This game is set in World War II and depicts the battle between Germany and the USSR. This is a two player game and the story starts with Germany initiating the invasion of the Soviet Union. Every few rounds both players will score points based on controlling key locations. If you outscore your opponent by 10 points, you win immediately. Otherwise, you win by having more points at the end of
La Famiglia is a little unusual. It is a game for exactly four players (like mahjong!), and it is played in teams of two. You are mafia families in Sicily, and you compete to control the most regions. You win immediately when you control 5 regions, or your team controls 6 regions. If no one achieves this after four rounds, the team controlling more regions wins.
Every region on
Dewan in Malay means "hall", and the boardgame Dewan has nothing to do with any hall. It's just the name of the game world. But I'm stuck with thinking "what the hall" whenever I say the name of the game. Dewan is a clean civ game. I am tempted to call it 4X, but it doesn't have all four X's, just eXpand and a bit of eXploit. No eXplore or eXterminate. You start with a little settlement, and
Charge & Spark is a 2 player microgame from Jelly Jelly Games, Japan. I have just played another game that sounds just like this, Bahamut Dispute. Both are about reducing your opponent’s health from 4 to 0, but here the execution is a little different. Humankind is extinct. You are robots competing for supremacy. You win by destroying your opponent or by reaching the centre of
In my work as a leadership trainer, I regularly collaborate with others in the industry - fellow trainers, coaches and training providers. Being in a business community called BNI, I regularly meet fellow members of the community and we help one another in our businesses. One of my friends Captain Fuaad has developed a training game based on Risk, and he asked several of us to help him
Bahamut Dispute is a microgame from Japan. It is a 2 player game about two kings trying to defeat the other by setting a dragon on their opponent. The structure is simple. On your turn you draw one card, and you may play up to two cards. You need to discard only if you exceed the hand limit. You start with 4 health, and your goal is to reduce your opponent’s health to zero. So far, nothing
I am planning to launch my next game from Cili Padi Games in August at the Asian Board Games Festival in Penang (Malaysia). The art for Pilgrim Poker is all done. We are in the process of finalising all the graphic files and submitting them to the manufacturer. I love the art my artist Edwin Chong has created for this game. One of my favourite characters is this Bull Demon King (牛魔王), who
This game My Grand View Garden (我的大观园) is made by the Dream of the Red Chamber Society of University Malaya. I recently met a teacher Pey Ling who specialises in the four major Chinese literary works and runs courses analysing them. She is planning to great boardgames for them, to make her lessons more interesting to her students. She contacted me after reading about my blog post on my
Happy holidays everyone! I always get excited about public holidays, because it means I get to share another piece of art from my upcoming game Malaysian Holidays. I enjoy making these teaser posts. The game is expected to be released by early July. If all goes well, some early copies will be available at the Sabah National Tabletop Con mid June.
Trishaw Frenzy is a Malaysian design. The designer is Ewe Boon How, and the publisher is LUMA. This is a game about trishaws in Penang. It is a simple game, and I'd even consider it a children's game.
One easy way to describe the game is modernised Snakes & Ladders. This is a roll-and-move game. The board is made up of nine tiles randomly placed and oriented. The squares
Mice Times Japan just published an article about the Asian Board Games Festival in the Philippines, which happened earlier this month. I was a little shocked to find my face on the cover photo. I was just one of many exhibitors interviewed. I am guessing they picked this photo because of the chilli on my head. I'm happy the Malaysian title, Jon's King and Peasant, is featured in the photo too.&
Trok is set in the universe of another game - Nidavellir. I think that's a good product and marketing strategy. This is building an intellectual property and a brand. Attract your existing fans and supporters. Nidavellir is a game about dwarfs, and Trok is the popular card game played by dwarfs in taverns in the world of Nidavellir.
The cards in the game are numbered 1 to 7, with
This will be held on 20-21 Jun 2026 at the Sabah Art Gallery. I missed this event last year because I had other work to do. I can make it this year and I'm looking forward to this very much. This will be my first time exhibiting at my hometown of Kota Kinabalu. If you are in KK, come play with me!
Katana Spirits is a light strategy game from Singaporean designer Geoffrey Chia. This game uses several characters also found in other titles from Good Spirit Games. Many of Geoffrey's games have a Japanese theme. Katana Spirits is a game about training yourself as a fighter and then going out kick some gangster butt. This is a game which uses polyomino tiles.
On your turn
I came across several games during my trip to the Philippines for the Asian Board Games Festival in Manila. I played some, and I listened to an overview for others. Here are some of these games.
This is the Combatron game, based on the Filipino superhero which was created in the 1990's. I forgot to ask the actual game name. It is in the final stages of development. I played a near final
Sunday 17 May 2026 12:00 - 18:00 I will be at Kinokuniya Bookstore at Damansara Heights Pavilion demoing Snow White and the Eleven Dwarfs and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. If you have not tried them, come visit me!
It's 1951. The Indian government has just decided to build a new capital city for the Punjab region. You are one of the urban planners working on this project. This city will be called Chandigarh. As you build the city, there are opportunities to score points. When the city is completed, the highest scorer wins.
The play area is a 4x4 grid of tiles. On each tile there are empty
I was interviewed by Dan of Monkey Plays at the Asian Board Games Festival in Manila. The full video (mostly English, some Tagalog) was her experience at the fair, and other designers were interviewed too. The video also shows Pinocchio being played. Link: https://youtu.be/WJ1WzEpplpw?si=VShCuwwhvFwZk8VH&t=667
Talon is a game of tactical spaceship battles. It is a game for two players. One plays Earth and the other plays an invading alien civilisation. You each control a fleet of spaceships. Your goal is to destroy all of your opponent’s spaceships.
The battlefield is abstracted to a 2D hexagonal map. You fly your spaceships around and shoot at your opponent’s spaceships. There
Anmelden
