Late this summer, the team here at Meeple Mountain began discussing plans to cover SPIEL 2024 in Essen, Germany. After covering the show for the last three years, contributors Justin Bell and Andrew Lynch booked travel accommodations and began working with publishers to schedule meetings and set up our schedule at the show.
Then, a twist arrived in the 11th hour—what if founding team members Andy Matthews and Jesse Fletcher could join the event too? And for the first time, no less? A few phone calls and a bunch of goodwill at home later, Andy and Jesse signed on for the event and began working out plans to arrive in Essen for the show.
The event was a success for a number of reasons, chief amongst them being the first-ever four-day badge sellout at a SPIEL event. Yes, more than 200,000 people attended the show, and it was such a treat to see happy gamers from across the globe taking part in the event. It didn’t hurt that many vendors reported record sales at their booth, with more than 1,200 new games on display from over 920 exhibitors and vendors.
SPIEL, which takes place at the Messe Essen event center and spans nearly six football fields of action, was a blast. In no particular order, here are the team’s thoughts on SPIEL 2024!
Revenant is Worth a Look (Justin)
My big-ticket item for SPIEL 2024 was Revenant, the new worker placement game designed by Allan Kirkeby set in the Voidfall universe. Kirkeby himself did the teach for a partial-play demo for media members, so it was fun getting insights on the game’s design and development cycle.
I can’t share any final thoughts on my play yet; it’s hard to know anything after playing just two rounds of a four-round game. But my main question coming into the game—is Revenant essentially Voidfall Lite?—was answered with a resounding “no.” Revenant is a standalone game, although it doesn’t hurt to know Voidfall because the games share a decent amount of iconography. Players command a frigate belonging to a group of ships that must once again deal with the ongoing threat of the Voidborn. Using a team of three workers—a captain and two crew members—players trigger actions using ships within the fleet, then get a bonus action that might trigger resource collection, card play, and boosts on a variety of tracks to gain bonuses.
We’ve reached out to the publisher to see if we can cover the game, so it’s possible we’ll have more to share here soon. But Revenant is off to a positive start.
The Quick Pitch (Andrew)
I spent Saturday following a friend around as he pitched games to publishers. It was a side of the industry I’ve never had a chance to experience before, and it was absolutely fascinating. I’ll be writing more about it in the next few days, but the gist of the thing is this: to put yourself out there over and over again as an unknown designer is an act of true courage.
Dear Gen Con, You Need to Let Media in 30 Minutes Early (Justin)
This note is mostly an annual reminder for our friends at other US-based conventions, such as Gen Con and PAX Unplugged, that they need to align with press guidance at shows in other countries. Please let the media into the main halls a little early! It’s easier to have meetings with publishers when it’s quiet, audio and video recording is much higher quality when there are no fans milling around. It gives media members and content creators a chance to cover your convention more efficiently!!! (Remember the part where you remind us that the press badge comes with a cost—talk up the event? We are already working for you! Make it easier for us to service your needs!!)
Justin’s Right (Andrew)
That’s all.
And do an early preview day while you’re at it (Andy)
Essen SPIEL does an early, media-only, preview day in which publishers set out their current slate of games in a single room, to entice retailers and media. No booths, just the games. It’s a great way to get an early look at the actual games that publishers will be showcasing over the following 4 days, and it’s nice because most of the games are posed, and ready for pictures. And if you’re lucky, you might run into Friedemann Friese.
A Full Day of Demos? (Justin)
For the first time in three trips to SPIEL, I blocked an entire day for demoing games, much like I did at Gen Con 2024. That day ended up being a blast because I got to spend time with my buddy John (who is one half of the duo who joins me for most of my “Dusty Euros” series game nights) as we tooled around the Messe trying to find demo tables.
First, a note, mainly for me to plan 2025: most publishers schedule demo plays by having players sign up for time slots. Naturally, I didn’t bother doing that, since I was running around between 22 meetings during my first three days at the fair. So when we tried to demo games this year, I was shocked at how many booths had limited tables for open demo action.
Anyway, on to the games. I got to demo three games on the last day of the show:
- 7 Empires, the new game from Mac Gerdts, the designer of Concordia (our demo featured five players)
- 7 Empires was pretty good, and we’ll have a review coming out in the weeks ahead.
- Chartered: Rebuilding Amsterdam, a new game with bones of both Big Boss and Acquire (two players)
- Unfortunately, Chartered was a miss. Like Acquire and Dawn of Ulos (which uses a lot of the Acquire system in a fantasy setting), Chartered is likely a better game at larger player counts and a surprising amount of the design is luck-based, tied to a starting hand of randomly-drawn cards mixed with an ongoing card market that might advantage a player who lucks into building spaces that are directly adjacent to each other.
- Kraftwagen: Age of Engineering, a fresh coat of paint on Mathias Cramer’s 2015 design Kraftwagen (three players)
- Kraftwagen was fantastic. John, my demo partner, owns the original Kraftwagen and thought the new game does a great job of smoothing some of the original design’s edges while making the test/race track a more viable strategic angle.
Lesser Demos (Jesse)
Like Justin, I was eager to participate in what I had always heard was the difference in Essen vs Gen Con demoing: at Essen, they let you play the whole game. I excitedly blocked off my time for such heavy hitters as Unconscious Mind, Andromeda’s Edge, and the upcoming reprints of Colosseum and Cyclades. Just my luck, all of those respective publishers decided on the more familiar “you get to take a couple of turns” style that I’m used to at Gen Con. While admittedly this approach is a smarter decision financially to get more eyes and hands on the product, particularly because all of my games choices would easily take 2+ hours for new players, it was a little disappointing, especially given the lack of open gaming space. (more on that later)
Or (almost) no demos at all (Andy)
Even though most people would say that shows like Essen and Gen Con are all about the games, for me it’s about the people. And while I do love finding (and buying) new games, I don’t tend to do demos as they take up valuable “walking around the hall” time. That said, I did enjoy the two that I did sit down for. Hot Pot Holic is a clever trick-taking game from Taiwan Board Games, and I was lucky enough to get a demo from the designer himself. The other was the big-box game The Flames of Fafnir from Lucky Duck Games, which has quite the table presence. One thing to note for future trips is that when they say demo, they generally mean “play a full game” which is different from American conventions, so plan accordingly.
No Big Headlines (Andrew)
This Essen felt unusually calm. Unprecedentedly busy, yes, but the general energy level seemed manageable. Towards the end of the last day, publishers and media alike were commenting on how much less exhausted they felt than usual. Sunday evening at Essen felt more like Saturday evening, which is a big improvement. Another unusual change: I didn’t have a headliner anticipated game. There were a number of titles I was curious about, most of which I’ll be covering in the upcoming months, but there wasn’t anything I was on fire for. There was no Nokosu Dice (see our Essen SPIEL 2023 coverage for that story). That sentiment, too, was expressed by a number of publishers, designers, and friends I spoke to.
To be honest, it was kind of…nice? I felt a bit more free to explore, and there was no let-down to follow a culminating experience.
Celebrity Sightings are a Thing at SPIEL (Justin)
When people ask me why SPIEL is my favorite show, I always say the same things: booth parties, a generally chill vibe (getting stampeded by nerds trying to claim hard-to-find promo packs doesn’t really happen in Germany), better prices for games, and celebrity sightings that don’t really feel like celebrity sightings.
But tabletop celebrities are a thing! I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Simone Luciani at last year’s show and my luck continued in 2024, mainly because I just kept my eyes open this go-round. I had two small conversations with Vital Lacerda about Speakeasy, the latest creation from the Portuguese master currently up on Kickstarter that we reviewed last month. Later in the weekend, I talked to Luke Laurie about his new game Andromeda’s Edge, specifically regarding the Targeting addition to combat that has everyone excited about mitigating one of the trickier aspects of AE’s original design, Dwellings of Eldervale.
And my good fortune didn’t stop there. Ivan Lashin, the designer of Smartphone Inc. and Furnace? Yep. Fabio Lopiano, the man who co-designed Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon and Autobahn? Not only did I see him, he recognized me at a booth party, following our conversation at Festival International Des Jeux. Ian O’Toole? Absolutely. Varnavas Timotheou and Vangelis Bagiartakis, the designers of Hegemony and the upcoming game World Order? We hammed it up at their booth. Gordon Calleja, the man who gave us Fateforge: Chronicles of Kaan and Vengeance: Roll & Fight? Not only did we see Gordon, we hung out long enough to catch his DJ set at the Mighty Boards booth.
If you want to spend time with your publisher, artist, designer, developer, production, shipping, and/or writing heroes at SPIEL, you can absolutely do it. It’s a great way to bring people closer to the hobby they love!
Obligatory Namedrop Follow-up (Jesse)
While I don’t possess the inherent shmooze-ability of my fellow mountaineers, under the guise of “tell me about your new game because I’ve got a press badge” I got to chat with legends Friedman Friese and Eric Lang. I waited for them to finish their Essen Spiel spiels before expressing my profuse praise for my beloved favorites Power Grid and The Godfather: Corleone’s Empire respectively. I also had a delightful chance encounter on the train with board game auteur Ryan Laukat and his wife Melody, allowing me to gush about Sleeping Gods and see their possibly awkward, but appreciative acceptance of my effusive praise for their products.
Hall 8 is Just Begging to Be Turned Into a Play Space (Justin)
Dear SPIEL organizers—congratulations on the fair’s first-even four-day badge sellout! You did a great job during the week with almost everything I can think of: the Novelties Show space was much more appropriate, there were no AI art controversies with signage, the hall layouts were on point, and the app continues to shine.
To celebrate your hard work, please consider using Hall 8—which hosts the pre-convention “Novelties Show” then remains empty the rest of the week—as a permanent gaming space. Like every other tabletop show in the world, people want to finish buying new treasures then rip off the shrink and play games with their friends. While hotel lobbies are nice, they don’t have the feel that comes from playing Gloomhaven in a massive hall with hundreds or thousands of other players.
Let’s turn a negative into a positive. (Or, at least turn a dead space into something useful.) Create some space onsite for people to play their games. You could even close it down early, like 9 or 10 PM. But then you could use your concessions areas in Halls 7 and 8 to maximum effect. You could probably get away with setting up tables in Hall 7 too…but, let’s start small. Put some tables in Hall 8 for people to play those games!!!
Power Tips After A First Trip (Andy)
Since this was my first trip, here’s a few things I learned what to do, and what not to do. Perhaps these might help you in the future.
- While most people in Germany speak English, it pays to learn at least the basics. You’ll start to recognize words, and they appreciate the effort.
- Don’t overpack. You’re likely going to come back with more than you left with, so make sure you have room.
- Nesting suitcases—a small one for clothes inside a larger one for games—works really well, as long as your large suitcase is hard-sided. I found this out the hard way after discovering many dings, smashes, and rips in the games I came back with.
- While it can pay to get Euros (€) out before you leave your country, the Geldautomat (German for ATM) makes it easy to get Euros straight out of your account with a debit card.
- Have a plan for navigating the halls. This year there were 6 massive event halls, occupying over 736,000 square feet. Exhibitors are largely grouped by “type”. Manufacturers were mostly in Hall 4, TCG/CCG/Miniatures were in Hall 1, “strategy games” were in Hall 3, etc.
- Have some idea of what you want to “do” while you’re there. If you want to demo games, then you might be able to schedule them ahead of time. If you just want to walk around, then make sure you know what you want to look at.
- The SPIEL app was really well done. You could “favorite” publishers, and even individual games, and show them on a map. The app even offers navigation if you provide the start and end point. Kudos to the application developers.
- Don’t skip the cardio and come with comfortable shoes. I’m a largely sedentary person who averages around 4k steps a day. From walking to/from the train station and hotel, and all the walking around the halls and after parties, I averaged closer to 20k. My feet were killing me every night.
- Book your lodging early. While I was able to get a good rate for my hotel, it was still a 10 minute walk and a 10 minute train ride to get to the convention center. I didn’t mind the time because I loved the scenery, but it would have been nice to be closer to the action, and potentially to other gamers.
- If you’re traveling from afar, then a real power move is to get a hotel in Dusseldorf (the closest international airport) the night before you leave. That way you can potentially check your bags in that night, and wake up with only a short distance to travel to your gate…as opposed to waking up at 6am for a 10:15 flight because you have to take a cab, and a train (which was late), and a tram from the train station to the airport.
SPIEL Game Prices Are Mostly Fair, Until It’s a Card Game from an Asian Publisher (Justin)
I will always defend what publishers do with new game prices at SPIEL. By and large, the prices are exceptionally fair and do a great job of keeping new toys affordable. Strategy games that should have an MSRP of about 50€ outside of conventions really do cost about 50€ at SPIEL. [NOTE: At the time of Essen 2024, the US exchange rate was $1 = 0.91€; £1 = 1.19€.] Cheap games usually come in under 25€. If you can get your hands on a deluxe version of a game after it is delivered to backers, the prices are usually what backers paid minus the shipping costs (since you are standing at the booth, right?).
But at SPIEL 2024, I was surprised to note that some of the smaller box and card games, usually from Asian publishers such as Hobby Japan, Saashi & Saashi, Korea Boardgames, Oink Games, and others, cost $25-$30. In one instance, I was in line at Saashi & Saashi to buy a copy of a game that wasn’t even new this year, then saw a price of 25€ and actually stepped out of the line I was in. “Uh, no,” I mumbled. I like games and I want to support publishers, but sometimes the prices just felt a little off this year. I later spoke to other industry partners who wondered the same thing about the prices. Look: publishers have to make a living, and running a booth in a country foreign to your own is expensive. Still…25€ for a card game?
My Eye is Bigger than my Suitcase’s Stomach (Jesse)
Despite telling myself the yearly lie of “I’m not going to buy as much this year,” I still managed to walk away from the week with nearly 20 titles. While a number of those have a smaller footprint, they still managed to fill up my entire suitcase that I’d dedicated for acquisitions. What I did not anticipate was the inaccuracy of my dollar-store digital suitcase scale, which was off by at least 3 kilos. Getting through the long line at the airport baggage check-in line only to be forced to re-open and rearrange my overstuffed suitcase, resulting in an equally over-stuffed carry-on bag is not an experience that I want to repeat. Suffice to say, maybe next time I can just wait and pick up that new hotness when it comes to retail. (Odds are good that I still won’t)
The Real Game Was the Friendships We Made Along the Way
(Andrew)
It’s more and more true with each passing year; the best part of Spiel is the people. Over my three and a half years with Meeple Mountain, I’ve built some wonderful friendships and built up a roster of terrific acquaintances, many of whom I see this once a year. The highlights of Essen for me always come down to the people, the conversations, and the feeling that just about everyone in this industry really cares.
Not Only Friendships, But Long-lasting Professional Relationships (Andy)
I started Meeple Mountain in 2015, and during that time I’ve interacted with hundreds of wonderful people in the board game publishing industry. Many of them are from the United States, but a good number of them are located in other countries. That means I rarely get the chance to meet those people in person. But at SPIEL, all bets are off. I met publishers from England, Thailand, Poland, Malta, Korea, Japan, Germany, and many other countries…all of whom I’ve emailed before.
And to be perfectly honest that was the main reason I went to SPIEL. All the games I came back with are nice, but being able to shake hands with someone with whom I’ve had professional interactions with over a 7-year period is the icing on the cake for me.
And that’s not even talking about the other content creators. Since the media was always allowed in early we wound up seeing a lot of the same people all the time. Paul Grogan, Beneeta Kaur, Banzainator, Tim Chuon, Danielle Standring, Paula Deming, Matt Jude, the crew from Tantrum House, Stefan and Christy from WeLoveBoardGame, and many others.
The entire show was like a warm hug from all the people who are passionate about board games.
It’s a Lock
As we now say every year: SPIEL is a lock. Someone from the team will be at SPIEL every year. The show is exceptionally well run given the magnitude of the attendance levels, and it only gets easier to go every year. Only one show has all the games, and that show is SPIEL.
Thanks to everyone we had the chance to see in Germany…and we will see you in 2025!
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