Saturday was still pretty busy, but less aggressively so, which I appreciated.

My first stop was Starling Games, to talk about the upcoming Everdell expansion, Pearlbrook. It looks like it’s going to be super, and I got to hear more about what’s happening with Everdell, and that’s exciting stuff. I can’t wait to get the expansion to the table again. Talked to Luma, next; they’re up-and-coming but they’ve got a lot of awesome titles coming via their imprints. Draftosaurus is one a lot of people (including me) have already seen getting a lot of cool coverage; I’m interested to see what happens as they partner with new titles. My next chat was with Korea Boardgames; always exciting to hear about what they’ve got coming down the pipeline. I don’t have much to report on just yet but it’s gonna be awesome, I’m pretty sure.

Ravensburger is always a delight to visit; talked with them a lot about their upcoming titles. Las Vegas Royale is beautiful and I can’t wait to try it; I taught the original to my grandparents a Thanksgiving or two ago and the whole family enjoyed it. I’m particularly interested in Catlantis, but that might just be because it’s holographic and I’m easily swayed by shiny objects. Who can say. There’s another game they announced that I’m not sure I can talk about just yet but I’m overwhelmingly excited for it, especially given the cool work they’ve already done with some of their recent games (like Jaws and Horrified). Also got to see Mint Cooperative! Looks cool.

Pandasaurus was one of my later stops; always exciting to see what they’re up to, as well. I’m hoping to check out Mental Blocks and Machi Koro: Legacy at some point, but we’ll see what I have time for. Also got to talk to XYZ Game Labs about Arch Ravelry, a delightful knitting game that I think will appeal a lot to the tabletop / crafting overlap community (which I think is pretty significant?). It’s also a very pretty game, so that’s nice, too. And a nice pun name!

Elf Creek showed me a bit of their new prototype, Honey Buzz, and a lot of Atlantis Rising. It looks impeccable; cool cooperative, lots of different stuff going on, lots of playable characters, and fantastic / diverse art. Really got a lot of things going for it, if you ask me.

I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t talk about a new game I got to try from Game and a Curry, Battle of the Boybands, a light drafting game about boy band recruitment and management. You need to adhere to certain criteria, play the boys from your boy band, and occasionally try to break up and mess with other bands if you want to come out on top. Fantastic theme, fantastic art; I’m really looking forward to the final version of the game.

My final games of the evening were Visitor in Blackwood Grove, Bermuda Pirates, and a quick round of Folded Wishes.

Saturday ended up being a lot lighter! What did y’all do? Let me know in the comments if any of the games I mentioned interested you.