Essen SPIEL ’18 Live Blog – Saturday

One of the awesome things about Essen SPIEL ’18 is the sense of community that surrounds the event where folk are happy to meet up with each other, talk games and generally enjoy themselves after a hard days work.

If you’re lucky enough to be here you’ll find plenty of meets like this around the convention centre where people are playing games, enjoying their time with each other and generally getting stuck into more nerdy chat!

Days of Wonder are giving demos of their new game The River, creating new societies on the banks of a verdant stream.

The River sees players working to build their settlements on the banks of the titular river, utilising the many resources to be found there. There is an interesting balance between resource gathering and construction as you seek to gain the most victory points. However, you have to be careful as your supply of settlers will dwindle as they decide to settle down.

We stop in with Ares Games and ask them about what is new from them right now! This means delving into Battlestar Galactica and Sword & Sorcery (which is coming back to Kickstarter soon!).

Check back soon for a proper game mechanics breakdown of Battlestar Galactica! We have a video for that coming out very soon so watch this space!

People of all ages have been heading over to Hasbro to play some of their collection of family favourites.

It’s really encouraging seeing the wide range in ages enjoying gaming together. Some of these games are well-established staples, while others are shiny and new.

King Racoon are at Spiel ’18 selling and demoing their first game Tsukuyumi.

Comment To Win A Copy Of Tsukuyumi

Tsukuyumi sees players compete for dominance in a fantasy scifi world after the moon has crashed to earth, bringing with it the power of the dragon that lives inside. Tough survivalists go up against mutated creatures and high tech cyborgs in a stylish, strategic game.

Aha! You activated my trap post!

The Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game remains hugely popular and plenty of gamers are piling in to duel.

We stopped in with the folks from AEG to discuss two of their big games right now. The first of these is War Chest which you will have seen played as part of our Let’s Play collection right here on the website.

Win A Copy Of War Chest & Scorpius Freighters

War Chest is an interesting game which has you playing out battles on the tabletop using not miniatures but discs which represent the different units from your force.

Scorpius Freighters has you heading into space and becoming a dastardly smuggler, trying to make the most vibrant criminal outfit that you can.

Oink Games create a whole bunch of wonderful small games which you can take away in your pocket!

We stopped in to talk with them about some of these games including Tomato, Money Bags, Sink and Zogen!

I love these games, especially Deep Sea Adventure and I would love to hear which of these games has appeared on your radar!

Ice Cool is a fun, dexterity based game, where players try to flick their penguins around the maze-like board.

Lots of families have been playing the game together, and there have been some quite impressive trick shots on display.

At one stand, we found players exploring two very different takes on the end of a civilisation.

First, we have This War Of Mine: The Board Game. Based on the excellent video game of the same name, this game sees you facing difficult decisions as you struggle to survive in a city torn up by warfare.

Second, Waste Knights sends players out into the blasted remains of post-apocalyptic Australia. Here, the focus is far more on action and adventure. The world may have ended, and at such times the world needs heroes.

Marc Andre, the designer of Splendor, sits down to talk to us about the new project he is working on with All For One.

There is still quite a lot in the pipeline so this is a little bit of a behind-the-scenes chat about the game and where things are going in the future.

Saturday has been an awesome one and we sit down to relax a little before yet another barrage of gaming goodness tomorrow.

We can’t wait to be back with you folks on Sunday where we’ve got lots of awesome companies to talk to and much more.

We hope you have been enjoying our live blogs and been checking out the ace interviews we’ve had with designers and more.