boardgaming in photos: Goa, Eslite, Nemesis, Pokemon Code Talk

I asked my artist Edwin to design a roll-up bunting for Pilgrim Poker. I plan to bring this to exhibitions. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. 

I was at Eslite Bookstore (诚品书局) on Sun 16 Aug 2026 to demo Malaysian Holidays. Eslite ran a small event showcasing Malaysian themed and locally designed tabletop games. I was one of several designers at the event. 

Events like these are important because they help us reach out to the general public. In Malaysia, most people know little to nothing about modern boardgames. So it is important to create more awareness. 

I demo'ed at one table and Buddhima of Specky Studio demo'ed at the next one. 

Buddhima also showcased games from LUMA designed by Choon Ean. I joked with him that he looks like a rapper. 

Ray demonstrated Teh Tarik Game. This was the game which won the Malaysian Design & Play game design competition in 2025. 

I saw this game Workplace Dilemma at Play Play Asia (the game shop at GMBB Mall specialising in Asian games). I skimmed the rules and it sounds promising. This is a play copy but I did not have time to try it out. This game pokes fun at the typical workplace. The boss has a project to be done. Everyone must contribute. The project will succeed only if you collectively put in enough effort. If it succeeds, the most visible guy (not necessarily the one who put in the most effort) gets the reward. If it fails, the one who put in the least effort gets penalised. Can you get away with not putting in enough effort because someone else put in even less that you? 

Jon brought this back from Korea. 

Think of this as advanced tic-tac-toe. To win, you need to create three-in-a-row. There are nine sectors each with nine spaces. The spaces are numbered 1 to 9. When you place your pokemon, the number you put it on determines the sector the next player must place his pokemon. That's it. 

The game looks great!

Bulbasaur!

This can be quite thinky. You need to play smart to restrict your opponents' options. If you look at the situation above, green has lost because in all nine sectors there is a space orange can win with. 

The game is for 2 to 4 players

The Korean version of this game is called Hands Up. The original English version is a game from 2015 called Hands. 

You have a hand of cards showing various hand gestures. Every round, everyone simultaneously makes a gesture following one of the cards in hand. You want to find someone who is making the same gesture as you. If that happens, both of you score points. You score your card, and you get to draw a new one. 

That means you have to watch what other players are doing. If you see a gesture that you have the card for, you should do it next and hope the other player will do it too, or notice you and soon do it. 

Some gestures require two hands. If you choose to do one of these, you have to put down your hand cards because you'll need both your hands. Whenever you see someone do a two-handed gesture, drop everything and follow him, because the last person to do so will be penalised. 

This as a rowdy party game. 

I played Nemesis Retaliation on BGA. We played a cooperative scenario. Everybody calls Nemesis the Alien boardgame. They are right. 

In the cooperative game, all of us wake up from hibernation, and we don't really know what's going on on the spaceship. We have even forgotten the layout and have to relearn it by exploring the spaceship. The scenario tells us what our objectives are. In this particular game, we have to discover all rooms of two types, and at least one of us need to survive and bring an alien egg away. 

When we move about the spaceship, we make noise and attract aliens. When we shoot at them, we make even more noise. This is a pretty stressful experience because the aliens keep coming. Also the spaceship itself is not in great shape. Fires break out, systems break down. I got myself killed because the room I was in ran out of oxygen. 

This was my character. 

I must admit I did not learn to play this properly. This is the same problem with me when I play complex games on BGA. Nemesis uses a deckbuilding mechanism. Each character has his own deck. I don't think I utilised my deck well. 

Goa is a game from 2004. I have the first edition. This year it is released again through Kickstarter. The new version is certainly pretty. I played on BGA. 

I remember it being compared to The Princes of Florence, because you also do an auction followed by actions which others cannot interfere with. However I'd say they are quite different games. The auction phase is done on this 5x5 grid above. Players collectively trace a connected path to mark tiles which will be auctioned off. The tiles give you all sorts of benefits and resources. 

This is your player board. You have five tech tracks, each associated with an action type. When you advance on a tech track, you make your action stronger. Advancing is important because you score points for your progress.