Libellud had probably the best game fair that a company could have, releasing Loony Quest: The Lost City (a highly-anticipated expansion for a well-regarded game), showing off Mysterium: Hidden Signs (ditto, and due to release in June 2016), and winning As d'Or (France's game of the year award) for its version of Mysterium. (Pandemic Legacy won the As d'Or in the expert game category, while Master Fox won in the children's category.)
For our purposes, though, we're looking at another prototype that Libellud was demonstrating in Cannes: Dice Forge from Libellud's own Régis Bonnessée. Here's a short description:
Each player starts with two dice in Dice Forge, and as the game progresses, players can upgrade the faces of the dice to give them more coins, more points, and other benefits.
• The Red Joker, a publisher previously known only for Guardians' Chronicles, was showing off the game and expansion La Vallée des Rois and La Vallée des Rois: L'Éveil de Nyarlathotep from designers Pascal Bernard and Pierre-Olivier Barome, which were crowdfunded on Ulule in December 2015. Here's an overview of these titles, which are intended for two players:
While playing La Vallée des Rois, they will be surrounded by good companions who might help them avoid deadly traps and withstand the wrath of the gods of Egypt, but in this quest, only one adventurer can reap fame and wealth...
Each player has a deck of ten specific cards that includes allies, traps and equipment, from which they draw one card per turn. The three papyrus received by the cultist player early in the game does not come from the usual papyrus, but six "Cthulhu Mythos" papyrus that cite terrible deities and avatars such as Nyarlathotep Yig or that cast spells causing death and madness.
Two tombs are replaced with alternate versions, and terrifying creatures borne from a mythology of ancient evil gods await players.
• Blue Cocker Games unveiled Max Valembois' Meeple War in which meeples serve as actual-sized battle vehicles in the four kingdoms of Lilliput.
• Devil Pig Games demoed Yann and Clem's Kharnage, a 2-4 player fantasy-based "king of the hill" battle for domination (points) due out in 2016.
• Geek Attitude Games showed off its intended Spiel 2016 release: Save the President, Save the World from designers Cyril Besnard and Alain Fondrille.
Our greatest symbol of freedom is about to fall — and with it the free world — until across the rubble fall the silhouettes of a few individuals, White House tourists who are ready to stand as the last bulwark against the destruction of our society, standing behind the single slogan: "Save the President!"
Save the President, Save the World is a cooperative game in which players try to do just that.