I played Red, the game's initial title, via a print-and-play in June 2014 and previewed it on BGG News before the design itself was even complete because the core idea was so strong and clear. Whatever the other details, the concept of changing winning conditions and the need to be winning at the end of your turn were great hooks for a game design, and the final result has turned out to be excellent, with the scoring rules and advanced play options adding to the fun.
Knowing that I was a fan of the game, Cieslik asked me whether the BGG Store would be willing to take copies to Spiel 2014 and sell them. In the end, we had 48 copies on hand and I think they sold out by the middle of Wednesday, which was the set-up day.
• I'm at a loss to say something about Fabio Attoli's Hexemonia from Pendragon Game Studio other than that Silvio Negri-Clementi, formerly with Stratelibri and Giochi Uniti, has been working with Pendragon to get their games to market. That's behind-the-scenes detail, of course, and probably not helpful in learning anything about the game, but sometimes that's all that I have from my perspective.
• I know even less about Andrea Mainini's Ifrito from Zvezda. Okay, not really as I do know that the game involves infrit — a.k.a. efreet for Magic players — and you use them to attack others.
• Spells of Doom, from designers Evangelos Foskolos and Stelios Kourtis and publisher Drawlab Entertainment, kind of gives the game away from the title, with you probably knowing right away whether or not this game might be for you.
• ESSEN The Game: Spiel'13 from Beghin, Delporte, and Espreman and Geek Attitude Games was one of two metagames on sale at Spiel 2014, the other being ESSEN from LudiCreations. In this one, players took on the role of shoppers at Spiel 2013 who are trying to obtain all of the items on their wantlists.
A funny thing to consider when looking over the list of 2013 releases featured in the game is how few of them were available for purchase at Spiel 2014. I know that Spiel is a special event in which you as a publisher want to highlight the new things that people will probably be most eager to see, but still...
• Level 99 Games didn't have a booth at Spiel 2014, but owner/designer D. Brad Talton had showed up at the fair to talk with other publishers about licenses and other things, so he also made his way to the BGG booth to talk about Trey Chambers' Argent: The Consortium.