Origins 2019 Highlights

Origins 2019 has come and gone. Games were played, friendships strengthened and started and fun had by all. I love the experience that Origins is, from the food to the games and everything in-between. Some highlights for me were a 26 person Dice Masters AvX draft, Laser Tag with 11 friends and playing some awesome games with friends new and old. Today I wanted to take a few mins to go through the highlights of the convention in terms of games I played/heard about/demo’d or otherwise contributed to the overall hotness.

First off is Century: A New World. Plan B games and designer Emerson Matsuuchi knocked this last piece of the trilogy out and gave us a final chapter to his over-arching story. The game and playmats continue to be the type of quality we expect and the hotness level for this game was through the roof. Everyone was playing it, everyone was buying it and by Friday morning they were completely sold out. We got to sit down with the designer Emerson and he gave us some great insight on design and the series-check it out in our upcoming podcast!

Next is Calliope Games who had a much smaller footprint on the convention floor then I have ever seen from them. However the game they introduced us to, the next in their Titan Series line is Rob Daviau newest game ShipShape. The game, like all their games is beautiful and ready to play right out of the box. It is light but still full of decision making and strategy through it all. I can’t wait to get my hands on this one!

Next up is one of the biggest up and coming publishers in the game-Skybound Games/Druid City Games! The booth was hopping non-stop with demos of Walking Dead: Something to Fear, Tidal Blades, Sorcerer City and Grimm Masquerade. My favorite and one I expect will be a big game this year is The Walking Dead: Something to Fear. Designed by husband/wife duo Derek and Lizzy Funkhouser-this social deduction game with hidden card placement and set collection really hit on the IP and great gameplay!

Smirk and Dagger hit me with the biggest surprise of the Con thanks to my new friend Bob over at One Board Family. Shöbu is a beautiful and simple abstract game for two players that involves passive moves being mirrored into aggressive moves on the opposite side of the board. I love this game and I am sure it will see a lot of play in our home!

Eagle Gryphon Games had one of the hottest games in the Con, Escape Plan. I had a chance to see what it was all about and I enjoyed the playthrough of Escape Plan and hope to get another game of it in sometime for sure. Another big game in the heavy realm was Pipeline which we saw on a lot of tables. These heavy games were very popular in the later evenings as well-we saw them both being played in the open gaming areas on multiple tables.

Burnt Island Games had a playable copy or two of their next big Kickstarter to fulfill and one I was waiting to get my hands on-In the Hall of the Mountain King. I was not disappointed. The game had a fun polyomino building mechanic on the board with some challenging in game choices of when and how to acquire the resources and build in to the mountain. As a company they continue to produce some of the best looking and smooth games out there today. This is another company that is on the rise!

Floodgate Games has a beautiful new game coming out called Bosk and they were running through demos of this one on site as well. The art looks great but I especially love all of the little leafeeples in the box. This is one I fully expect to be hot and sought after into the fall.

Smash City from Wizkids was getting quite a bit of play also and it is one I expect to continue to see get the love it deserves. Part dexterity, part combat and all fun-this game has some of the biggest dice I have seen in a tabletop game to roll through and pummel all of the buildings set up on the game board. I am really excited to try this one and get it to the table!

Stronghold Games brought quite a few roll and writes to the table but there were two that really stood out to me and were instant additions to my collection Doppelt So Clever and Brikks. Both are created by Wolfgang Warsch and offer some fun in the roll and write format. I love these quick, short games and can see these getting quite a few plays in our home.

Deadly Doodles from Steve Jackson Games was a surprise and a must grab for me after their quick demo in their main game area. I really enjoyed the “draw and draw” of the cards and the dungeon crawl aspects of the game. It is quick, light and super fun-a great way to get in a simple game with the family and kill the monsters and steal their loot! This sold out pretty quick and it is one that I saw getting played throughout the Con.

Finally another company making some big splashes over the last few years is Pandasaurus Games. They were showing off a few new titles, Dead Man’s Cabal and Arraial. Both of which had constant streams of people clamoring to play and buy them.