Tokyo Game Market - Autumn 2013: Live Streaming by NicoNico & Live VLOGs by Danboard Chan

Ever since I found out about this wonderful hobby, I've dreamed of going to Spiel / BGG.CON / Gen Con, and hopefully one day I'll be able to make it. That said, my friend Robert invited me to the Tokyo Game Market in 2011, and it's now my version of Spiel. I love this wonderful day, and rain, hail or shine, I'll be there.

While I've written about my previous trips to the Game Market, as can be seen at these links —

-----• Game Market 2011 Tokyo - The Super-Fun-Fantastic-Game-Market-Day Day
-----• Tokyo Game Market 2012 (May 13th) - Bigger and Better and Funtastic-er
-----• My adventure at the Tokyo Game Market - November 2012
-----• Tokyo Game Market April 2013 - 1st Big Site-ing!!! NEW & absolutely FABULOUS

— for the Autumn 2013 show, I decided to try something different and film live video-blogs (VLOGs) during the event and upload them instantly after filming — a semi-live streaming of sorts. I also managed to convince some designers to say "Hi" on some videos. The playlist has 16 videos so far and more to come, so you can head straight to my VLOG post to experience the Game Market live.

Tokyo Game Market: Autumn 2013 - VIDEO ADVENTURE

This Game Market was equally fun, exciting and larger than life — so much so that they had Nico Nico livestreaming and interviewing designers. The Tokyo Game Market was held on Monday, Nov 4th, 2013, Monday being a replacement public holiday for Sunday's "Cultural Day public holiday" bunka no hi. This was a perfect way to end the long weekend. You might think it's just a one-day board game convention, but one day is all you need to experience Japan's most creative designer board games.

Each Game Market is the perfect opportunity for game designers to showcase all their new games — and even prototypes — to the public. In April 2013, a group of designers joined together to design extremely affordable games which were games that were almost in their final stages of testing, games with just the bare minimum: the rules & components. Some of the games that came out of the 500yen list were the well-received Patronize and Sail to India. This time new games that gamers could purchase and try from this category were Eight Epics by Seiji Kanai and Edo Yashiki by OKAZU Brand, both of which sold out. Gamefield, a newer boardgame publisher, featured Sail to India and Patronize at their table, while the OKAZU Brand table had demos of their latest releases, including Magical Restaurant.

OKAZU Brand's Edo Yoshiki (left) and Sail to India, Patronize, String Savanna and Magical Restaurant

Nearly all of the new games coming out are in Japanese, but at this Game Market some new releases were featured in English! Power 9 Games released the new edition of its game Dragon's Stone in English, and the hot new game that was shown at Spiel 2013, Shephy, was selling like hotcakes, along with some games from other neighboring countries. Magpie (Korean Co)'s game Holmes 21 was hot on my wishlist, and the Taiwan Boardgame Design team showcased an array of beautiful games that looked delicious (reminds me of Yum Cha hehe)! Sugorokuya, my favorite boardgame store, has been working on publishing its own games as well as working together with international companies to co-release some games.

Shephy, Holmes 13 & Sugorokuya's take on HABA's Super Rhino; Haisai by BigFun; the display at Taiwan Boardgame Design's stand

My favorite game designer/publisher Oink Games had a massive booth, and the crowds and lines were unbelievable! Within the first hour, over 100 people had lined up at their tables to buy their games. I was ecstatic to see all the people supporting their wonderful games. My favorite game Hattari, which goes by the name of Yabu no Naka in Japan, has been a hit for a couple of years. Then they came out with Kobayakawa, another beautiful small box game. This time, their new game Dungeon of Mandom was their hit! They printed five hundred copies, which all sold out. I now wish I had more money to buy more copies. With Oink's games selling out time after time, someone needs to come and pick up their games to be republished overseas. Fingers crossed. You heard it here first

Kobayakawa; Yabu no Naka (Hattari); and Oink's newest game Dungeon of Mandom (middle)

I came to Game Market with a game plan — buy the games on my list, while leaving $100 for secondhand games and other good finds — and the result was...I spent everything on the games on my list x 3 or 4. Knowing that these games were going to be awesome, I bought more than one copy to share with others overseas. I actually bought more games for other people than for myself. Money was extremely tight, but my aim for this Game Market was not to splurge on games for me; it was to help share some of the games with others around the world. So here are the other games that were on my wishlist:

Tokyo Game Market - Autumn 2013 (Nov 4th) - HOT Game List

And what else did I pick up?

Pyx.is, a new game designer, released the game Yumekaki (Dream Draw). The box and artwork came out splendidly. It reminded me a bit of Dixit with that wonderful design. The box looked like storybook, and they had two versions: The moon version and the Stars version. I bought the Moon version. Players tell a story about a dream. Each time it comes around to them they may pass, or play a card and add to the story. The first player to get rid of all her cards wins — but you must try to find an ending card to play, and you can play the ending card only after someone else has initiated the wake-up sequence. It's a very cute game, with wonderful art.

One Night Werewolf was a game my friend was begging me to get at the last Game Market, but it was sold out an hour or so after the show started. This time they had a massive booth, and a TON of games, including the Halloween edition of One Night Werewolf. I was lucky to get my hands on a copy, and it looks amazing. The beautiful plastic tiles will prevent scratches and markings on the tiles when we play, plus the pixel art looks amazing.

Kokkuri Jinro (Ouiji-board Werewolf) was a game that really caught my eye. The designers put up a great little video on YouTube, and with the added cute artwork I knew I had to buy it. Players are channeling a ghost — not just any ghost, but a werewolf ghost. The ghost is out to kill the villagers, and players must try to find out who has been possessed before it's too late. The werewolf and lunatic push the token to try to kill a villager, while the villagers try to push the token away from themselves. The cool thing about this game is that players have two lives, which allows them more time to find out who the werewolf is. I think those who like One Night Werewolf will probably like this also.

Dragon and Bandits by Plan E Works was a game I bought at a previous Game Market without knowing how to play. It caught my attention due to its production and artwork. This year they were back with the second edition with a new box, and the game looked awesome as ever.

I also went and checked out Lost Legacy: Hyakunen Senso to Ryu no Miko at the awesome One Draw booth. The other games people were asking me to get were Sukimono and Machi Koro from Grounding. Unfortunately Sukimono was nowhere to be seen, even though I went to their booth about forty minutes into the venue opening, but they did have Machi Koro.

My last purchase for the day was the wonderful Tabby Tails Square board game...on a T-shirt! I bought one for my friend in 2012, and went to visit their stall again twice at this Game Market. After finding out the designer said I could still order the size even though they were sold out of the one I wanted, I said "Take my money!" I think it was money worth "taken" hehe. (P.S. I chose the orange version as per my friend's suggestions even though blue looked enticing.) Next year I'll happily wear the T-shirt to the Game Market unless another board game T-shirt that is equally cool takes its place.

In 2014 there'll be only one Game Market in Tokyo and one in Osaka. I hear the Osaka Game Market is equally amazing. My friends in JIGG Kansai Game Club will be there and hopefully will have a booth, too. If you wish to come to the biggest board game convention in Japan, please do as I think you'll have a fantastic time. For those who can't make it, I'll try to make another VLOG next year and share some more awesome games by the designers in Japan. I will be posting another video soon about the games I bought at the Game Market, so you can stay up-to-date by checking out my channel: MissMerc007 YouTube Channel

Other fun things about the Game Market:

The booth/table spaces were booked out: Even though the hall was packed to the brim with booths, more designers wanted to reserve a booth. My friend and I also wanted to reserve one, but it was all booked up.

As soon as the time hit 10:00 a.m., the people in line in front of me held up their Game Market brochures in the air: There was a TV crew and lots of cameras! Is this what it feels like to be on a reality TV show?

Werewolf fever hit Japan! There was a huge Werewolf playing area where they ran 19 games of Werewolf, Ultimate Werewolf: Ultimate Edition, and Lupus in Tabula. (You can see my VLOG entry #8)

There was no free play area, but we discovered that as soon as you step outside and go downstairs there were a ton of tables...and everyone else had discovered this, too. Everyone was playing board games outside the convenience store! (You can see my VLOG entry #15)

There are ATMs downstairs: I discovered this last Game Market, but luckily I resisted from taking out more money.

There were parents attending with their children: Luckily I didn't see any babies or infants as the venue was extremely crowded. I wouldn't recommend bringing really young ones. Most of the children were of primary school age.

There was no Stamp Rally this time: I missed looking out for the Stamp Rally. It was something fun to encourage visitors to try some of the games at some booths, but it is a huge undertaking for the Game Market volunteers/workers to organize.

Where were the secondhand games? There weren't a lot of used games. They did have some, but the old secondhand games booths were missed. I think it may have been because the price to rent a booth/table was a lot higher than before. At the old venue the booths were cheaper, but at the new convention hall, because the hall itself is really expensive to book, I think the booth prices may have doubled.

There were English speakers demoing games: I was really surprised to see a lot of English speakers demonstrating games, which made it a lot easier for us to join in a game.

Here are some happy snaps I took during the day.

Waiting in line, only 50 people in front of me

The sea of people after a couple of minutes

Oink Games' line at the beginning of the day

Gamefield's booth

Ka-boom! I saw a lot of people playing this fun-looking game

Seiji Kanai was hard at work selling his beautiful game Eight Epics

OKAZU Brand and the giant Trains bag, which looked awesomely COOL!

My friends and I hanging with Taiwan Boardgame Design's Smoox

Danboard Chan playing Yabu no Naka

The final hoard

Tokyo Game Market - Autumn 2013: Live Streaming by NicoNico & Live VLOGs by Danboard Chan

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