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UK Games Expo

jonnyalpha

By jonnyalpha,
in Gaming Unplugged

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  • 3 weeks later...
jonnyalpha

jonnyalpha

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Boooo to not hitting up Expo, but YASSSSS to Essen! Stay in the Motel One on Kennedyplatz with the cool kids!

Is it cheap? I need cheap so I was thinking of staying at the Ibis again which also had lots of people playing games each night.

Is the Motel One nice and, most important, what is breakfast like? The Ibis breakfast was great. :) I love breakfast.

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  • 1 month later...
therearerules

therearerules

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Right, I know which seminars I'm going to, I'm doing a maths trade in the playtest room at some time, getting excited now. There's another guy from my games club going, but I'll be on my own for the most part, so if anybody wants to meet up for a bit (especially for gaming after the expo closes, my train was cheap, but late), drop me a pm.

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jonnyalpha

jonnyalpha

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Two years ago at the Expo I bought an indie dexterity game called Kingbrick. It's a brilliant two player game and is about to be re-released as CubeQuest by Gamewright and there will be demos at the UK Expo. If you're there you should go and have a look at it as it's tremendous fun.

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filecore

filecore

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Hey, as previously posted I'm staying on site Fri-Sun.

I'm RPGing most of the time, but am free Saturday evening. Would be great to meet up with some RLLMUKers for games/beers/chat.

Reply here if you think you'll be free - can meet in the open gaming room.

Or at the very least, leave your Streetpass on your 3DS on! ;)

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thesnwmn

thesnwmn

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Heading back now, racing to get to a dinner in London. Had a great day out. Lots of stuff on show.

Had a couple of games of Cube Quest I'm the demo area (with the designer I think given he was offering to sign copies). Lovely idea and wonderfully tactile. It's something I'd get for kids. For me there's a bit too much "things going on the floor".

Went to see the UK Gaming Hall of Fame induction seminar. Michael did a grand job as he talky one if the group. Fancies Tresham has some wonderful stories that I imagine we just got the tip of. And nice to meet you Michael.

Had my first game of Smallworld with some randoms in the open play area. Lots of fun (which was lucky as I'd just bought a copy).

Picked up the following to haul home via dinner :-/

- Smallworld

- Formula D - Buddh and Baltimore

- Power Grid - Russia/Japan

- K2 - Broad Peak

- Scandaroon (free with ticket)

Great day and well worth the 5 hour round trip.

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thesnwmn

thesnwmn

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Oh, and the BEST thing I saw was Cycling Party which is in prototype at the moment. It's a realistic cycling road race game. Image mechanics encourage a Pelaton of riders and the attempts to break away.

In the 'senior' version you can have climbers and sprinters and do multiple stages to form a tour, tracking general classification by entering stage results into some software.

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therearerules

therearerules

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Turned out really nice! Did a maths trade for the group, swapped Urland for Heimlich and Co (or the English version), bought Keyflower + expansion, and entered the Redesign competition. There was a mad scrum for that after it was announced entries were limited to 42, but I got mine. Also managed to sell infernal contraptions and Tchhwak for nice profits. Not Ticket To Ride the Card Game though. Don't know if you knew this Michael, but one of the guys asking questions about KickStarter was jools who used to post here. I blame him for me buying Keyflower later.

Now to work on this redesign...

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therearerules

therearerules

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The only thing I would do differently next year is try to play more games, otherwise amazing stuff.

Oh yeah, completely failed on this. Only played Disgrace and Favours (which we were told for a few things the rules had changed. Put me off that did, I'd have thought by the time it came to selling, it would have been playtested so much the rules were set in stone. Aside from that the game was okay, interesting secret bid mechanic, but not much else going on).

I did have to head home on an earlier train though :( And spent too much time looking at nothing at the Bring and Buy.

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LaParka

LaParka

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This years Expo was the first one I'd been to where all I wanted to do was try and play as many games as possible and not really just to browse the shops. Can now see why people go for two days!

Didn't get to play everything I wanted to but I tried the following:

Mexican wrestling dice game. Played a four player tag game with friend I went with, guy demoing the game and a complete stranger. Really simple to play, nothing complex or deep about it but that's the beauty of it. Making you having to tag your partner to switch out added to the silliness. Will definitely be picking this up.

Forbidden Desert. Played a three player with another stranger, really enjoyed this. Not played forbidden island so couldn't compare it to that. Awkwardly we were playing it when they announced it as one of the games of the weekend so some chap came over and started filming us playing it.... we didn't win, had the plane built and I was one tile from joining and sailing away when I died due to dehydration.... instant buy. Also saw they were selling Cube Quest. Quickest £45 I spent!!

Played a realistic cycling game. I thought it was good but I bought into the theme. Friend wasn't too sold on it.

Zoom kaBoom (think). Fun game. Only downside was the cost. Fiver more than forbidden desert?

Played lots more that I've forgotten including some magic clones which are never going to displace it. Also had a go of Yugioh with the angriest volunteer at the con. Sure he tweaked the decks, won on turn two with no explanation, then made a joke about the lucky bags being sucky bags....was quite surreal.

All the other volunteers tripped over themselves to help.

Oh, also played in the play test room. One called Shield Wall. Dice and resource management. With a bit of tweaking could be really good.

That's all my addled brain can remember for now :)

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jonnyalpha

jonnyalpha

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I'm so jealous! I wish I could have got there this year. I bought Zoom Zoom Kaboom last year and I really like it as a silly, push your luck, dice rolling, race game and while I know what you mean re: the price it is a very small press game so the costs are bound to be higher.

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LaParka

LaParka

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I'm so jealous! I wish I could have got there this year. I bought Zoom Zoom Kaboom last year and I really like it as a silly, push your luck, dice rolling, race game and while I know what you mean re: the price it is a very small press game so the costs are bound to be higher.

Yeah, that makes sense. I'm definitely in the socially awkward demographic so talking prices is a big put off. Frustrating when the price isn't displayed anywhere. You get that horrible moment where you've been telling the designer/maker how much you enjoy the game, then they tell you the price and you just go 'errr, cool, ok might pop back later' :blush:

I really wanted to do some playtesting, but I ran out of time.

The playtesting room was just put to one side, chances are people could have easily walked by it too! Was good to offer constructive criticism and the designer talk you through how he'd gotten to that stage. Really could have spent all day just going round the games in there.

I imagine the floor space was probably bigger than last year, weirdly because it was mostly in two big rooms it felt a bit smaller! I missed the bring and buy completely too. No idea where that was.

Think i'm going to have to work on trying to do a weekend next year. Got to build up the brownie points...

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jonnyalpha

jonnyalpha

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Nowadays board games have got to the point where they are silly money. I tend to think of any game under £30 as a bit of a bargain so Cubequest, Forbidden Desert, Zoom Zoom Kaboom and others in the £20 -£25 price point are almost impulse purchases. Probably just as well that I wasn't there as I've done very well with my purchases this year and kept them to sales only and an absolute minimum.

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