Everything Action at PAX Unplugged 2023
Dice were rolled, cards were tapped and all the actions were set for the annual board game event of PAX Unplugged. Held from December 1st – 3rd at the Philadelphia Convention Center, Unplugged once again brought a grand show of vendors, panelists, game masters, and creative talents to celebrate the fun and magic of tabletop gaming. There were a ton of sights to see and games to check out that kept us and many others very busy over the three days. We packed in a healthy amount of walking and talking on our trip as we roamed the vendor hall and poked our heads in various rooms. We got to check out new releases and upcoming projects and spoke with game designers while getting exclusive demonstrations. Check out our review of PAX Unplugged below!
InsideOut Games – Draft & Write Records
We stopped by InsideOut Games to check out Draft & Write Records, a band management game. In this game, you are in charge of drafting musicians and staff to create a superstar traveling band. You need to grow your talent, make hit songs to attract fans, and get more opportunities. Each player gets a set of drafted cards that go towards building up the band. After each turn, the players blindly exchange their remaining cards with the other players. This is an interesting mechanic that lets you rely on the opposites to give you resources but also gives a certain greed strategy to prevent them from progressing far.
Th3rd World Studios – Charcuterie
Who doesn’t like a good appetizer spread on a solid piece of wood? Charcuterie was a recently released project based on the art of food arrangement. Players take turns to collect various food pieces and place them on their charcuterie board. Based on the food selection, they must configure them by stacking or grouping them in an area to score victory points. Every player has an objective card that gives them bonus points based on the arrangements. The game has a great premise that a lot of people can easily pick up and play. The only thing that is missing in this is a nice bottle of wine.
WizKids – Jokkmokk
Shopping during the holidays is never as fun as a festive game like JokkmokkBased on the world-famous Swedish market, Jokkmokk is a game about visiting merchant stalls during a winter festival. Players collect souvenirs, trinkets, and food to score points. There are various combinations of sets that players can focus on. Similar to Gin Rummy, players can get sets of specific items or sequences. We liked the art style and the joyous tone of the game which is a perfect all-ages.
Floodgate Games
Everything Ever – Does it feel like you have seen and heard it all? Now you can test your knowledge of all things against your friends and family in Everything Ever. This trivia party game lets players pick two category cards and list as many possible facts about it. It could be about things naming cat breeds and things about Sports, then you have to list something they share between them. Unlike regular trivia games, the gameplay isn’t about memorizing history but kind of unlocking those random facts and details that float in your head. It’s fun to see how people react to the cards and laugh at how they can recognize random facts about it, but not like what they had for breakfast.
Décorum – Decorating can be a fun activity, but there will be compromises when you have to share the same space with others. You want a certain look and feel to a wall. A red lamp against a green wall. A yellow painting behind a blue background. But the other person might want it all different. Décorum emulates that fun and frustrating experience. Players have a secret objective to fulfill while decorating rooms in a house. Each player will add, remove, and repaint rooms to achieve their objectives while working together with the group. There game has a fun deduction mechanic that pushes players to figure out who has what objectives and if there is a compromise or dispute. The game gets fun when people start to bickering and try to read each other’s actions.
We also checked out Skyrockets: Festivals of Fire, Blitzkrieg and Caesar! at the Floodgate booth. These are short, causal titles that are great for pick-up and play experiences. Skyrockets is a game about creating large firework displays for an event. Players work cooperatively, flipping cards to keep different color sand timers going, with the colors on the card corresponding to what timers you can flip. Players have to work together to achieve certain goals, based on whatever mission card they select, which sets up the timers in different configurations and introduces different mechanics and gameplay twists. It’s a fast-paced game that requires a lot of coordination and timing but it’s a ton of fun to play. Blitzkrieg and Caesar! lets two players wage a small-scale war. Blitzkrieg takes place in across the WW2 campaign. Each player takes up a role of either the Axis or Allies, then manages resources to support their military forces across different battles. As certain areas are weakened or taken over, this unlocks more resources but now requires even more focus to maintain multiple control points. Caesar! has a similar premise, but takes place in ancient Rome. Players can be either Caesar or Pompey, then have to fight to completely dominate the republic.
Vaikin Kansepts
We got to interview the creators & designers of Vaikin Kansepts, where we got to see the craftsmanship of their modular wooden game storage system in person and just a few configurations the boxes can be arranged. The kits are perfect for the DIY gamer who wants to customize their gear to their specific taste. Vaikin Box Assembled is a premade and fully finished build that is beautifully stained and ready to house all sorts of things. We also got to see a round of their own game, Don’t Give a F@UCk, a portable adult party game. In DGAF, the goal of the game is to be the player with the least F@UCK tokens. Players roll dice to determine how many F@UCK tokens are given to other players. However, the player who is the Chief F@UCK Officer can affect some of the outcomes. If you’ve played the classic family game Left, Right, Center, this is a more adult spin on that. The game moves pretty quickly and is designed to be six rounds with three or more people. There are drinking game rules if people want to add more challenges that make this game perfect for a night of gaming and beer. You can check out their upcoming February Kickstarter here for details about the game and how to get a limited edition copy.
Forever Stoked
From the strange and amusing, Forever Stoked has been known to work with some cleverly crass titles. In the past, we put out Dumpster fires, saw badly drawn werewolves, and built tacos at the Forever Stoked booth. So we are never really prepared to see what they have next in store. Their lineup continues their usual trends where we saw more weird and fun projects.
Texas Hold It– Cyanide and Happiness has a new game that takes bathroom humor to a literal level. Texas Hold It is a guessing card game that lets players see who can avoid getting “relieved” in probably the worst public bathroom ever. Players place their cards in a row between mystery cards, which are then flipped over to reveal if a person is going to the bathroom in a certain direction. It’s a gross and hilarious title, perfect for the Cyanide and Happiness fan to play.
Trash Talk – What if raccoons and possums had their own game of liars dice? We guess it would be something like Trash Talk, a game where players guess what adjective word best describes items from the trash. One player takes on the role of a raccoon, who picks items and rearranges them on top of three cards with an adjustive word like “sharp” or “dream”. The other players are possums who must guess which items would go to what adjective. The game has an interesting premise that makes it fun for an all-ages audience and lets you see how clever or confused your friends are.
Dragoon Gold Edition – Dragoon is a strategy game about conquering islands as warring dragons. Players go across the board to terrorize villagers for gold. Villagers can be destroyed or controlled to generate more riches. However, other dragons will be doing the same and will steal an unprotected lair. This new edition has golden metal pieces and includes everything else from the original releases.
Heads Will Roll – Here is a game that is great for those players with good flicking skills. Heads Will Roll has players act like Dragons, who are playing a flicking game to split up their golden treasures. Each player rolls a collection of pieces, then must flick the shield piece between wherever the two skull pieces lie and the shield must be able to make contact with a treasure chest. The game is fairly easy and a simple way to pass the time, we imagine it can get competitive with the right crowd of players. The pieces are detailed and have some weight to them, so nothing ever goes flying off a table.
Made Up Movies – We saw Made Up Movies in 2022 and it’s still a blast in 2023. In the game, you take turns pitching reboots of famous movies, using different decks of cards to randomly get the stars, genre, setting, and more. After you get your ridiculous reboot, the other players use their “Studio Executive” cards to make the pitcher elaborate in hilarious ways or swap out elements of the pitch. Afterward, everyone decides how much of a budget this reboot will receive and, after everyone gets a turn pitching a movie, the person who gets the highest budget wins. The game leads to plenty of hilarious scenarios and insane combinations that are fun for both hardcore movie fans like us and more casual players just looking for a goofy party game.
Paverson Games – Distilled
A lot of people dream of making their alcoholic products, we sure do. But the art and business of operating a distillery is no easy task. Distilled is a game about creating, brewing, and marketing tasty adult beverages. Players get cards that determine what kind of ingredients they can use, how they can age the mix, and then how it can sell. There is a lot of resource managing to track and the game can have high playtime. Probably a great game to open a bottle of something strong and sip with friends.
Rabble Games
Rabble Games is known for its socially engaging games that have entertaining games that explore players’ creative mindsets and have a few laughs along the way. We stopped by to get a rundown of their latest project Lovestruck, a game inspired by reality TV shows about finding romantic connections. Players take up the role of contestants, each playing a certain archetypical persona like the “Party Animal”, the “Single Parent”, or the “Spiritual one”. Each character plays the same, but how the players can breathe life into the role makes the game very interesting. Each person is assigned one or two secret objectives; find love with the right reasons to make a genuine connection or be on the show for all the wrong reasons and stay popular. The players have to work as a team to keep the show interesting for the audience to watch, but not too dramatic that the show has to be canceled. The players also don’t know what each other player is trying to achieve initially, but for the game, the true intentions can slip out. The game ends either when the Good Reasons group can find each other and pair up by the end of the show, or if the Wrong Reasons team manages to sabotage the ratings or trick a Good Reasons player into coupling up by the end.
We got an extended preview of the game with a play session with two groups of players on Saturday night of Unplugged. We sat in with random people and did our best to put on a poker face. Our experiences were slightly different based on the group we joined. Zach’s group had a faster-paced session with players trying to play the game logically, while Chris’s group added a lot of drama and flair to immerse the character and world-building. Zach’s group sort of played the game like Clue, where everyone was trying to deduce which players were part of the good and wrong reasons teams. Chris’s session was like a long DND campaign, where we gave love-winded backgrounds of our characters and interesting traits about themselves. It’s a fun game that TV drama junkies can eat up and either try to be a romantic detective or be a hot mess drama queen and crash down the party for fun. If you love stuff like The Bachelor or Love is Blind, then Lovestruck will be right up your alley, especially if you have a group of friends who share your taste in trashy reality or can roleplay being a trashy reality show contestant.
Kess Entertainment
Mega Man Adventures – Coming from Kess Entertainment and designers Peter Gousis and Michael D. Kelley, Mega Man Adventures is a 1-4 player co-op game where you and a group of friends take on the evil forces of Dr. Wily as Mega Man, Roll, Protoman, and Rush. Each player gets their own stage to try and fight their way through, using a variety of different colored dice. Each stage has enemies and hazards that must be overcome with certain combos of dice to complete them and, if you can’t, you’ll take damage. If you make it through the stage, you’ll battle a Robot Master, which is a gauntlet of cards with specific challenges and damage-inducing actions. Along with the dice, players also get action cards that they can use on themselves or to help other players and you can coordinate and strategize with each other to help everyone make it through the stages. If one hero dies, all of the players lose. Officially licensed by Capcom, Mega Man Adventures has the classic NES art style and nails the look and tone of the classic Mega Man games.
Sonic Roll – Another adaptation of a classic video game series, Sonic Roll is coming out in 2024 and is similar to Mega Man Adventures, as it’s a co-op adventure for 1-4 players. Players play as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. Each character has a unique ability and playstyle. Players set out to complete stages, on their way to battle Badniks and eventually Robotnik/Eggman himself. Players use dice and, depending on what gets rolled, you can choose your path through the stage. There is a slight competitive aspect to Sonic Roll where you can take a path to get a bonus that another player won’t be able to get. So as you are working to advance in a stage, it unlocks small benefits to the group. Just like Mega Man Adventures, Sonic Roll completely nails the style and look of the Genesis-era Sonic games. The design team had worked closely with Sega and took inspiration from the Sonic Mania visuals. The box especially looks incredible, evoking the look and feel of the 90s Genesis cartridge.
Steve Jackson Games – Groo: The Game
The iconic comics barbarian Groo makes his way to the table with Groo: The Game from Steve Jackson Games. Originally released in 1997, the game was out of print until it was revived via Kickstarter. Players are each trying to build up their own towns to earn victory points, with Groo randomly moving around to each player’s town based on the roll of a dice. If Groo is in a player’s town, that town is susceptible to crazy events that can destroy their buildings and cause other havoc. The dice also allow you to build buildings and generate an army depending on what icons come up and you can attack and battle other players’ armies. It nails the charming and fun look of Groo from legendary artist Sergio Aragonés while adding in lots of the trademark humor and gameplay style that you get from Steve Jackson Games’ Munchkin.
offcut games – Expect Delays
A selection of the PAX Rising section of PAX Unplugged, Expect Delays from Offcut Games has 2 players dueling to efficiently run their subway system while trying to sabotage the other player. The players have different options on their turn, including boarding riders, running their trains, putting lines out of service, or repairing out-of-service lines. Each player has 4 different lines and the strategy is trying to determine when to board riders, when to have them disembark to earn points, and when to take fare cards and play cards from your hand. After each round, a special event comes up that can throw a wrench in both players’ strategies by making certain actions unavailable or causing some other random chaos until the next round. The game goes on until one player earns 10 victory points and wins the game. It’s a super fun, compact game that offers up a ton of strategy and different options to pursue to try and win and it has a great push and pull as the players try to run their trains while putting their opponent’s trains out of service.
XYZ Game Lab – Big Foot
The most iconic monster truck of all time, Bigfoot comes to the tabletop with Bigfoot: Roll & Smash. Players each take control of an iconic truck in the Bigfoot fleet and then roll awesome tire dice to see what cards you’ll get to plan your turn. You use your cards to program a path around the board and you get points for smashing cars and other obstacles, avoiding hazards, and doing stunts like donuts and massive jumps. Along with the unique dice, the game nails the monster truck/Bigfoot aesthetic and has some cool components for the players’ trucks and the art style on all the cards and player boards.
Jason Anarchy
We stopped by to chat with Jason Anarchy about his booth and check out his most recent projects. His latest release, Cheese Factory, is a game about crafting cheese. Players compete to combine ingredients and create machines to produce the best cheese while sabotaging each other. Cheese Factory is a fun take on the usually serious strategic industrial games that let players get silly with the process of making cheese. Some items might make great-tasting cheeses, while some might not be considered legally even cheese products. The artwork provided by Tiny Snek Comics, and is pairs well with the silly cheese-making premise. Self Careless is a collaboration with cartoonist Cassandra Calin and it sees 1 or 2 players trying to arrange cards to balance your day based on the time and the best life balance. There’s a Cat expansion pack that adds an element of random chaos to the game. The long-running Drinking Quest is also continuing to expand and get revamped, which is a fantasy RPG that combines classic elements of D&D with getting absolutely shitfaced. There’s a new Drinking Quest: Six Pack that combines all the releases so far into one convenient package. Check out all of Jason’s games here: https://www.drinkingquest.com/
CGC – Czech Games Edition
As they have for the last few years, massive publisher Czech Games Edition had their side room where you could demo and purchase all of their releases. Along with the massively popular party game Codenames and its many variations, you could also check out games like Kutná Hora, Spicy, and Time Division. There was also a treasure hunt that was spread around the convention center. If you found the banners and solved their puzzles, you could have won various prizes.
Escape Velocity Games – Turn + Burn
Another selection from the PAX Rising area, Turn + Burn from Escape Velocity Games is a racing game where players pilot nuclear-powered speeders in a high-risk race across dangerous terrain. Players choose their speeder, which ranges from easy to control to more advanced, and then you roll dice to maneuver your way through the course. You can also utilize gear to perform certain actions and you can try to bump other players into the walls of the track to damage and hinder them while you pull ahead. It reminded us a bit of other combat racing board games like Thunder Road
Thames & Kosmos
Thames & Kosmos is one of the biggest board game publishers out there today. From abstract puzzles to fantasy adventures, Thames & Kosmos has something for all players. We got a tour of their latest projects and a few previews of what’s coming up in 2024.
Dragonkeepers – Players are rival magicians who try to raise the most dragons in Dragonkeepers. A Magic Book tells players how many and which color dragons can be taken on your turn but you can use spells to manipulate the pages of the book and change them to your advantage, but each spell costs a certain amount of dragons, so you need to figure out what dragon color you want to go for and which you can spare to cast spells.
Lord of the Rings: Adventure to Mount Doom – Officially licensed and based on the iconic novels from JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings: Adventure to Mount Doom sees 1-4 players teaming up to guide Frodo and the Fellowship through Middle Earth on their quest to destroy the One Ring. Something that sets this game apart from other co-op games is that players are not playing as a specific member of the Fellowship, but everyone is moving and controlling the entire group. On your turn, you roll dice and then choose a member of the Fellowship to move, with lots of events and enemies that can come up to force the players to strategize and defeat them. There’s also a strategy to where the members are, like if Frodo gets too far ahead, there won’t be any other members to defend him. The board is gorgeous and the theming is off the charts, with specific areas of the board where appropriate enemies and events will occur to let you live the story of the trilogy.
Inside Job & High Score – Inside Job is a co-op game for 3-5 players (with a special 2-player variant) that sees players acting as a group of secret agents trying to complete various missions. However, one member of the group is a saboteur who is trying to make the group fail. While proceeding through the rounds, which take the form of a trick-taking card game, players need to try and figure out which player is the saboteur. High Score is a dice game a la Yahtzee where players are trying to roll combos to get the best score. The twist that sets it apart from Yahtzee or Farkle is that there is a Challenge Card every round that dictates certain conditions like only odd numbers score or specific dice have a bonus value. The player with the highest score after 7 rounds wins.
Belratti – Belratti is a game based around buying art where players have to select cards that they believe match prompt cards randomly pulled from the game’s deck. All the cards are random objects, like an apple, screw, mirror, etc. If the prompts are a CD and a mirror for instance, maybe you would play another card that is reflective or round to try and match. Along with the players’ choices, there are also choices from the master art forger Belratti pulled from the deck. The choices are all shuffled and then the players have to decide which cards were played by the players and buy them. If too many of Belratti’s fakes are bought, the players lose.
Nunatak: Temple of Ice – If you like stacking and destroying things, Nunatak: Temple of Ice might be your game of choice. In this game, players each assemble pillars on a board and receive a card that determines what points they score. After a certain amount of pillars are placed, another board is placed to create a new layer and the process starts again. The game has a competitive co-op mechanic that makes players try to conquer and maximize as much of the board real estate as possible. However the card values can help offset the limited spaces, so the tactic can be to place pillars in certain locations to score big points. The game has a colorful arctic design and we enjoy games that mix strategy and physical challenges like this.
R. Talsorian Games
We stopped by to check out the big model display of a cargo ship and harbor at the R. Talsorian booth. They had lots of RPG books on sale and new figures for gamers to create new immersive worlds. Chris also got a picture with R. Talsorian founder and game designer, Mike Pondsmith. He was casually hanging out at the booth, rocking a futuristic set of sunglasses that matched perfectly with the Cyberpunk products right next to him.
Fiat Lucre – Collectionomics
Here is another game that is perfect for the geeky collector with a vast array of stuff. Collectionomics is an upcoming party game about debating about stuff. What stuff is more important? Which are most valuable? And is the worst? Players must convince or trick others to agree to their side of the debate and secure votes. However, there are no rules that stop players from making pacts or deals, and bribery to get people to your side. The game is great for geeks who are passionate about their stuff and can present their arguments in a calm or stern matter. You can check out details of the Collectionomics Kickstarter at https://www.annapurnaboardgame.com/.
Fambam Games- Not So Neighborly
The Not So Neighborly booth was set up like a shop with different items displayed, with the creative team running the store. The game itself is about building a neighborhood without getting destroyed by rivals. Each player tries to build their community, helping or sabotaging other players from success. The art is playful and silly and offers a variety of ways to mess up neighborhoods. Some attacks range from annoying bathroom humor or setting buildings ablaze. There were plushies of various characters that were partially inspired by the creative team, so better watch out for your neighborhood in case one of them lives next to you.
Wise Wizard Games
We got to chat with Wise Wizard Games CEO Rob Dougherty to find out what’s currently out and what’s coming out soon from the company.
Star Realms: Rise of Empire: The popular deck-building space battle series is going into the world of Legacy games with Star Realms: Rise of Empire. The result of a massively successful Kickstarter campaign, Star Realms: Rise of an Empire is played across 12 games between two players, telling the story of the war between the Trade Federation and the Star Empire along with three brand new factions to the universe that get introduced throughout the campaign. As you play, cards will get stickers on them that will change how they play and they might get destroyed and not be usable for the rest of the campaign. It features the same Star Realms gameplay, where you are gathering resources and playing ships to attack your opponent. After you complete the 12-game campaign, you can incorporate Rise of Empire into any existing Star Realms decks you have and play infinite 2-6 player matches.
Robot Quest Arena: Taking some of the mechanics of Star Realms, like a store or trade row of cards you can trade resources, in this case batteries, to acquire new cards. You and your opponents are fighting with your own battling robots and you use cards to move around the arena, lay traps, and battle your opponent. If your robot takes too much damage, it’s out of the arena, but unlike a lot of similar games, you get to respawn the next turn and keep battling instead of being out and forced to spectate for the rest of the game. This keeps things much more fun for all players. The game has a super fun art style that will appeal to kids as well as adults and even has its own theme song.
Kapow!: Kapow! sees you battling as superheroes, utilizing an ever-changing system of dice to power your special abilities and do different actions. The dice are the unique aspect of Kapow! because you can add and remove different faces to the dice and gain more dice as you go along. You roll your dice and use them to activate different abilities on your character’s player board to attack, defend, and power up. There is a superhero and supervillain faction and the main game sees two players dueling by choosing their side and character but there are rules where you can have a 2v2 battle and you can also play solo with a special mechanic that automates an opponent for you. The art style is a really awesome comic book aesthetic with unique heroes and villains and it seems like an awesome game for comic book fans who love rolling dice and strategy.
Free League Game Room
Free League Publishing has worked with many popular sci-fi licensed products to bring bold stories to the role-playing genres. They have worked on Mutant: Year Zero, Blade Runner, Aliens, and Lord of the Rings, each having a distinct world space and game engine. The most famous is the Year Zero Engine, a system that focuses on exploration and intense conflicts. The Free League Game Room was stocked full of core and module books that people can check out and create a campaign. It’s fun to see DMs unveil dark and mysterious storylines, but the games can get pretty long. You will have to ask which games are short and easy to join before signing up.
RPG Room
Like the Free League Game Room, the RPG Room was dedicated to all sorts of Role Playing Games that people could freely sign out. These games feature the many iterations of the classic Dungeon and Dragons to the mathematical-focused bouts of the WWF/WWE. You can spend hours just browsing the different books and learning which game satisfies the current mood. It’s fun to see what products and popular media got a role-playing game, and people in the room are interested in taking it for a spin. There was a signed-up sheet for hourly games people could join with a veteran DM, so people keep busy waiting for their sessions or making new friends by joining random games.
Classic Cardboard Games
The popular board games both you and your parents played as children can be found stacked up in the Classic Cardboard room. From simple children’s games that teach basic counting skills to grand war games told through tiny plastic pieces, there were a lot of interesting titles to search through. No visit to Unplugged is complete to us without spending some time in this room.
WHOSEIT? & WHATZIT?
Zach picked up two fairly obscure games that involve guessing. WHOSEIT? is similar to Guess Who. Each player gets a character card that other players must ask questions to figure out which character they are holding. The game has a few interesting mechanics that let players answer yes or no to certain questions, and certain characters allow the player to lie. This makes this slightly better than regular Guess Who, but the game was not popular. A typical round can last like 10 minutes with just two players making good guesses and seeing how the other person reacts. WHATZIT? is a word puzzle game where words are presented in a particular fashion to convey a secret meaning. A player pulls a card and tries to guess the word’s double meaning. We thought we could solve a few, but turns out Zach and Chris are not the best at word art puns. These are like Dad jokes with rebus-like phrases that feel like you need to practice ahead of time before playing this game.
Husker Du? & Turbo
For a quick and very casual experience, we played Husker Du and the board game adaptation of the video game Turbo. Husker Du? is a memorization game that had a global craze in the 70s. The game is meant to teach mainly kids, but it’s still entertainment for an older audience. The thing that attracted us was the title of the game and the rotating board. The game has a fixed amount of play setups based on how the board is rotated. We joked that some expert Husker Du? players have probably studied this version and can probably figure out where everything is in one turn. We would hate to go against those people. On the flip side, Turbo is a racing game based on a 1981 Sega video game. Players take turns rolling dice to advance their cars and avoid getting spun around. The game focuses on just one lap around the track. However, 80% of the time is just seeing who can roll the most 6’s to stay in the lead. The game only gives a challenge near the end of the track where there is a patch of ice. In that icy area, players can be spun around and sent backward, creating a bigger gap between cars.
We snapped a few photos of random games that caught our attention based on the title or the strange artwork. We laughed at showing each other board games and reading off the rules. It’s funny to say what the game is about and hear people from a table ask what the heck we are reading and they want to play the game next.
Panel – What Matters Most When Crowdfunding?
Hosted by Jonathan Ritter-Roderick (Kickstarter), Grace Collins (Snowbright Games), Ami Baio (Pink Tiger Games), Ricardo Evangelho (Hit Point Press), and Nate Chatellier (Dice Throne), What Matters Most When Crowdfunding? discuss how companies attract the right audiences to their products. Each of the panelists gave their insights about what their campaign experience was like and what others should expect. There was a small lineup of people waiting to ask questions to the panelists, many of whom had projects just approaching a crowdfunding stage and needed some advice. In the age of instant product and delivery, it’s nice to see how small businesses adapt to keep up with the industry standards and find ways to revolutionize it.
UnPub
The UnPub Room is where upcoming game designers show their latest projects to the public for play testing and feedback. There is a mix of first-time designers and creators with some experience. You can play projects that are in various states of polish but can at least last a few turns to show off the game’s core mechanics. We enjoy popping into this room to check out the rotating games set up and see if we can get in on a session.
Drayer Ink – Bubble Net
We got to sit with Catherine Drayer and play a round of her upcoming project Bubble Net. In this game, players are humpback whales that are fishing with their ability to herd with their bubbles. This is based on humpback whales’ natural abilities and is something clever to see. Each player is a humpback trying to set off bubbles that will push fish toward the center of a spiral. This creates a “net” that allows the player to swoop in and swallow whatever is in the center. Players will compete on how many fish they can catch and will be trying to help fish escape from other player’s bubble nets. The game is casual and takes only two turns to figure out most of the mechanics. You can check their details about the Kickstarter project on their website at https://drayerink.com/.
We didn’t get much time to sit and play many titles this time around, but we snapped a few photos of games with interesting titles. Some games were too far into their sessions to get a full explanation, but we got a very brief understanding.
Last thoughts
PAX Unplugged unites an incredible community of gamers. The event was packed with people who were all connected through the enjoyment of tabletop entertainment. The crowds were only a bit rough in the morning, but the weather held out from being too cold and the lines were moving to get people inside as fast as possible for the morning rush. By noon, people barely had trouble getting into the place. We enjoy the casual experience of checking out different games and finding time to sit and play. Tabletop and board games don’t overload the senses with flash visuals that send people into a dazzle. We enjoyed our time learning about different games and finding what’s going to be in demand at board game nights for years to come.
