one another. On a count to three, you point at your target. If two persons attack each other, they both fail to do anything. However if the person you attack is attacking someone else, you get to pull his outermost pants down, i.e. you remove the top card from his deck. Whoever is stripped of his last piece of clothing is out of the game. 

Unfortunately the game is only available in Thai now. The English version has sold out. I am not sure whether it will be reprinted. One more recent game by Kampoong is called Hot Sperm. It is a sperm racing game. Thai culture is open-minded and accommodating. Kampoong's choice of themes would certainly be taboo in Malaysia, and probably in many western countries too. 

 

This latest game from Kampoong does not have a naughty theme. I think the name of the game is Q.IL. This is a 2-player game about two nations preparing for war. You have a hand of 5 cards. On your turn you draw two cards, play one, then discard one. You can play up to four sets of cards before you. These are your armies. The first card you play to start a set is the army number, the fighting order, and also the army size limit. In the best case you will have army numbers 1 to 4. From the second card in a set onwards, you play cards face down. These add to the strengths of your armies. You can play a card in your opponent's army, placing it horizontally. In such cases the horizontal cards reduce strength instead of increasing it. However there is a card power which turns such cards vertical. 

 

Instead of adding a card to an army, you can play it for its special ability. The card on the right lists the special abilities in the game. Some cards are played like a normal number card, but their abilities resolve during battle, after their numbers are considered for the battle. 

 

One player is blue, and the other is orange. You can only use the half in your colour. This is a short and clever game.