by W. Eric Martin

Let's jump into another round-up of new and upcoming items shown at the GAMA Expo 2025 trade show in late February 2025:

▪️ In late 2024, Czech Games Edition revealed another expansion in the works for Mín and Elwen's Lost Ruins of Arnak, specifically the Lost Ruins of Arnak: Adventure Chest.

This item serves as both a storage box for all things Arnak and an expansion thanks to an included new double-sided game board that comes with related new temple tiles, guardians, sites, and assistants — all of which is labeled Twisted Paths. This expansion material will eventually be sold separately, but initially it's available only in the Adventure Chest, for which CGE will take pre-orders from March 11-31, 2025.

Non-final version of the "day" side of the game board
The publisher has stated that this item will have a "limited print run", and at GAMA Expo a CGE rep explained to me that the publisher is marketing the Adventure Chest in this manner because it doesn't intend to keep it in stock forever.

Non-final version of the "night" side of the game board
The idea is to do a single production run, get it to those who want it — including retailers, who can stock this item themselves as they would any other CGE title — then let the item go out of stock and be replaced in time by the Twisted Paths expansion, thereby making the new material available on an ongoing basis as with the Expedition Leaders and The Missing Expedition expansions.

Mock-up interior at GAMA Expo 2025
If a huge outcry occurs after the Adventure Chest is no longer available, then perhaps the publisher will organize another production run, but that's not guaranteed. After all, this is a large item with appeal to a sliver of Arnak's audience, so it's best to think of this as "sort of a single printing" and act accordingly. (My advice: If in doubt, just sweep everything into the box and consider the game stored.)

SweeTarts were more popular than Reese's Peanut Butter Cups?!
▪️ Sweet Deals from Shawn Patton of Surprisingly Fun Games is not a new game, but 2025 is the first time I've seen it, so here we are, talking about a 2022 release.

Each player starts with a hand of seven cards, and on most turns you give the name or suit(s) of a card you want to trade away, then each other player can pass or give the value of a single card in hand that they're willing to give you in exchange. Choose one of the bidders, then make the swap to discover what you received. If no one bids, discard that card and draw a new one from the deck.

Once per game you can "bake sale" by drawing the top card from the deck, then discarding a single card from your hand to the table. In turn, players can keep picking up the face-up card, then discarding a separate card, and once everyone has passed on what's available, you clear the table and resume play.

You're trying to get large sets of matching cards in order to score points.


▪️ Another 2022 release from Patton and Surprisingly Fun Games is Tin Spin, with the tin holding seven dice and 25 gold cubes. For the most part, you're trying to spin your die longer than other people can spin their dice in order to win a gold cube — but alternatively you can try to roll for a cube, succeeding if you roll a 1, 2, or 3.

Thus, both roundish and pointy dice can be good, and the game includes a swap die that you'll roll at the end of each turn, making it unlikely that you'll stick with any one die for long.


▪️ Downtown Louisville, Kentucky has far more closed and empty businesses than I would expect to see in the 28th-most-populous city in the United States — that's approx. 630,000 people as of the 2020 U.S. census.

But the Starks Building on the corner of 4th St and Muhammad Ali Blvd looks a bit different from other closed businesses in that it features a temporary art installation showcasing eighteen Louisvillian artists on enormous vinyl panels that cover vacant windows.