The Keretapi Sarong event by Locco was held on Sat 13 Sep 2025. This was not a boardgame specific event, but for the past few times this festival was held, they've always invited local game designers and publishers to showcase their work. Supporting local! The concept of this festival is unusual. They don't announce the venue beforehand. They just tell you you should come wearing a sarong, and you are to take the train (or light rail etc). The venue is, of course, somewhere you can get to by train. It is announced only in the morning of the actual day. For us exhibitors they do tell us much earlier, because we need to be there early to set up and prepare.
I arrived around 8:30am that day. Rizal from 1+1 Studio and I were the earliest in our group to arrive. People from the other stalls nearby were all earlier than us. They had more setup work to do, so they had to be earlier.
Four of us local publishers were there this time: Cili Padi Games, 1+1 Studio, Meja Belakang and nPips Games. I helped some of my friends who weren't there by bringing their games. All of these are Malaysian designed games.
Jon's Furmation of Rome
Haireey brought a prototype for playtesting
Pinocchio worked very well for this crowd, which was a non gamer crowd. I can get people to start playing Pinocchio without sitting through the rule explanation. I get them to start playing, and I teach them the rules as and when they are needed. I find that this is the best way to teach games to non gamers.
Rizal's Duo Quest was the best selling title that day. It was in play almost the whole day. One particular group even opted for a module which required them to move about and dance to complete missions. Our stall was very happening!
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. I now only have one last copy with me. The second edition is work-in-progress now. The art is done (only minor adjustments). The new rulebooks too. No change in gameplay or components. The print files have been submitted to the manufacturer Magicraft, and the e-proofing is now done too. So the next step is scheduling for printing.
This group had much fun with Pinocchio. That day, in addition to sarong, some people wore other traditional costumes. I even saw some wearing the traditional Kadazan costume from Sabah.
It was mostly a cloudy day, but in the afternoon we had a long stretch of light rain. We hurriedly moved our games deeper into our tent to protect them from getting wet. Thankfully there was no wind, and the rain wasn't heavy. Our tent wasn't very big, so when there was rain and we needed to avoid the rain, our usable space became quite small.
Haireey from Meja Belakang
Rizal from 1+1 Studios teaching Duo Quest
During the drizzle the crowd thinned, and we could take a break.
The venue was TRX - Tun Razak Exchange
The crowd at the festival was huge. Our tables were fully occupied most of the time. Sales was not very good unfortunately. This was not primarily a boardgame event, and the crowd was not one prepared to buy. They were there to play and have fun, and maybe spend some money on food. It was a festival more of big brand vendors giving away gifts and samples, than small businesses selling their wares. Still, to grow the boardgame industry in Malaysia, we do need to participate in events like this to introduce boardgames to people who don't know about them. There's still a lot of work to do! Let's go Malaysian boardgames!
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