OK, so much for trying to post every day – to be honest, there’s just not enough time in the day here! If you’ve never been, the show is simply a giant firehose of game information – everywhere you turn, it’s a new game to learn about. Oh, and about 1,000 people in your field of view.

Transit times within the halls is as slow as always – I’d definitely set aside 20 to 30 minutes if you’re trying to get from the west end of Hall 3 to the far eastern end of Hall 8, but only if you manage to take an outdoor shortcut or two.

I did manage to plan rationally this year and I had all of my meetings with French companies on the same day, and this blissfully kept me in Hall 6 all Thursday afternoon.

Scorpion Masque is pushing Tag Team hard, and I had a nice meeting with Studio H to learn about Bella Vista, their new building game. Also, got a sneak peek at Sunfield Farm, their upcoming release which looks right up my alley. Gigamic is shooting for a new streamlined approach, now looking at 3 main releases each window. This year, it’s a strategy game (Odysseus), a card game (Ipso) and a kids game (name I have forgotten).

I am quite excited about Odysseus as it is a tableau builder which is co-designed by Goupy. I definitely feel like my list this year is slanted very hard towards tableau builder (esp by Goupy) and cards with big honking stacks in interactions (esp. by Christian Kudahl).

It’s always nice to catch up with some old designer friends too. Antoine Bauza is half of the team that runs Play Punk, and they have a neat looking party game this year called Back to Back. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but you’re working together to give clues that will make your teammate yell out the right word!

Mandy Tong (who is an OG contributor too!) was also there, and she is a co-designer on a number of itten titles. So proud to see her games make it to the show! These are definitely going to be fun and quirky games – just read this description of Music Nonsense: “In Music Nonsense, the quirky xylophone is your trusted companion. Give your best performance on the xylophone to convey the music, while the audience listens intently to guess the song’s title. Can you get your song across? Don’t worry if your performance isn’t perfect.
All you need to do is believe in the power of music.”

I think it’s gonna be amazing and hilarious!

Another game that I’m really looking forward to is Toshi, from Ars Edition and Friedemann Friese. There are definitely more and more FF games that are not coming from 2F. This one is a 2D Machi Koro like game. Dice are rolled to determine where on the 6×6 grid to play buildings; each type has certain scoring conditions/icons, etc. You’ll need a little bit of planning and a nice dose of dice luck to get the right buildings in the right place at the end of the game.

I was glad to be invited again to the Ravensburger press conference. A big to do this year with the 40th anniversary of Labyrinth. There is a new Carcassonne / Labyrinth Mashup. Also, a lot of talk about an upcoming movie where the main character buys a copy of Labyrinth at a flea market and then somehow ends up in the game? (this may have been incorrectly translated by me).  As far as I can tell, this will be a movie that is only released in Germany.  But I’m guessing you’ll be able to YouTube it.

Rolliverse is the new franchise this year, with multiple different IPs being used in the game versions. I was given a Star Wars version that I’m looking forward to trying.  It’s essentially a slightly more complex version of Yahtzee.  You roll 3 times and then try to score cards with that combination.  You can also score cards from the common pool – cards are discarded to the pool each time a player cannot score a combination.

This is the tenth edition of the lunch and play, and I made the slideshow! Well really I think Eric made it, and I’m photo bombing.

It’s a nice break, and for those Opinionated Eaters people – the lunch buffet is a nice change from the Snack Point bratwurst im broetchen…

The salmon was exceptional.  Kudos to the catering at the hotel for that one.

OK back to games, by which I mean, time for me to get back to the halls.  I have a full afternoon of appointments, so hopefully there will be more news to report soon.

I’m hoping that there is an update to the Fairplay Rankings – this is a real-time survey of Spiel-goers where you can get a pulse on what people like.  There is both a complex list as well as a family game list.

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor