UKGE 2019

I wouldn't have thought that I'd be demoing for so many friends for UK Games Expo when I was a visitor, mostly on my own, the same time last year. But hey, life is full of surprises – an important lesson that I learned over the last two years is that you just have to embrace it all, even if it's tough most of the times. Because you never know, something exciting - like the opportunity to experience UKGE from a completely different perspective – might eventually happen, if you can bear with the sunshine and rain to see the rainbow. I know I know, enough of the philosophical reflection, here comes silly business 😝 In this article, I will mostly talk about the demo experience, but will also share a few thoughts on other aspects of UKGE 2019.

A lot of publishers find volunteers to work for them at conventions, but I saw this rare opportunity to work as a paid demoer at UKGE a few months ago – I told Aishwarya about it, and we immediately decided to go for it together. We were assigned to WizKids and sent a few games to learn one month before. I was really happy one of the games I got to learn and demonstrate was Bumuntu. I don't usually feel like I need to play a game more than a couple of times, but this game grows on you – the more times I play it, the more I like it. It's more than just a good family game, and a good game for couples - even hardcore gamers like me enjoy it, because you can play it rather seriously and be really competitive towards each other.

(Per convention, friends' names will show as initials until they agree to show as normal!)

I arrived on Friday morning and went to WizKids' stand to meet with other staff there. Then I had my half day off before starting to work, mostly picking up a few games I pre-ordered online – The Colonists, La Isla, 18Lilliput and Mexica. As soon as I put on my WizKid's T-shirt I saw Mi 'loitering' around the stand, so I offered to demonstrate The Rise and Fall of Anvalor. I have to be honest that I was not that great to begin with – so thanks for bearing with me, Mi! Then a man 'invited himself' and sat down in front of us. Before we said anything he introduced himself: turns out that he's the designer, Rustan. If anything we were the ones that invited ourselves! It was a nice surprise, because it didn't occur to me that meeting the designers is one of the perks while demoing! Rustan was very friendly and we had a long chat about Sweden (where he's from) and his games (I didn't realise he's also the designer of Nations!).

After a couple of rounds of demoing other games I saw J and Dave, so I took a hard sell warm approach and they agreed to be my guinea pigs of King's Struggle. Tom joined us as soon as they sat down, then four of us played a game together. It is an unconventional trick-taking game as a lot of negotiations were involved, but I actually quite like this game myself, despite it being a niche. I then asked them if they wanted to try Bumuntu and A joined us for a 5-player game. Tom ended up winning both games...

The crowds hit the venue on Saturday and it was a really busy day. Almost non-stop demoing of Bumuntu – to big families with children, to couples, etc. Yair and N dropped by one after another to say hello. P also came mid-afternoon to play a game of Bumuntu – I was grateful as I know time is precious at UKGE because there are so many things to see, especially as he was only there on Saturday. My voice started to break towards the end of the day, but I was also glad that I managed to experiment with different combinations of animals. So while customers were enjoying learning the game for the first time, I was also having a different kind of fun! 

Sunday was relatively quiet in comparison. Tom came again to try K'uh Nah, a press-your-luck game: Aishwarya also joined us at the beginning, but had to go halfway through as people were asking about Anvalor. Needless to say, Tom won again (waving fist)! Just before my lunch break, Andy came to play Bumuntu, with a couple who travelled from Sweden (board games seem to be very popular in Sweden!). After lunch, the designer of Pikoko, Adam, came to demo Thrown and I managed to talk to him for a bit. A few friends came again to say goodbye towards the end of the day. I really appreciated that so many friends came to support me, because having friends at the workplace made it feel less like working. This really means a lot - a big heartfelt thank you to you all! I'm also really grateful for the presents from Zev and Scott at WizKids – you guys rock!

Of course, the downside of demoing for most of the long weekend is less time to do things that I wanted to do. Fortunately, I managed to get a few demos for myself during my breaks. I had to skip lunch for that, but it was well worth it! The games that I managed to try are: Copenhagen, Museum, Noctiluca, Lanterns Dice and Inuit. Amongst these, Shem Philip's Noctiluca was my favourite: it was an abstract game combined with set collection. If you like Sagrada or Azul, you would probably like this. I prefer Lanterns Dice to the original and would recommend it to those who like roll-and-write; Copenhagen is also a good option for those who like puzzles. Museum and Inuit have amazing artwork but were a bit too light for my taste.

There are other games on my list but I didn't have time to try: Silk, Bosk, Foothills, Imperial Settlers Dice, Sushi Roll and Namiji. Gaming in the evenings was also restricted, as I was exhausted by the end of the day. I only played 3 light games on Friday evening – in the lounge of the Hilton we played Lloyd and Sara's customised Codenames (which uses game box covers instead of words); Andy and Tom needed a 3^rd player for Among the Stars so I joined them; finally Chris joined us to play a game of Red 7, which was an interesting filler. Didn't get to watch any shows or look around in the Bring and Buy either, although the latter turned out to be mostly a waste of time for me last year.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience to demo at UKGE, since there are plenty of opportunities for gaming and trying out new games at other conventions throughout the year, so I didn't really miss out much. I preferred this year to last – it was also less stuffy with the new Hall 3 - more room for moving around!