Yesterday I talked about games that were supposed to be for sale at GenCon and which ones might be interesting to you. You can find that list here. Note that Dinosaur Island Rawr ‘n Write is not going to be there anymore. Which is a bummer for me because I was looking forward to that one. But GenCon isn’t just about buying games. Some of the best experiences I had in 2019 were demoing games that weren’t even out yet, so let’s see what makes this list.

Top 10 Games to Demo At GenCon

So, there aren’t many rules for how this list will work. The only one is that if I’ve played it or demoed it before, it won’t go onto the list. So I think Stuff of Legends is going to be there. I think that’s a fun game that I’d want to try again, but I’ve already played it. So anything like that won’t count on this list.

10. Lost Ruins of Arnak: Expedition Leaders

I’m starting off with an expansion. This one is for a game that I own but have yet to play. It combines deck building with worker placement, and I really like deck building. But the expansions adds in leaders, basically unique powers that players start with. I’m really excited for that because I like unique or variable powers in games a lot. It if fun when you can do something I can’t and I can do something you can’t in a game.

9. Merchants of the Dark Road

Another worker placement game, and generally I don’t love worker placement. But this one interested me after watching the GloryHoundd Playthrough. The game play seems interesting and the theme isn’t dry, which I like. The artwork on the game is really nice. If this one was for sale, it might have made the list, but it’s a game that I want to see in person and try, maybe not own.

8. Steam Up: A Feast of Dim Sum

I like my food themed games. Sushi Go Party! is great, I have Foodies to play, I want to pick up On The Rocks and already own Homebrewers. There is just something about food themes that I like. I also like that they tend to be pretty straightforward to play. I am hoping that this is going to be another good one because the artwork looks nice and the theme is fun. And the idea of set collection is something that has worked well with my game group.

7. Machi Koro 2

This one almost breaks the rule I set for myself. I have not played Machi Koro 2, but I have played Machi Koro. This seems to build on that but be a pretty similar game. Machi Koro is a game that I liked but didn’t love. The issue I had with it was that everyone was doing basically the same thing, same strategy. There weren’t enough differences, this seems to have fixed that with putting out a variety of the big buildings you need to build to win the game. Having that randomness should make it better.

6. Now or Never

This is the sequel to Near and Far and Above and Below from Red Raven Games. I like Near and Far but I got rid of it because there wasn’t enough of the story it promised. The artwork was amazing and the same is true for this one. I want to see if this would fit better for my group. But, that said, I think that the game on the other list, Sleeping Gods, is going to be the better fit for me from Ryan Laukat and Red Raven Games.

5. Return to Dark Tower

I almost backed this one on Kickstarter. A big cooperative game with a giant powered tower in the middle of it that is spewing out skulls, that is cool. I don’t have the nostalgia to the original game, but watching this one played seems like a lot of fun. It’s also cooperative which works well for me. It’ll be one of those games that when it’s on the table people will notice.

4. Wonder Book

I hadn’t heard anything about this game until I saw it on the list today, but now I want to see it. Cooperative games are always good for me. And add in that this has 3D pop-up scenarios, that’s really cool. I wonder how it would compared to Shivers which I almost backed, but ended up passing on, on Kickstarter. The idea is interesting for at least the look of the game.

3. Dubious

I’m always dubious of deduction games with a social aspect to it. But Dubious from Hobby World seems interesting. I’ve heard good things about it, or about it’s mechanics anyways. And the artwork on the box really stands out to me. I’m always interested in social deduction games because I want to find more that I like. And Dubious looks like it might be a deduction game with a social aspect which is really in my wheelhouse.

2. Velocity: Vanguard

A cooperative space adventure, that sounds interesting to me. I don’t know much about this game, but the theme is interesting. The question I have to ask myself is do I need another adventure game, or want one. The answer to one of those questions is basically always yes. But I want to get better when I would have a chance to demo something, demoing it prior to buying it.

1. Key to the Kingdom

This one is one that I’m basing it mainly off of the artwork. The game has take that as a mechanic, which I really don’t like. But I am always interested when Restoration Games takes an old game and turns it into something new. It means that it might work better for me. And I am curious about this one because taking pixies to fight a Demon King, that seems entertaining.

All The Games

This list was much shorter than the games for sale. Now, I’m guessing that is because a bunch of companies won’t announce what’s going to be there ahead of time, or at least Board Game Geek doesn’t have them yet. But you can checkout the list to see all 33 for yourself here. And I’d totally expect to see a lot more games to demo.

This is going to be a different year at GenCon though. I am sure that there will be less games to demo and less games just in general. Some of that will be due to Asmodee not being there, which means a number of companies won’t. Some of it is going to be supply chain issues. Let me know what games you’re interested in demoing though.

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