by Saigo

Editor's note: Game Market took place in Tokyo on November 16-17, 2024, and Saigo — who translates game rules between Japanese and English and who tweets about new JP games — has translated a report about this event by Takuya Ono, who runs the Table Games in the World blog. Mr. Ono has given permission to reprint the photos from his post. Many thanks to Saigo! —WEM

Game Market 2024 Autumn was held for two days on Saturday, November 16 and Sunday, November 17 at Makuhari Messe Exhibition Halls 4, 5, 6 and 7 in Chiba Prefecture. This was the first time the event was held at Makuhari Messe after moving from Tokyo Big Sight. The area increased by 1,310 square meters from the previous Gama Market to 27,000 square meters, and a record number of 1,219 groups — in detail, 73 block booths, 370 individual booths on both days, 457 booths on Saturday only, and 319 booths on Sunday only — exhibited at the event, which was attended by a total of 26,000 people over the two days. Let's see how the event differed from previous ones. (Text by Taku Kawakami)

Many people involved in the event were already going in and out of the Makuhari Messe early in the morning
It was cloudy on the first day. The nearby Kaihin Makuhari station is 31 minutes away from Tokyo station by express train to Chiba. Located by the sea, it was windy and the air was cold. At 8:30 a.m., 2 hours and 30 minutes before the doors opened, the line for early entry reached 345 people. The number of people waiting was slightly lower than last time, according to the venue staff. This may have been due to the inconvenient access from the Tokyo metropolitan area compared to Tokyo Big Sight.

At around 9:30, the waiting line was under the roof
When the doors opened at 11:00 a.m., the early ticket holders streamed in
When the opening was announced, the waiting crowd with early tickets poured into the hall. Crowds quickly formed in front of popular booths.

There was a particularly long line at the SUSABI GAMES booth, which had released the HacKClaD.DeltA standalone expansion for HacKClaD. Over 200 people waited in line for the paper bags and postcards that were available as purchase benefits at the event.

People also flocked to the booth of the non-profit organization Japan Iron and Steel Federation (JISF) to get free promotional items. People tried to answer the "Quiz on Iron" on the paper distributed beforehand. They were allowed to draw lottery tickets based on the number of correct answers, and if they drew the "golden screw", they could get a free copy of the game. The 200 winners received a copy of Seiji Kanai's latest game, Recycle Hunter.

The SUSABI GAMES booth was particularly prominent, with over 200 people waiting in line
The JISF free lottery was so popular that their booth was almost obscured by the crowd
The Murder Mystery booth also had limited admission, and there was a line of people waiting to buy tickets
As with the previous Game Market, the 2,500 early entry tickets sold out. Although the number of tickets was the same as the previous Game Market, the venue was larger and the aisles were wider, making it easier to move around the popular, crowded booths.

There were constantly people visiting the booths of popular game designers to seek their new games.

Kei Kajino of One More Game! commented that they "struggled to create" their newly-released Revolve!, their first game in five years since their previous title SCOUT! (which was nominated for the 2022 Spiel des Jahres). They have created a new game that uses cards with numbers and suits that are different on both ends, similar to those in SCOUT!

Kei Kajino of One More Game! exhibited only on Saturday
Saashi & Saashi did Japan pre-sales of their new game 1 A.M. Jailbreak, which had been released at SPIEL Essen 24. Takashi Saito, the game designer of Inno Spiel 2022 winner HEY YO, released his new game GEAR.

Saashi holding his new game at the Saashi & Saashi booth; their demo tables were always full
Takashi Saito of BrainBrainGames; his new game is the third in the OPEN series
Kaya Miyano of Mob+, the game designer of 2024 As d'Or winner Trio, released Mole Poker, the third game in the "Animal Poker" series after Cat Poker and Dog Poker. The Japanese version of Trio was also pre-sold by Engames that day.

Kaya Miyano of Mob+ — the third game in the Animal Poker series is finally a poker-like game
Among the block booths, the Arclight booth stood out. The layout was designed to allow attendees to easily move around depending on their purpose, with the sales area and demo tables separated by a large panel, and the game displays arranged around the perimeter. With events like the Stamp Collection Challenge to try out the games,
Power Grid: Recharged! promo cards, and new game announcements, the booth was very popular.

Arclight's booth, reminiscent of the booths of major companies at overseas trade shows
The promo card given to people who bought games. Enthusiastic fans of Friedemann Friese and Makuhari Messe are depicted on it.
At the Oink Games booth, where a giant submarine was floating, they released five new titles, including Deep Sea Adventure Boost. The new title TRND, which had been sold limitedly at Game Market 2024 Kyoto in KYOMAF in September, was also available for purchase.

Jun Sasaki holding TRND — five new titles were released at the Oink Games booth
The booths of overseas publishers were particularly noticeable. For Game Market 2024 Autumn, the Game Market Management Office did not approach overseas exhibitors. Instead, each group that exhibited participated by following the same procedure as Japanese exhibitors and applying through the website in Japanese.

Playte, a Korean publisher that reprints classic German games like Can't Stop with sophisticated artwork, exhibited this time as "playte & Honu +2 games", a group of four companies, together with Wonderful World Board Games from Taiwan and HonuGames and niji games from Japan. The booth also had limited time offers and was visited by many people.

Playte, whose collaboration with itten on Venice Connection attracted attention at the last Game Market, exhibited this time as part of a group of four companies
Gemblo Company, a first-time exhibitor at Game Market, is the publisher of popular Korean games such as GEMBLO and TocToc Woodman. They say that they exhibited to introduce major family games from Korea to Japanese people.

The booth of Gemblo Company featured many games also familiar to Japanese gamers
Korea Boardgames, which has the largest market share in Korea, exhibited for the third time. They sold games like Link It 4, which is a re-implementation of Cuatro by Jürgen P. Grunau, and a re-implementation of the Japanese game Last Penguin designed by Kenta Murayama. Each game has QR codes with links to the Japanese rules. The prototype of the puzzle game to make kimbap attracted attention.

The Korea Boardgames booth had a wide variety of games on display
The prototype of a real-time puzzle game. Roll the ingredients into the specified layers to make kimbap according to the order.
ORIGAME, led by Singaporean game designer Daryl Chow, known for his collaboration with Saashi & Saashi on Remember Our Trip and Come Sail Away!, exhibited as an individual booth for the first time. (He has exhibited jointly before.) He says he decided to exhibit to let more people know about his brand. This time, he brought three new games. Daryl Chow also hosted the Asian Board Games Festival 2024, which took place in Singapore the week after the Game Market.

Daryl Chow of ORIGAME. At the booth, you could also play the latest game Overparked, which is themed on parking lots.
Allplay, a first-time exhibitor, released twelve Japanese versions of internationally published games by Japanese game designers, including Sail, a re-implementation of the two-player trick-taking game HAMELN CAVE by YUTRIO, and Switchbacks, a re-implementation of Connect37 by Kawasaki Factory. Joe Wiggins, the company's COO, says that they sell many games, including Japanese games, with world-class artwork; have brought Japanese versions of such games; and plan to bring about ten new titles to the next Game Market.

Two titles sold out in just two hours at this Game Market.

Reiner Knizia's Through the Desert and its expansion set were available at the Allplay booth
Japanime Games, which last exhibited nine years ago in 2015, publishes Japanese games such as Tanto Cuore and Heart of Crown in the USA. This time, they brought a selection of Japanese-themed games made in the USA that they thought would be well received in Japan.

At the Japanime Games booth, Japanese-themed games such as Sushi Boat and Ramen! Ramen! were on display
On this day, Reiner Knizia was unable to come to Japan due to poor health, so the "Ask Reiner Knizia about Board Game Design" and "Knizia Autograph Session" events scheduled to take place on the special stage were canceled.

From 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., after the first day of the Game Market, the area in Hall 7 with the food court was used for the Game Market Night, where you could play games. This was a ticketed event costing 1500 yen, but over two hundred people attended and played the games they had just purchased.

People played the games they bought that day. Even at about 21:30 about one hundred people were still playing.
The next day, Sunday the 17th, the Niconico Live Broadcasting Game Stage took place where the Saturday-only exhibitor area used to be. Hosted by 茸/Take, popular game streamers such as とりっぴぃ/Torippii, フルコン/Fullcon, まお/Mao, and むつー/Mutuu played various games on stage for a game tournament with various games as prizes. There were many enthusiastic fans who went to this stage right after the opening, and the seats were always full.

Comedian Tetsuya Ikeda walked around the venue with his camera crew to introduce the booths, and alternated live broadcasts of those booths and the game tournament on stage.

DWANGO Co., Ltd., the company that operates Niconico Live, is a subsidiary of KADOKAWA CORPORATION. With Arclight joining the KADOKAWA group, there is a possibility that such projects might be carried out in the future to actively attract new audiences.

Several games were played on the stage, including Lift It! Party and Capital Horse
Tetsuya Ikeda walked around the venue with the camera crew and introduced the booths
チャック横丁 ("Zipper-Bag Game Shopping Street"), where only games without boxes can be sold, is a good place to find experimental and silly games, as the low booth fees for exhibitors here allow for a small number of copies of games
On the second day, there were many visitors with their children, and more people than the day before came to Hall 7, where there were special booths and food trucks.

Hall 7 at 1 p.m.
There were plenty of tables to eat and free space to play games, so many people came to take a break.

There were also lines for the food trucks in the afternoon
The special booth 本当に面白いユーロゲームの世界 ("The Really Fun World of Euro Games") with demo tables to play the Spiel des Jahres winners was full at all time. Many games by Reiner Knizia, who was scheduled to visit this Game Market, were also available to play. The TRPG booth next to it was so busy that all game reservations were filled by early afternoon.

In this special booth, you could also play the masterpieces of Reiner Knizia, who was scheduled to visit Japan
In the live action role-playing (LARP) area, you could try out training and mini-quests while wearing actual costumes and armor
In the afternoon of the second day, the "Symposium on Questions about Board Games 3" took place on a special stage with Kaya Miyano (designer of Trio), Kei Kajino (designer of SCOUT!) and Muneyuki Yokouchi (designer of Cat in the Box). Hosted by HAL99 (of The Game Gallery Channel), the world-renowned game designers shared interesting stories about receiving or being nominated for the awards, along with talks on their creative works.

Kaya Miyano said that the fact that Trio was published by Cocktail Games was a big factor in winning the 2024 As d'Or. The fact that Cocktail Games had missed out on the award until then, but were eager to win it, also worked well. He said that the size of the publisher and the timing of distribution in each country were also important factors in winning awards.

Three world-renowned Japanese game designers took the stage
Game Market venue on Sunday
The next Game Market will be Game Market 2025 Spring, on Saturday, May 17 and Sunday, May 18, 2025, at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture.