At the Asian Board Games Festival in Penang in August, I did a game exchange
with Vito of Homp, an Indonesian game design studio. I still have not managed
to play some of the games, but they look good and I want to showcase them.
Sultan Spices was inspired by a children's book called
Sultan Kecil Mencari Rempah (Little Sultan Hunts for Spices).
Back of the box
The art and graphic design are nice. Every player starts with the same number
of spices. They are randomly dealt, and spices have different rarity. You will
only have three in your personal play area to work with. The rest are in a
deck. You can present spices to the Sultan, or you can use them to complete
dishes. You can trade spices with other players to help with completing
dishes.
Ssszoo is a cooperative game in which you
can't talk and you communicate by facial expressions, gestures, or pointing at
body parts.
Back of the box
The animal cards (small) are held in your hand. You hold them facing away from
you, so you don't know what animals you have, but your teammates do. They need
to give you clues so that you can guess what they are, and then feed them the
right food. The food cards are the larger ones.
That cat (bottom row second card) is a special case. You can only feed the cat
last, when there is one last food card left.
These are the tokens in the game. The five lion tokens mean you lose when a
5th mistake is made. When you feed an animal the wrong food, it complains and
disturbs the sleeping lion. This just so reminds me of the song "In the
jungle, the quiet jungle, the lion sleeps tonight... a-wim-a-wek
a-wim-a-wek..."
The game comes with a guide for sign language, but it doesn't seem mandatory
to use them.
I exhibited at the Lah Lah Land event on 10-11 Oct 2026. This was not a
boardgame specific event. It was a lifestyle event. People sold clothing,
sneakers, watches, accessories, skateboards and so on. There was a section for
trading card games, and the boardgame section was a small offshoot from
that.
Several other local game designers and publishers were there too. For those
who didn't go, I brought their games to be displayed and sold.
The TCG area was huge. I was shocked to see the number of booths. I never got
into TCG's, so I had no idea it is this big. The TCG world is alien to me.
Seeing single cards being sold for a few hundred and even up to a thousand
ringgit felt unreal.
Traffic for our boardgame section was so-so. The mornings were bad for us. The
event started at 10am, but 10am to 12noon was for VIP pass holders only. This
was a paid entry event. You buy either a normal pass or a VIP pass. People who
paid to enter didn't come for boardgames. Those who paid for the VIP passes
probably had specific things they wanted to buy before the masses entered.
They wouldn't have the leisure time to visit our small boardgame
section.
When we local designers and publishers take part in non boardgame specific
events like this, we don't expect sales to be good. The goal is outreach. To
introduce boardgames to the general public. To raise awareness about
boardgames, and about Malaysian designed boardgames. During the Lah Lah Land
event we did have people stop by, and many were surprised to discover that
there are games designed locally. So at least we were doing a bit to grow the
boardgame market in Malaysia, and to spread the joy of boardgames.
I sold one copy of Dancing Queen, and it was the Matagot edition. Now
that I think about it, I think this was the first time I played the Matagot
edition. Normally at events the demo copy I use is the Cili Padi Games
edition. This time the visitor who was interested in the game liked the
Matagot edition more. So I used my other demo copy.
I had to keep this wristband on overnight so that I could continue to use it
on Sunday. That meant taking a shower with it on, and going to bed with it on.
I felt like a hospital patient.
The TCG and boardgame area was upstairs via escalator.
This was the boardgame area. We shared it with some other small TCG
activities.
The MIECC exhibition hall was huge.
See!
This is the other me, when I am working on my full-time job as a leadership
trainer. No chilli on my head when I'm in my suit. I was invited to conduct an
activity as part of a corporate management retreat. I taught them to play
Pandemic.
It is always fun to watch others learn and play Pandemic when I
conduct training. I do this in big groups, and different kinds of groups have
different people dynamics. Every group has some members who are more vocal.
Some groups have more such people than others. How they discuss, argue and
make decisions are interesting to observe.
Many elements in Pandemic are good lessons to learn in communication,
leadership and problem solving. It has been a wonderful teaching tool for
me.
I did a game night with my BNI Lighthouse friends, and we played
ito (pictured), Seven! (with exclamation mark),
Take Time and Shady Lady. This is a non-gamer group so I
only bring casual games and party games. Sometimes I bring my prototypes and
get them to be my guinea pigs. ito from Japan is a great game for
encouraging chit chat. It's a wonderful icebreaker. In one game, we got to
discuss the best and worst things to find in our pockets. Someone said tissue
paper, and another said used tissue paper.
My long-time boardgame kaki Allen works in Singapore now and travels back and
forth between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. We now play more online using BGA
than in person. It was good to have had an in-person session. I taught him and
Yee Ling Take Time, and we had a great time. I really enjoy this game,
and everyone I introduce it to finds it fascinating.
We did Maori too, and Yee Ling managed to make the flower circle,
called the lei, which is worth a lot of points.
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