Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Obligatory 2017 Origins Game Fair Post Part III: Top 5 Games Being Demoed But Not For Sale

Alright!  We’re finished with my top 10 game interests that are available to buy at this year’s Origins Game Fair so let’s move on.  This post is going to take a look at 5 games which aren’t yet for purchase but are listed as being there in demo form.  These games may be out at this year’s Gen Con or possibly Essen Spiel but there isn’t a guarantee at this point.  If you haven’t had the chance feel free to check out my previous two posts in the series before you take a look at this one.



Alright, now we can move on to the games that are being demoed but not sold.  Some of these are awesome looking and I can’t wait to try them out.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!




Helionox: Deluxe Edition is a deck-building, hand-management, card-game designed by Taran Lewis Kratz and released by Mr. B Games.  This game is being demoed at Origins this year as it is currently up on Kickstarter looking to fund a reprint of the original game and some deluxe things like a game box and board and a new expansion all included in the box.  I have had my eyes on this game for some time and knew that they were going to put out a deluxe version at some point.  I am looking forward to trying this one out as it has a cool theme, some interesting deck-building mechanisms and beautiful art.




Spirit Island is a co-operative, card-drafting and hand-management game designed by R. Eric Reuss and released by Greater Than Games imprint, Fabled Nexus.  This game has been higher up on my anticipation lists but has been delayed so long that it is slowly moving down my list.  I think once it is actually released I’ll get more excited about it but each month that passes without it be delivered makes me glad I didn’t back it on Kickstarter.  That being said, this game looks awesome and I can’t wait to try it!  It is a co-operative experience where the players take on the role of a local spirit of an island who is being “invaded” by humans who are looking to settle the land and create cities and towns and such.  There is an interesting card playing mechanism where some of the powers are quick and act right away and others are more powerful and thus take more time to cast.  I can’t wait to try this one out!




Unearth is a dice rolling, dice placement and set collection game designed by Jason Harner and Matthew Ransom and released by Brotherwise Games.  This game is the second to come out from this small publisher of the hit, Boss Monster.  I’m interested to see what they do with this one as it looks to be quite entertaining.  It doesn’t have much new in the way of mechanisms as it is a dice-placement game (which I really like to begin with) but it is different in the way of dice chosen.  This game uses d4’s, d6’s and d8’s instead of the usual d6’s.  I love this idea and hope it works!  Players will use the higher numbers to claim ruins and lower numbers to claim stones which they’ll use to build wonders.  The game looks light but entertaining and has some great looking artwork.




Lisboa is a tile placement, hand management, city building game designed by Vital Lacerda and released by Eagle-Gryphon Games.  This game has been on my radar for quite some time, ever since Vital announced that he was making it.  I’ve seen playthroughs and read the rulebook and I will say that this game looks amazing!  It combines hand management with some worker placement and tile placement into a strategic wonderland of decision!  Each player takes on the role of a noble who is trying to help rebuild the city of Lisbon after an earthquake, tsunami and multiple days of fires.  To rebuild and gain glory in Lisboa the players must gain influence with different high ranking officials in order to gain favors and be able to rebuild efficiently.  Since this is a Lacerda game it is going to be highly strategic and a ton of difficult decisions…and I can’t wait to try it out!




Whistle Stop is a tile-placement, pick-up-and-deliver, train game designed by Scott Caputo and released by Bézier Games, Inc.  This game has the players taking on the role of a small railroad company who is trying to build their routes to cross the entire nation.  The game has a tile-placement element where the players will place hexagonal tiles to build their routes across the country.  They are then able to pick up goods and either deliver them to small towns and gain shares or hold on and gain larger payouts when you reach the west coast.  This game looks to be right up our alley as the game includes tile-placement which we love and some pick-up-and-deliver elements into the economic mechanisms.  I am really looking forward to this game and can’t wait to try it out!

Well, there you go, the final post in my Origins Game Fair 2017 series.  I’ll be back pretty soon with our gameplays from May and soon after that we’ll be into Gen Con territory!  Thanks so much for taking the time to read and I hope you enjoyed!  Until next time, game on!

No comments:

Post a Comment