Neon Reign is a simple game I have played several times, and still
don't understand. This is a 2-player card game about those 1v1 fighting arcade
games. There are several characters you can play, and every character has
their own deck of cards. To win, you need to reduce the opponent's life points
to zero.
You have a hand of seven. Your cards are mostly button
Tash-Kalar: Arena of Legends is a 2013 game from Vlaada Chvatil. This
guy is a genius. He made Through the Ages, Galaxy Trucker,
Codenames, Mage Knight, Space Alert, and many more. Most
of his games are very different from one another. Tash-Kalar too is
very different form his other titles. He makes bold publishing
decisions.
The basic premise is you
Tanglung is a 2-player abstract game by Mark William, published by
Malaysian publishing house Luma. "Tanglung" refers to Chinese lanterns which
are carried during the Mid Autumn Festival.
I absolutely love the production of the game, especially the attention to
detail. The insides of the box are decorated. I adore the art!
A game is set up
Simon Schmieder is the designer of Jakarta Traffic, Durian Smuggler and Food Alley. He is from Germany and currently lives in Indonesia. I got to know him through boardgame fairs around South East Asia. We were both in Bangkok for the Bangkok International Game Festival (BIGF) in August, and he, Jon and I met up for a playtest session.
The Airbnb Simon stayed in was like a mini
This game will probably always be called the mosquito game. This is a game
from Taiwan, and players play the role of mosquito families trying to attack a
sleeping guy and then escape without getting squashed. I certainly have not
played any other game with this premise.
Everyone starts with the same set of cards with exactly the same distribution.
The only
TOBE (Taiwan Original Boardgame Expo) will be held in Taipei 25-27 September 2026. This will be my first time exhibiting in Taiwan. I got into this beautiful hobby in 2003 when I lived in Taipei. 23 years ago, I could not have imagined that 23 years later I will be exhibiting at a game fair in Taipei as a game designer and indie publisher. Who's in Taipei that weekend? Come play with me!
The Isle of Cats Duel is a 2-player polyomino game. You take turns
claiming polyominoes from a common board to place on your personal player
board. At game end you score points based on how well you have filled your
player board.
On the common board there are both polyominoes (cats in various colours and
poses) and scoring cards. On your turn you must move the
I have been wanting to bring Faiyum to the table again for some time.
Finally I did a 2-player game with younger daughter Chen Rui. She absolutely
slaughtered me, even though it was her first play. She went into building and
using workshops, and I didn't. There seemed to be few workshops so I thought
it wasn't worthwhile to get into. I really enjoy how differently each game of
"Joraku" is a Japanese term which means advancing to the capital. In Japanese history, sometimes local warlords will lead their armies and move to the capital, claiming that they are there to protect the Emperor from evil forces. In truth, they want to take control of the Emperor and rule the nation. The game Joraku has an interesting combination of two popular game mechanisms - trick-taking
Trash Traders is a game from Hong Kong. You are raccoons. Now this is not
a game about raccoons’ natural habitat or ecology or saving the planet. Instead
it is about speculating in cryptocurrency and losing all your money. Raccoons
love digging through trash so in this game you trade trash stocks. You win by
having as little money left as possible.
This is a take that type card
108 Outlaws is a game from Daryl Chow of Origame. It is based on the
Chinese classic novel Water Margin. I have been designing games based on the
four Chinese classics, including Water Margin, so I was certainly interested
in seeing Daryl's take on the topic.
108 Outlaws is a tableau building game. All 108 characters of Water
Margin are in the game. They are
Plantful Life is a roll and write game from Taiwan. You take care of a
plant and you nurture it to grow and bloom. The game comes with six different
plants, and they need to be taken care of differently. At the end of the game,
you will score points in several ways, including how much your plant has
grown, how many flowers it has, and how many butterflies it has attracted.
Too Many Exits is a game from Korea. It is based on the horror movie
trope of a bunch of teenagers being hunted down by a mad killer. Like the
story about friends running away from a bear, you don't need to outrun the
bear. You just need to outrun your friends. This is a single loser game. When
one player gets killed, everyone else survives and wins.
Characters
28 - 30 Aug 2026 was the Bangkok International Game Festival (BIGF) in
Thailand. This was my third time exhibiting in Thailand. I first exhibited at
the Thailand Boardgame Show (TBS) in 2024, and I went to TBS too in 2025. This
year I wanted to try the other main boardgame event in Bangkok. Choon Ean of
LUMA was at BIGF last year, and she helped me sell my games. Sales was great.
So
War of Beauty is a game from Taiwan, and it is a party game about palace drama, i.e. how the concubines of the emperor fight for power and influence. One of the designers is Kevin Tsai (蔡康永), a popular TV show host. When I saw the components of the game, I was intrigued and very keen to give it a go. If you like this kind of Chinese TV drama about politicking at the palace, you will get a real
Roti Canai is from Faculty of Fun, the makers of Nasi Lemak.
Nasi Lemak has been highly successful in Malaysia. It is simple and
accessible. It has reached many people. I often hear people tell me they've
played this fun game, and they sound like they want to say Uno or
Monopoly, but the game they want to tell me about is
Nasi Lemak.
Roti Canai, like
This is the second year the Design & Play game design competition is held.
I am one of the judges, together with five other local game designers and
publishers. Our goal in doing this is to encourage others to try their hands
at game design, to develop Malaysian game design, and to bring more good
Malaysian games to the world. This year we had 113 registrations. By the time
This is a game I feel I shouldn't like, but I end up quite enjoying it. It's almost a heavy game, with lots of stuff to do. An island with many never-seen-before creatures has been discovered. Many scientists flock to it to discover new species and to collect them. During the game you will collect resources, discover creatures, and spend those resources to collect the creatures. You gain points
Shady Lady is yet another game by Kaya Miyano I have played this year. This is a very Japanese style game - minimalistic but clever. It has a juicy element of trying to read your opponents and sometimes cunningly misleading them. You have a hand of three cards. There are only two types of sets in this game, three cards of the same value, or three cards in sequence. Cards are numbered 1 to 4,
Anmelden
