Con report: UK Games Expo 2017

At last week’s UK Games Expo I managed to break my own PB for different hats worn and sleep deprivation, adding ‘PR demo guy for a publisher’ to my usual list of designer (on booth), designer (publisher meetings), designer (play-testing), journalist and punter. It was an exhausting four days, but thoroughly enjoyable all the same.

My PR stint involved showing the next three games from LudiCreations to a variety of games journalists: Iunu, Diesel Demolition Derby and Alexandria. I’m lucky enough to now have one of my co-designs with Matt Dunstan signed with Ludi now, so I’ll no longer be reviewing its games – but I wanted to give a bit of a preview of them here.

Elsewhere I got to help out a bit with demoing Armageddon to a steady flow of punters, grab a few new games to review and show some of my own new titles to some great publishers – as well as catching up with lots of old friends I only seem to see in Birmingham, Eastbourne and Germany nowadays!

Ludi’s latest creations

I was demoing three games for LudiCreations: one currently on Kickstarter, and two more on the way in the next month or so.

I had the pleasure of sharing the games with the fine people at The Game Pit Podcast, Polyhedron Collider, Creaking Shelves, Broken Meeple and Devon Dice. Hopefully you’ll be able to check them out for more opinionated articles.

Iunu is on Kickstarter until June 30, for as little as $10. It’s a simple yet clever 2-4 player card game with elements of drafting, set collection, building majorities and engine building. It has a delicious tipping point midway though and, despite looking very simple, packs some genuine decisions into a short playing time (sub-one hour). It demoed well with everyone I played with – and you can try it yourself on Tabletopia.

Diesel Demolition Derby is a simple ‘robot smash’ drafting game from Matt Dunstan. Rounds are super fast, with many cards having effects that hit your opponents’ robots as you all try to get the most strength in machines into your tableau – but the bigger the robot, the bigger the target and the little ones, played well, will often give you those satisfying David and Goliath moments. There are a bunch of arena cards that make every round different, it plays 2-6 and lasts about 30 minutes. One for fans of filler games, drafting, simple combat, micro games, and trying to read your opponents’ plans.

Alexandria is an asymmetric, action point allowance and hand management game, played out on a modular board representing the great Library of Alexandria (2-4 players, 1-2 hours). Each character has a unique card deck and they all play very differently; as you’re trying to save particular items from the fire, you can bet one of your opponents is trying to smash them to gain their own advantage! The board shrinks each round, adding to the tension, while a bunch of reaction cards keep everyone on their toes. It tells a strong story, and will appeal to euro fans who like a bit of interaction in their games and anyone who enjoys putting together card combos.

The now, the soon and the maybes

It was great to see Queen Games at Expo, with two tables demoing Armageddon. They didn’t have loads of copies with them but they sold what they had, and the tables were full all weekend. It was fun watching groups sit down to learn the game but instead of playing a couple of turns, stay for the whole game.

It was also great to catch up with Seth Jaffee, of Tasty Minstrel Games. He has been developing Matt Dunstan and my next release, Pioneer Days, which should be out later in 2017. It’s a dice-driven euro game which I think does a good job of bringing out the Oregon Trail theme; and I’m super pumped at how the finished version is turning out.

Armageddon co-designer David Thompson and me also showed our most recent two prototypes to several publishers. It’s hard to believe how far the Expo has come in just a few years, in terms of the staff from top publishers in attendance: they genuinely see it as a key event on the calendar. The likes of AEG, Pegasus, Queen, Mage Company and Mayfair all had senior staffers on hand, to name but a few. We didn’t sign any deals, but had some positive meetings.

Reviews incoming

I was deliberately subdued on the review front for two reasons: one, I’ve still got games to review from Essen so didn’t want to add to the pile too much; and two, there really wasn’t that much ‘new’ stuff on show that interested me. There were lots of mini-heavy offerings, some pretty rustic looking affairs and a bunch of hopeful Kickstarters: not really my bag!

I did grab Design Town from Pegasus; Kingdomino and Baobab (Tumble Tree) from Coiledspring/Blue Orange, and The Cousin’s War from Surprised Stare. Design Town, or Flip City, is an interesting deck-builder; Tumble Tree a great little dexterity game; Kingdomino a light domino game recently announced as one of this year’s Spiel de Jares nominees; and The Cousin’s War is a light and fast two-player card driven war game. Hopefully I’ll get them all reviewed before Essen…

As for being a punter, I realised on Sunday morning that I’d played 15 games at the con to that point – only one of which was published! That was classic Knizia bidding game Medici, that I’d never played. I managed an inglorious last place but did enjoy the challenge – thanks to Rogue from GCT Studios for teaching.

Pros and con cons

At the end of the weekend, thoughts inevitably turned to next year. This time I stayed at the Hilton Metropole for the first time, which was brilliant in terms of being able to sneak off and desocialise when all the crowds and noise got a bit much. And it was also a godsend on two occasions when I needed to demo games, but we couldn’t find a free table anywhere, so used my frankly ridiculous sized room.

But despite a comfy bed and fantastic breakfast, the hotel was pretty awful. Staff were often rude and/or incompetent (especially at the bar), my room was never properly cleaned and the price of everything – from the room to drinks and food – was ridiculous for the poor level of service provided. I get better cleaners/bar staff in London fleapits. I expect I’ll try and get into one of the other large hotels nearby, if I can afford it…

As for UK Games Expo itself, I continue to be amazed at how it copes with exponential growth every year with such little fuss and drama. As ever the Expo volunteers were helpful and smiling throughout the weekend, in stark contrast to those of the Hilton. But while the areas of the NEC used were well organised, the Hilton gaming space was at breaking point the whole weekend; a problem they’ll have to seriously address – and get ahead of – for next year. But i’m confident the organisers can, yet again, rise to the task.

Designer’s Dozen: Q&A interview with Geoff Engelstein

Game designer, developer and podcaster Geoff Engelstein is an MIT graduate from Queens, New York.

His design credits to date include the popular Space Cadets and Space Cadets: Dice Duel, The Fog of War, Survive: Space Attack! and The Ares Project.

Many will also know him as the co-host of top board game design podcast Ludology, as well as for the insightful ‘GameTek’ segments he provides for The Dice Tower podcast.

This is the eighth in a series of Q&As with published board game designers. The idea is to ask them all the same set of questions, so people can compare the answers and build an insight into what makes designers tick – alongside a stock of answers to questions all new designers will end up facing themselves.


1. If not games design, what pays the bills? Do you do anything else creative outside of games design, paid or unpaid?
Game design definitely doesn’t pay the bills. I have a company that does contract engineering design and manufacturing for a variety of industries. Companies and individuals come to us with product ideas, and we turn it into something real. I’ve got a team of engineers, covering electronics, software, and mechanical design. I’ve got a background in physics and electrical engineering myself, although I do a little bit of everything.

2. Who is your favourite designer(s), and which one do you most admire? What is your favourite design(s) by them?
I’m a huge fanboy of Vlaada Chvatil, going back to his earliest designs (Graenaland and Prophecy). His designs are so diverse, innovative, and seemingly effortless. My favorite would have to be Through the Ages.

3. What drew you to game design?
I’ve always loved to create, but within the context of making something functional. There are tremendous parallels between engineering and game design – concerns about achieving goals within constraints, etc – so it really fills the same need for me.

The immediate thing that made me try my hand at designing was a game that, although good, didn’t do what I wanted. So I decided to make it myself.

4. When you design, what tends to come first – theme or mechanisms? And why? Do you design with a specific type of person in mind?
Neither. I start with an experience in mind. I guess that’s closer to theme than mechanics, but it’s more about emotion and storytelling than those two terms cover.

For example, I would never sit down to design a zombie game. That doesn’t help it all. You need to bring in the emotion. A zombie game about being trapped in a mall, with the zombies pounding down the door? A zombie game where you play a world power trying to stop zombies from spreading across the globe? Those are experiences, and it’s where I like to start.

5. What are the best and worst aspects of game design?
That very beginning and the very end are the best parts – that first rush of ideas, and seeing the game on store shelves. Everything in between is tough – endless iteration, trying to convince playtesters to give it another shot, and more. Of course there are great moments during that in between period when a great solution snaps into place, but in general it’s hard work.

6. What is the hardest type of game for you to design?
I’ve tried to design a really simple microgame for years, without success. No matter where I start it always ends up being a hundred cards and tons of tokens.

7. What is your best prototyping tip for a budding designer?
Spend as little time as possible on your prototypes. Scribbling on index cards is a great place to start. I keep a stack of different colored index cards on my desk just or that purpose. You’re going to throw a lot of stuff away, so make it as psychologically easy as possible.

Then once things are a little more mature, if you’ve got a fair number of cards, learn how to use a card merge system to make it easy to make changes. I use Adobe InDesign and Excel, but there are many great solutions out there.

8. Would you mind sharing your worst publisher game pitching moment?
I got Zev from Z-Man to look at my first ever design. I knew it wasn’t done, but thought it was pretty close, and that Zev would see the obvious genius of the design.

The playtest went completely off the rails, and the ending was absolutely horrible. And it was obvious there wasn’t any genius. I was horribly embarrassed, and actually shelved the game, where it sits to this today. Fortunately Zev was open-minded and ended up publishing my next design, The Ares Project.

9. And what has been your best game design moment?
This is a tough one. Probably the mechanism I am most proud of in one of our designs is the ‘core breach’ mechanic in Space Cadets, which was designed by my son Brian. We needed a more exciting way for the players to lose, rather than just accumulating enough damage.

So we tried to figure out a way to have the game end with a bang – winning or losing. If the ship takes too much damage it doesn’t blow up right away. The next turn, while you’re doing everything else to run your ship, you also need to fix the core breach. You have 30 seconds to do it all, and the core breaches get harder each time they re-occur. It puts the players’ fate back into their own hands, and adds incredible drama.

10. Which style of game is your own personal favourite to play?
I love civ building games, like Through the Ages, Clash of Cultures, and the like.

11. What would make the tabletop gaming landscape a better place?
I’m not sure on this one. I think it’s a pretty good place. However, I would love to see more diverse backgrounds of designers, in terms of gender, nationality, and ethnicity. It’s better than it used to be, but we still have a ways to go.

12. Tell us something about yourself we probably wouldn’t know.
My great-grandfather Samuel Engelstein started the Great Coney Island Fire of 1911, which was the beginning of the end for the amusement parks out there.

Designer’s Dozen: Q&A interview with Mike Fitzgerald

Designer Mike Fitzgerald’s first game, Wyvern, was published in 1994; a trading card game that got him the opportunity to work freelance with Wizards of the Coast (where he also designed the Nitro and X-Men trading card games).

He branched into regular card games in 1996 with Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper – the first game in a series that still sells worldwide.

In 2013 he became a full time designer, finding success with titles including Baseball Highlights 2045 and Diamonds. His next design, Dragon Island, comes out at GenCon 2017 through R&R Games.

For the past two years he has also been the co-host on top board game design podcast Ludology, but sadly stood down from the show after episode 150.

This is the seventh in a series of Q&As with published board game designers. The idea is to ask them all the same set of questions, so people can compare the answers and build an insight into what makes designers tick – alongside a stock of answers to questions all new designers will end up facing themselves.


1. If not games design, what pays the bills? Do you do anything else creative outside of games design, paid or unpaid?
Game design does pay the bills for me. But previously I had a 44-year radio career, including 30 years in New York radio as a radio personality. I guess that is also somewhat creative.

2. Who is your favourite designer(s), and which one do you most admire? What is your favourite design(s) by them?
My favourite designer is Carl Chudyk for designing Mottainai, which is my favourite game of all time. I most admire Richard Garfield and have had a chance to learn a lot from him.

3. What drew you to game design?
When I played Magic: The Gathering when it first came out I became fascinated by how the game was designed, so I designed my first game (Wyvern) at that time.

4. When you design, what tends to come first – theme or mechanisms? And why? Do you design with a specific type of person in mind?
Theme usually comes first for me, but not always. I like designing mechanics with a theme in mind that I can make the players feel like they are doing through the mechanics.

I design games that I will like to play. If they seem to work, I then think about many different kinds of players and see how many of them I could interest in the game.

5. What are the best and worst aspects of game design?
For me. The worst aspect is writing rules. Very difficult and I struggle with that. The best is watching play testers ‘get’ your game and you realise the design could be published.

6. What is the hardest type of game for you to design?
I have stayed away from designs that will be hard to design, until recently when I decided to do the Mystery Rummy Legacy game. That has been the hardest game I have ever designed, but is now being looked at by a publisher.

7. What is your best prototyping tip for a budding designer?
Concentrate on making it easy to play, but do not overdo it on components. I believe in keeping some things open for the publisher to see what could be done.

Many disagree with me on this, as they think it is better to make it look like it could go right onto a store shelf. But the reason I don’t do that is I do not know how!

8. Would you mind sharing your worst publisher game pitching moment?
When I was pitching Baseball Highlights 2045 companies would love the game and want to play it again and again but said they could not publish it because it was two players and based on sports, which won’t sell…

9. And what has been your best game design moment?
When Baseball Highlights was published and turned out to be a very good seller, which is still growing in popularity!

10. Which style of game is your own personal favourite to play?
My favourite mechanism is multi-use and multipurpose cards, with Mottainai being, in my opinion, the best game ever designed.

I love medium weight games that are fun and have some depth, such as Istanbul and Key to the City London. And then I also like most deck-building games, such as Clank, Trains and my own Baseball Highlights 2045.

11. What would make the tabletop gaming landscape a better place?
I think it is fine – and getting better all the time!

12. Tell us something about yourself we probably wouldn’t know.
I love classical music, with Brahms’ Symphony No.1 being my favourite.

Why you should visit UK Games Expo, June 2-4 2017

Now in its 12th year, the UK Games Expo (UKGE) is Britain’s largest annual board game event. Held in Birmingham each year, as the hobby itself has grown exponentially in recent years the Expo has grown with it – moving from a hotel-based event to one that now sprawls over several halls of the NEC Arena.

But what does UKGE offer visitors – from new gamers just getting into the hobby through to experienced old cynics; not to mention those on the fringes of the hobby, or those trying to make an impact as a player in the industry: from game to graphic design?

UK Games Expo for new gamers and families

One of my favourite aspects of the Expo is how much it has embraced its role in encouraging new players into the hobby.

Throughout the halls you’ll find enthusiastic and friendly staff ready to point you in the right direction – and they’ll be pointing you towards curated play areas such as the Family Zone. Here you’ll find a huge library of games along with an enthusiastic band of volunteers happy to teach them to you. And of course, if you find one that’s a hit with the family, they’ll be on hand to buy too.

There will also be ‘huge’ versions of some of the hobby’s favourite titles for you to get to grips with, alongside all the staples of kids entertainment (yes, you’ll probably end up with your face painted – sorry). And it also now a big event on the cosplay circuit, so expect to see people wandering around as characters from your favourite sci-fi, fantasy and superhero films, TV shows and comics (yes, there will be Daleks).

And in another show of support to the industry as a whole, you’ll be able to play the games up for (and winning) the Imagination Gaming Family and Education Awards. There’s even a children’s roleplaying games section in the zone (for kids aged seven to 12-years-old).

UKGE for the seasoned player

Many of my gamer friends are pretty cynical about Expo, having been in the ‘olden days’ when it was largely just an open gaming get-together in a rather expensive hotel in the midlands. And while bits of that are still true, to a point, it has a hell of a lot more to offer now.

The shopping area was impressive last year, including a massive bring-and-buy area alongside both big name publishers and lots of smaller, aspiring UK startup design teams. But this year the list of exhibitors is a who’s-who of game publishing: you can’t argue with a list including Days of Wonder, Fantasy Flight, Days of Wonder, Asmodee, Mayfair/Lookout, Pegasus, Queen, Czech Games Edition, Z-Man and Portal. UK Games Expo is genuinely on the worldwide list of events now – time to wake up, chaps!

Alongside shopping and open play, you’ll find a host of tournaments to take part in (you’ll need to sign up pre-event though). This year includes official European Championships in games including Netrunner, Game of Thrones LCG, Star Wars Armada, Star Wars Destiny and Star Wars: The Card Game LCG; the Catan Regional Championship and the Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne and Agricola UK National Championships – plus loads more. It’s a huge mixture – from the official Pokemon Regional Championships to more than 15 events being run by The British Historical Games Society.

As a budding game industry player

With the kind of quality of publishers mentioned above, it should already be a no-brainer to attend if you’re wanting to get into the industry; there is no better date in the UK gaming calendar to meet some of the key players in the gaming professions.

If you’re a budding game designer, they’ve stepped things up again this year. Playtest UK has has its Playtest Zone at the Expo for years, where you can bring your prototype and have it tested by members of the public, and maybe even some fellow designers (I’ve spent a little bit of time volunteering here in the past and I can promise you, it is almost consistently packed out with both players and designers).

But in addition they’ll be holding a ‘pitch to publishers’ game design speed-dating event, which already has the likes of Mayfair and WizKids signed up to check out the prototypes of up-and-coming designers (but you’ll need to sign up before April 29). Trust me – even if no one is interested in publishing a game, you’ll get some absolutely invaluable feedback at this kind of event.

As a fan of geek culture

While this is a three-day event focused on board, card and roleplaying games there is so much going on: anyone interested in geek culture in general can easily make a packed day out of it, if not more.

Alongside the cosplay already mentioned, you’ll find stalls selling all kinds of fun stuff – from T-shirts and cuddly toys to comics and accessories. But you can also meet authors (including Jonathan Green and Richard Denning) and guests (including the Shut Up and Sit Down and Dice Tower teams), blow your budget at the charity auction, watch the Captain Scarlett tribute show, or check out one of the many seminars on everything from making, selling and marketing games, or writing like a pro, to getting involved in a live podcast.

Single day tickets cost £13/8 (cheaper price for 11-15-year olds), with children 10 and under getting free admission. There are also family tickets (two adults and two children) starting from £35 for a single day. Many of the events will need extra tickets, but things such as the shopping areas, family zone etc are included in the price.

Visit the official UK Games Expo site for all the excruciating details you may need, including all the boring stuff like parking and opening hours. See you there!

Designer’s Dozen: Q&A interview with Rob Daviau

Rob Daviau is an award-winning game designer and developer, as well as co-host of the excellent podcast The Game Design Round Table.

In the business since 1998, he has designed and published more than 70 titles across genres, from children’s to family to hobby games.

While at Hasbro he worked on titles including Heroscape, Risk Legacy, Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit and Betrayal at House on the Hill; and since leaving the company Seafall and Pandemic: Legacy.

This is the sixth in a series of Q&As with published board game designers. The idea is to ask them all the same set of questions, so people can compare the answers and build an insight into what makes designers tick – alongside a stock of answers to questions all new designers will end up facing themselves.


1. If not games design, what pays the bills? Do you do anything else creative outside of games design, paid or unpaid?
I’m a full-time games designer and have been for 18 years. The first 14 were with Hasbro so the bills were paid no matter how well my games did. It’s been a bit trickier since I’ve been on my own. Outside of games, I cook and parent and travel. Mostly I just unwind from a day of creativity.

2. Who is your favourite designer(s), and which one do you most admire? What is your favourite design(s) by them?
I enjoy Gary Gygax, Dave Lebling, JJ Abrams, Chris Claremont and a host of others who shaped my childhood. I don’t get into which designers I enjoy these days because I’ll inevitably leave out someone I shouldn’t and then run into them.

3. What drew you to game design?
I was very much into D&D as a kid and always had a love for rpgs. The board game design job was an unexpected side track when I answered an ad for Hasbro in 1998. It was a near adjacency and I am delighted that it happened.

4. When you design, what tends to come first – theme or mechanisms? And why? Do you design with a specific type of person in mind?
Theme and experience first. Mechanics are then a challenge.

I don’t enjoy – nor am I particularly good at – mechanics in a vacuum. It’s all very dry and formless unless I know what I want the them and experience to be.

Also, I don’t design games for the same person but I do design each game for a particular player. The player in my head for Pandemic Legacy is different than Seafall is different than Stop Thief.

5. What are the best and worst aspects of game design?
Starting a new game is exciting. Having that first prototype, something you’ve created from nothing. Then it isn’t as fun when it doesn’t work. And then it works. And then it doesn’t. And back and forth between the agony and the ecstasy until it’s done.

6. What is the hardest type of game for you to design?
Anything abstract or minimally themed. Once I get stuck I don’t really know how to get unstuck.

7. What is your best prototyping tip for a budding designer?
Please don’t make it look good until late in the process. Pen and paper are your best friends. Of course, sometimes it’s fun to make it look pretty as a way of doing something on the game but you don’t have any good ideas.

8. Would you mind sharing your worst publisher game pitching moment?
One publisher turned to their staff after the game and asked them to rate the game from 1 to 10 after playing a demo. It was super awkward as I was sitting there and they felt stuck.

9. And what has been your best game design moment?
Reading the first review of Risk Legacy while on my honeymoon in Hawaii.

10. Which style of game is your own personal favourite to play?
Anything that tells a good story.

11. What would make the tabletop gaming landscape a better place?
A really good, easy solution to learning how to play the game other than reading the rules.

12. Tell us something about yourself we probably wouldn’t know.
I can do a fair variety of voices and accents.