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The UK -the growing market for board games
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One of the pleasures of having organized UK Games Expo was getting a chance to meet and talk to the UK Board Game industry at Essen and at Expo and finding out that although the emphasis is all on the German and US companies that we Brits have some decent publishers and some good games. Some companies are giants with long lists of games and a big profile in the games world and others are small with only one game but pulled together in this list I think its a sign that the industry is growing here. Boardgames are getting a growing following. There are a host of boardgame cons around the country and the BGG UK membership runs into the thousands. Hopefully all this is a good sign for the future in a country which does not have the tradition of Germany when it comes to board games (who does?) Here is my list of the movers and shakers as well as the smaller players in the industry. Feel free to jump in with any I have missed
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Posted Sun Oct 14, 2007 6:45 pm
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Marcus Welbourne of JKLM is both a distributor and a publisher of games so his games listing is long. On the Underground released in 2006 went down pretty well. He is also keen to see boardgames grow in the UK and supports convention scene well including UK Games Expo.
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Cotswolds based games company with games designers Tony Boydell and Alan Paull. Their games use attractive artwork and unusual themes quite often of historical type (dark Age Ireland for example) and vary from quite heavy to the entertaining and light Bloody legacy. Scandaron is their new release in 2007 for Essen with a play test version of Confucius available -itself due for release in 2008.
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Scottish Lamont brothers are on to their 4th Game this year at Essen. Each year their games sell out and are usually snapped up by a larger producer. They often feature attractive components such as the cat in Hamelyn or Sheep in Sear panic and fairly original themes. This year its deer mating on a Scottish island!
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Warfrog are another quite large UK publishing house with lots of titles like Age of Steam ,Perikles and their new Brass out for Essen (which I saw demoed at Expo) which are usually strongly themed and detailed but playable.
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Variety of game types and designs is a feature of Ragnar Brothers who make some historical simulation games like Canal mania , games of exploration and trade like Viking Fury and children's games like blooming Gardens. All highly playable.
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New games company whose first game Fagin's Gang was well received. I would say though cos we gave it best new board game. Looking foward to seeing Ice Flow.
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Pretty much a one man operation with the two games It's Alive and Border Reievers out so far but with lots of ideas and one to watch maybe.
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Most well known for the abstract puzzle game "Take it Easy" Peter Burley is another big supporter of the UK Games Industry and wants to see it succeed. Take it Easy is a medium weight family game which is easy to pick up.
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Publisher of the family game Cat Attack
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Richard Breese has been around a while bringing out about a dozen games of all types of weight and audience - family games and gamer's games. Key Harvest is the latest - a medieval farming game.
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Adrenaline Brush have two games out - both abstract type games- Fondue and Orientate.
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Alphabet Runner is the company name and also the name of their game. Rasib Khan is very keen on family word games which are educational and is very much aimed at the schools and family market.
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Shaun Derick is a footy mad gamer who has combined both passions in to this well received game based around the World Cup with expansion for various tournaments. He does have other quite different games planned.
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It's great to see a number of UK publishers getting front page attention on the Geek, as the UK public's view of games hasn’t really gone beyond seeing traditional family games like Cluedo and Monopoly as wet Sunday afternoon time fillers.
However, there are now a number of UK public games clubs, and I'd like to take the opportunity of plugging York's Beyond Monopoly! here on the Geek (hence the choice of game for this entry.....geddit?)
It meets first and third Saturdays each month in the ‘Railway Institute’ club in central York by the railway station, and attendance varies between 25 and 40 depending on the weather, season etc. There are usually 4-7 games in play at any one time, ranging from fun dexterity games like Villa Paletti and Pitchcar, through modern Euros (Powergrid and Tigris and Euphrates seem to hit the table a lot), to longer strategy games like Civilization and Twilight Imperium.
As the range of games might suggest, attendance is pretty mixed, from hardcore strategy gamers through Euro fans to families. (If I go on my own I’ll be looking to table a Knizia or strategy game, if I take my kids I know they’ll be pitching for Werewolves or 6 Nimmt).
It’s been running for 3 or so years now, and while there are a number of organisers who put in a lot of behind the scenes work, it would be remiss of me not to highlight the driving passion for the club of the recent “Geek of the Week” and raw force of nature that is Jon Power. (Who will now hopefully forgive me for snagging the last copy of Knizia’s Beowulf game on sale for £10 at the local TK Maxx store!)
We have people come in from across Yorkshire and the north of England, and were recently honoured to welcome Martin Wallace (of Warfrog fame) who crossed the Pennines to demonstrate some of his new games. Jack Pope of Reiver games is also a (semi) regular attendant, when other commitments allow.
If you live in or around Yorkshire and like the sound of us, here’s a link to our webpage:
http://bmyork.pbwiki.com/
We also have a Guild here on the Geek, through which you can see the games the club owns, plus some of the members’ games:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/guild/117
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Andrew Sage actually has about 3 games out but only 1 seems to be listed on BGG. They are family / childrens games but playable by gamers as well at least as filler games or as gateways games .
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Specializing in abstract games of Cornish origin, this company make around 20 games.
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Word games including the interesting Dicewords are what Graham's games make
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One game so far - sibling revelry which is an acting / movie type game.
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Posted Sun Oct 14, 2007 5:55 pm
I'd forgotten about some of these and didn't know some of the other ones.