This is my theory, and it might not be entirely correct, but I'm sure it is at least partially true.  I have been a hobby gamer for many years, but I have only been in the industry side of it for about 5 years. I count from 2022, the year Dancing Queen was released. I have met many, many nice people in the industry. Game designers, game publishers, play organisers and so on.

TOBE 2026 (Taiwan Original Boardgames Expo) was 25-27 Sep 2026. I participated as an exhibitor. TOBE was first held in 2017. I had never visited TOBE before, so this was not only my first time being an exhibitor, it was my first time ever attending. One thing different about this exhibition for me was my wife Michelle joined me to be my helper. I have exhibited at many boardgame

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

I visited Kyushu, Japan on a family holiday. Needless to say, being a gamer, I looked up boardgame stores to visit well before the trip, and also took the opportunity to look for games at bookstores, 100 yen shops and such when I was there. I found some games at Don Quijote. Don Quijote is a discount store which sells lots and lots of different stuff. Most of the games I found seemed to be