Sabah National Tabletop Con 2026 - my first time exhibiting at my hometown

I was back in my hometown of Kota Kinabalu (we call it KK) for the Sabah National Tabletop Con over the weekend of 20-21 Jun 2026. This was my first time exhibiting in my hometown, so it was a meaningful event. This same event was held last year, but unfortunately I couldn't attend. This year it was held at the Sabah Art Gallery. We had many exhibitors from Malaysia and Singapore, and also one from Brunei. 

At the front entrance of the art gallery with Buddhima of Specky Studio. 

I feel so classy now that my games have been exhibited next to proper art work at a proper art gallery. Hey, I'm making art too! 

There was some drama leading up to this event. My latest game Malaysian Holidays was due to be released at the event. This game is published through Specky Studio. We arranged for an early shipment to be sent by air straight to Sabah. The idea was my father would receive the shipment for me a few days before the convention, before Buddhima (Specky Studio) and I arrived. We had planned for buffer time, and the games were shipped out early. However during the transit period we were told there were issues. We regularly checked the tracking website. I was shocked to see that the expected delivery date was Monday, the day after the convention ended. My game would completely miss the convention. The status showed that the shipment had already arrived in Kuala Lumpur Wednesday morning. I thought why is it taking 5 days to reach Kota Kinabalu? I kept contacting customer support to see if the shipment could be delivered earlier. If the shipment could reach their KK warehouse by Friday or even Saturday, I could go pick it up myself without needing them to deliver to me. There were complications because Fedex works with a local delivery agent for this shipment. I had to contact Fedex several times, and finally on Friday one of the customer service reps was able to find out for me that the shipment was due to reach Kuching that day, and would arrive in KK Saturday afternoon. However their local agent doesn't work weekends so they could only deliver on Monday. I said I could go pick the shipment up myself. The rep said he would put in a remark to ask the local agent to call me and arrange for me. He couldn't guarantee that they would do it, because this was not their normal process. I thanked him for trying his best. There wasn't much else I could do. I had to wait and see whether I got a call the next day, Saturday. 

Saturday morning shortly after I reached the art gallery and completed setup, I received a call from an unknown number. Normally I decline such calls because 99% of the time they are scams or salespersons. This time I eagerly picked up the call. It was the Fedex local agent! The shipment had just arrived at their warehouse. They asked whether their driver could deliver it that afternoon. At the time the driver hadn't reported for duty yet. I said no need, I'll come and get it myself before lunch time. What a relief. Malaysian Holidays arrived in time for the con! 

I'm very happy with how the game turned out. Specky Studio picked a great artist for this project and I really like her work. 

The box opens this way. My Cili Padi Games logo is on the box too. Yay!

Game in play

Holiday cards

Overseas destination cards are worth 2 points

Local destination cards are worth 1 point

My favourite memo card

I was thrilled and relieved that the game arrived just in time.

Buddhima (Specky Studio) is my publisher, and he presented the first ever copy of Malaysian Holidays to my mum. This is a meaningful moment for me. My game first landed in my hometown and my mum is the first to own a copy. 

Game in play

This is a promo card which is unique to the first edition of Malaysian Holidays. Yes, Specky Studio is already thinking about a second edition. This is a destination card which you can claim to score points. Normally short holidays (Mon to Wed, or Wed to Fri) are worth 1 point, but this one is worth 2 points. This card conveys that the most valuable holiday is the one we spend with our families. 

Malaysian Holidays in play

Kuehku is a game from Brunei. It is doing well and this is already a second edition of the game. 

I almost managed to try it. I sat down for the rules explanation, but halfway through there were some other visitors who were interested, so I asked them to take my seat. This is a simple and accessible set collection game. You collect various types of local delicacies and they score points in various ways. This reminds me of Sushi Go and Kuih Muih. 

The game also has some action cards. The core rules are simple, and I think you need to play the game proper to fully feel the game. Hopefully I will have the chance to try this at the next event. There were some other games I was interested to try, e.g. from Ameba Games Singapore, but I was busy most of the two days and I didn't manage to play the games of other designers. I wanted to try Demon Contract too, just two booths away, but I didn't even manage to steal a slot for that. 

Dancing Queen in Sabah

Pinocchio in play. This was the game I demoed the most, because it is easy to learn and quick to start having fun with. There were some Australian tourist families at the art gallery, and they enjoyed Pinocchio a lot. All of them bought the game after trying it. It is satisfying to see people have fun with my game. It also makes me happy when I hear them say that one of their friends or family members will like this game, and they want to show the game to these friends / family. 

The art gallery has three floors. The ground floor is a small reception and a souvenir shop. The building is in the shape of an upside down cone. So the first floor is wider than the ground floor, and the second floor is the widest. Malaysian exhibitors are on the first floor, and international exhibitors are on the second floor. 

Super happy because this customer bought all four games at my booth. On Saturday he came and played with his wife and a friend. I think he played two of my games on Saturday. He was planning to come back again on Sunday to get me to teach him the others. However he didn't have time to play and only came to buy the games. His wife came too, and brought family, and taught them to play Pinocchio. I was serving another customer at the time. It is amazing to see your own customer teach your game and recommend it to others. 

When I was teaching a group to play, some visitors stopped by to take a look. Jia Xian of Meja Belakang jumped in to help me explain my games to them. Thank you so much! 

Erwin is from Pontianak, Indonesia, which is near Kuching. He runs two boardgame lounges in Pontianak - Meeple Board Game Lounge, which is what we call boardgame cafes in Malaysia. The night before the con there was a meet and play event and many exhibitors attended. Erwin did a presentation to share his experiences and the boardgame scene in Pontianak. 

Pontianak has a young population, and many people like hanging out at cafes. They have many cafes and they do good business. People chat chit at cafes, exchanging gossip. Some young men play mobile games together at these cafes. Erwin introduced boardgame lounges because he wanted to convert people to boardgames. He has a definition of 5 levels of gamers. Level 1 is people who only know the common classic and mass market games. Level 2 is people who play gateway hobby games. Level 3 are the hobby gamers who play some heavy games. Levels 4 and 5 go into more complex and hardcore stuff, and they may run boardgame businesses, do game design, organise community events and so on. He sets a clear goal for himself. He focuses on converting Level 1 to Level 2. From Level 2 to 3, 4 or 5, these people will convert themselves and he doesn't need to help them. Converting Level 1 to 2 is how he grows the community and promotes boardgames. He picks the appropriate games for this purpose and offers them at his lounges. After many years doing this, he has further refined and defined his problem statement. He learned that there is a category he had previously missed - the Level 0 gamers, who don't even know much about common boardgames. Also, thinking of only Levels 1 and 2 is an oversimplification. He needed to further consider the levels 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and so on. Some people need several smaller steps before reaching Level 2. He learned that he had to cater for that too. 

Erwin bought some of my games to be played and sold at his lounges in Indonesia. Cili Padi Games is going to Indonesia! Woohoo! I taught Erwin Dancing Queen, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how quickly he picked up the strategies. It was satisfying for me to see how he appreciated the design behind the game. 

Malaysian Holidays was demoed at the Specky Studio booth, which was right next to mine. 

I played an updated version of Jon's prototype On Three. This was an updated version after getting feedback from Daryl Chow. He was in town recently and we did some playtesting together. I already liked the previous version, but I must say this was even better. The river, or the shared cards, are not revealed automatically after every round. You must use club cards to peek at them. Instead of three lanes, you now have four lanes. Instead of creating a personal card market you can swap cards with as you take damage, the damage tracking using cards is removed, and players get a shared card market now, right from the start of the game. This is a short but thinky game. It is probably not something Jon or I will publish for the Malaysian market. It is not suitable for a casual crowd. I do hope this gets picked up by an international publisher. This is something gamers will like. 

This was how I displayed my games.

My secondary school friends Hsiung and Sheng came to visit. 

My mum and dad came to visit, but I wasn't able to accompany them much because I was busy teaching games. They came both days. All of us wore red - brand colour of Cili Padi Games! 

I gave a short presentation sharing my journey as a game designer and indie publisher. My Sabahan friends told me I should come back and be a politician because I spoke well. What? I talk like a politician? 

I just noticed most of the photos I took with customers showed Dancing Queen. It wasn't the game I sold the most of. The game which sold the most was Pinocchio. 

I didn't realise that my parents wanted to take a group photo with me. I was too absorbed with teaching Dancing Queen. Buddhima took this photo for us. 

Buddhima, Jon and I. By now we have been to many boardgame exhibitions together. This photo was taken at the Kota Kinabalu airport before we flew back to Kuala Lumpur. 

This trip back home was a short and tight trip. I arrived Friday afternoon, and departed Monday morning. The con was 10am to 8pm Saturday and Sunday. I barely had time with my parents. They visited me at the con both days. I felt bad because when they arrived on Saturday, I was out to pick up the game shipment. I couldn't spend a lot of time with them because most of the time my booth was busy and I had to teach or demo games. In a sense it is good. There was good interest in my games and I managed to teach many people my games. Definitely better than me being idle most of the time. 

The crowd at the con was much smaller than last year, according to my friends who were here last year. The con was at Imago shopping mall last year, and that is the busiest mall in KK. Although my booth was mostly occupied, sales was so so. There wasn't much foot traffic. There was a concurrent event happening outdoors on the art gallery grounds, a food and handicraft fair. I was hoping this would attract some crowd, but the crowd wasn't very big. Parking was a challenge. The art gallery car park was small. 

I didn't have much time to visit other booths at the con. I walked one round on Saturday, and I had hoped to drop by again to play some of the games that afternoon or Sunday. However I was so busy I didn't manage that at all. 

I'm hoping to go again next year, and hopefully I can stay longer and spend more time with my parents and my friends.