Tokyo Game Market 2024 Autumn: Report from Table Games in the World

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

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