![]() ![]() Andy and I spent some time with the developers of Blinks, a system that Andy’s quite familiar with but I’d never seen before. I was only present for the last day of the convention, but I had a great time visiting all of the publishers on the floor. Boonlake, from Capstone Games Andrew Lynch Add in the cities you’re building that give you in-game scoring, as well as setting you up for some great end-game scoring, and you’ll be able to get points with nearly every move. In typical euro fashion there are multiple progress tracks, with lots of opportunities to score points. It’s not too heavy, coming in around 1.5-2 hours, and mechanically speaking it made a lot of sense. Origins: First Builders is a really solid game. Thankfully Rainer from the Board&Dice team did a killer job teaching us the game and we closed out Saturday night and JUST squeaked out a finish before the hall closed. It’s a little meatier than my usual type of game but Justin was so excited about it that I had to jump in. Origins: First Builders from Board&Dice is a mid-weight dice worker placement game with a sci-fi and civ building theme. There were lots of laughs from both groups, and a good time was had by all. As soon as I finished that game, 3 other people approached and asked me if I could teach them, so I got to play 2Can twice in a row. And as soon as I did 5 other people hopped in and we all learned the game together. So when I found it on one of the First Look tables I had to sit down. I lean towards the lighter end of the spectrum, but the two standout titles for me were 2Can, an upcoming light card game from AMIGO and Origins: First Builders from Board&Dice.Īmigo previewed 2Can for me at one of the mixer events on Thursday and I was intrigued. As Justin mentioned, the other attendees were great, and it was never a problem to find someone to game with. Thankfully I took charge of that feeling and decided to sit down and play some games. As someone who writes about board games it can be hard to “stop working” and just enjoy yourself. PAX Unplugged was a solid experience, but I also had small bouts of melancholy. Origins: First Builders was Justin’s #1 game of the show! Andy Matthews Publishers were fired up to talk about games and almost all reported strong sales at their booths. The open gaming space was plentiful the game library process was easy, and we never had to fight to get access to a game in the “First Look” area with new game releases. We even had a random attendee join us for a game of Boonlake to help fill out our player count (thanks Sacha if you’re reading this). The three of us sat down for a couple dozen different demos with different crowds and all of those crowds were just excited to play games. The attendees at PAXU were just a really friendly bunch. The addition of metal detectors and multiple K-9 support teams? PAXU might be more secure than the White House! The use of the CLEAR verification system (you’ve seen CLEAR at your local airport, if you are based in the US) made uploading facial recognition, vaccination and personal information a breeze, and the PAXU’s paid “Enforcer” staff allowed for quite easy traffic flow and shepherding of people from place to place. Each were well attended and gave everyone a chance to preview titles from some of the event sponsors, talk to everyone else in a relaxed atmosphere, and get face time with others before PAX opened the doors on Friday morning. Both events were open to media, designers, publishers, and other industry folks. ![]() PAX Unplugged unofficially kicked off with a pair of media/content creator events on Thursday night. That led to a lot of fun moments where people seemed excited just to see other people this weekend. Coming on the heels of other larger/more established tabletop conventions this year, and with extremely strict health & safety protocols, we spoke to many attendees who made this their gaming “coming out” party. PAXU straddles an interesting space: it is still relatively new (the inaugural event was in 2017), but it is treated almost like a more accessible Gen Con in terms of expo hall size, gaming space, location, and activities. Velocity: Vanguard, from Precarious Games, continues to impress The Vibe Justin Bell Here’s the executive summary: we loved it.Īnd there was so much to love. Three of our Meeple Mountain team members-Andy Matthews, Justin Bell, and Andrew Lynch-converged in Philadelphia for this past weekend’s PAX Unplugged (known as “PAXU”) to play games, meet with other content creators in the tabletop media, and discuss current and upcoming titles with publishers, designers, marketing leaders, art directors, and a collage of other luminaries in the world of gaming. Was it always sunny? See below to find out! ![]() The Meeple Mountain team came to Philadelphia for PAX Unplugged, the analog event in the Penny Arcade convention series. ![]()
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