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Videos from Spiel 2014 IV: Alchemists, Dungeon Bazar, Soqquadro, Bim Bum Bam & Valentina: The Game

Videos from Spiel 2014 IV: Alchemists, Dungeon Bazar, Soqquadro, Bim Bum Bam & Valentina: The Game
Board Game: Alchemists
• "What's the hot game?" "What's getting all the buzz?" "What are people talking about?"

In general people seem to agree that no single game was setting everyone's pants afire at Spiel 2014, but a case could be made for Czech Games Edition's Alchemists from designer Matúš Kotry — although that could be bias on my part since CGE was within throwing distance of the BGG stand and it was easier to see people's excitement about the game compared to everything that wasn't within eyeshot.

That said, I don't think anything else generated a line of people so filled with hope at 11:58 a.m. on Saturday that they could purchase a reserved-yet-unclaimed copy of the game. Here's the line of people in front of the BGG stand at that time:

From gallery of W Eric Martin

Someone in the CGE stand counted down the seconds to noon, then everyone cheered and forked over their Euro as quickly as they could. For those who didn't nab a copy, you can now listen to Kotry describe his design:





Board Game: Dungeon Bazar
• One bizarre question that I heard numerous times leading up to Spiel 2014 and at the show itself: Why can't Cranio Creations spell "bazaar" correctly in Dungeon Bazar? Um, it is correct — in Italian, which is the language spoken by the designers and publisher. The real question to ask might have been why they spelled "dungeon" in English instead of in Italian if they were spelling "bazaar" in Italian?! Perhaps it's just a matter of having a foot in each door, as it were.

Whatever the case, co-designer Daniele Tascini showed up at the BGG booth to talk about the game:





Board Game: Soqquadro
• Tascini was also on hand to talk about the party game Soqquadro, which has you running away from the table as much as playing at it:





Board Game: Bim Bum Bam
• One of the smallest and fastest games at Spiel 2014 was Cranio Creations' Bim Bum Bam, which I continually want to write as "Bim Bam Bum", perhaps due to the lower pitched "uh" seeming to make more sense in the final position as the sound of the vowels would then slope properly from my perspective, if you know what I mean. Perhaps this is another Italian/English discrepancy that can be solved only through a duel with sabers.





Board Game: Valentina: The Game – Tutto Crepax Vol. 1
• Each time I see Valentina: The Game, I'm still tickled by the notion of a memory game — something normally aimed at an audience of kiddies — bearing the artwork of Guido Crepax, which is normally intended for those much older than kiddies. After all, I managed a comic book store in the late 1980s and Crepax brings to mind The Story of O, Emmanuelle and Justine, all very NSFW creations.

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