Friends who follow DICE CON may remember that this year we gathered some Japanese independent designers and set up an exhibition area for the guest country of board game. This year, we invited 21 Japanese designers to participate in DICE CON, and established a “board game guest country” with an exhibition area of more than 100 square meters, with nearly 30 games for players to enjoy.

Why Japan? Japan has always had a unique tabletop game culture, and many independent designers, with unconstrained imagination and creativity, are completely independent of the inherent board game design framework, creating boxes of rainbow versions of the gorgeous board games. When we contacted the designers for Japanese board game exhibition area, we also got a positive response from them. They are very happy to have a large exhibition to introduce their games.

Here is a comprehensive introduction of Japan exhibition in DICE CON.

Designer introduction: 6channel is a board game production club established in 2020. The illustrator ぽよよん♥よっく has done character design for “Akihabara Journey 2″, “Queen’s Blade” and other games, and also drew illustrations for “Battle Soul”.The game [探ぱん] painted by ぽよよん♥よっくwas sold all 1,000 boxes in gamemarket’s first exhibition in the spring of 2021

Designer introduction: ICHIROKU, who is engaged in graphic design, has loved playing games since he was a child. As a child, he often played games with friends , like the game of life, Othello and Shogi. When FC became popular in junior high school, he was addicted to it as everyone else, but by chance, he came into contact with TRPG (desktop role-playing game) and became obsessed with the fun and depth of traditional games. After that, ICHIROKU thought about board games until late at night every day. The dream at that time was to become a world-renowned game author who surpassed Othello and the game of life. Although he has grown up, but still can’t let go of his childhood dreams, he used this as an opportunity to start this project.

Game introduction: In the game, you will play the role of an explorer who dreams of making a fortune, come to a huge group of ruins, rely on “luck” and “feeling” to explore the maze to collect treasures. There are dangers and “pots” hidden in the ruins. And in the “pots”, there will be treasures or curses. The deeper you go, the dangers and pots will increase. Even if you get the pots and successfully escape the maze, your harvest may be robbed by other players. Collect more treasures with combined bonus points and earn points more efficiently!

Designer introduction: シノミリア is a game created by game designer Kengo Otsuka and various members such as comedians, singers, and models. Otsuka Kengo was evaluated by other board game writers as “a craftsman who correctly transformed various themes into board games.” “There are always some places in the game system that can see the evil of the author’s character.” This game is based on the theme of “board game”, and throws out all the evil in character.

Game introductio 

n: Sinomilia means “dialogue” in Greek. Even without words, you can have a “real dialogue” with the other party’s heart through cards and chips. The two parties choose a digital card in their hands to cover and place the chips interactively. The party whose number on the card is closer to the total number of chips will get the chips just placed on the field. When either party loses all the chips, or only two hands are left, the game ends. The party with more chips wins.

Designer’s introduction: “Antisocial association” should be regarded as the name of the type of association that people really don’t want to come into contact with. It’s no wonder that the word “antisocial” itself carries the impression of illegality, but this is a misunderstanding of the name “antisocial association”. In fact, the correct sentence of the “antisocial association” is “anti-social man”, which is a labor-oriented literary and artistic association whose main battlefield is the free market of literature.

Game introduction: The theme of this card game is [Overworked Death], which is also known as the word [KAROUSHI] in Europe and the United States. The boss must prevent death from overwork! Company slaves have to let themselves be overworked, and colleagues should be overworked to death! The card is also full of various black humorous labor content.

Designer introduction 

: Fantasy Game Group is a club founded by Otayu with friends in college. The reason for starting this club is to ignore the fact that you become an adult and be invaded by society, do something stupid with like-minded partners, and freely create satisfactory works. This is the fantasy game group.

Game introduction: Together with your companion [doll], explore the city turned into ruins, strengthen yourself, and march to the ground. The game has a cooperative [story] mode and a battle [Arena] mode. In addition to gameplay adjustments, the new version also adds stories or description texts to most cards, allowing players to better understand the “dark and decadent” world view of the Pendulum doll.

Designer introduction: Born in Hyogo Prefecture in 1984. Graduated from the Faculty of Comprehensive Humanities, Kyoto University. He was the first person in Japan to get a doctorate degree in Puzzle and designed more than 70 kinds of puzzle. From primary school to high school, he spent all day solving puzzles. It wasn’t until the summer vacation of senior three that he started taking the exam and was directly admitted by the faculty of Law of Kyoto University. During college, Higashita distributed leaflets containing self-made puzzles to 47 prefectures in Japan, and it became a topic to be called “the person whose leaflet is a puzzle “. TV broadcasts also have many programs that are being performed, and news and magazines also have his own serials.

Game introduction: Arithmetic game: a game that you can play as long as you can add and subtract 1~4. Use the card in your hand and the answer on the question card as a reminder to guess the card in the player’s hand on the left. The player who guesses all four cards first wins. Gagarin Space Flight: A puzzle game is based on Yuri Gagarin, the world’s first manned space flight, that connects rockets and planets of the same color. While having fun, improve cognitive ability and judgment, gradually exercise logical thinking ability.

Designer introduction: With the purpose of “making games that we can enjoy as light players”, in order to regain the lost youth, the club activities includes the production of board games.

Game introduction: Leave the last dance to me: each player draws four cards at the beginning of the game, and then takes turns to play a card in his hand. The two players whose last card is [Prince] or [Princess] Win, or the player whose last two cards are [Prince] and [Princess] wins. Use various cards to capture the [Princess] and [Prince] to win! The spring night is short, make up your mind girl! : This game is a fierce girl’s duel card game for the purpose of becoming a missy and getting an invitation of the dance party held by the handsome duke faster.

Designer introduction: The new board game party is based in Tokyo. At the beginning, it was a society where comedians and original comedians played German board games together. Now, the number of members working on game design has started to increase. Sato Yusuke’s masterpiece “Breaking London” was selected as the recommended list of Spiell des Jahres 2017. HIDEOUT is a new game that is simplified and launched by “Blast London” to make it easier to get started.

Game introduction: timebomb legacy: a cooperative version of the hidden identity game timebomb. Torture players with all kinds of new bombs. The full picture of the bombs will be revealed in the game little by little. Please experience the tension at first sight! In addition, the first time play is special for all players, so please old players must hide the game content.

HIDEOUT: SWAT VS terrorists, the latest work in the hidden identity game “Boom London” series. A more relaxed game that uses the mechanism of “Breaking London” and greatly adapts it, eliminating those difficult elements. Annihilate the terrorist stronghold [HIDEOUT]! As long as everyone works together, it’s easy! We are mutual trusting partners! Although it seems that a few people have never seen it.

Designer introduction: 《詠天記》mechanism design. Pursue a dense and intellectual game design. My favorite board games are “Brilliant Gems” and “Box of War”, which are both hardcore and casual, but they can also appreciate relaxing games. Game introduction: 《詠天記》is an aerial story based on the historical adaptation of the ancient Japanese queen Himiho. Each player plays the role of the Queen of the Witch of a small country, survives the civil strife that has lasted for decades, and finally unified Japan. In order to show the hegemony to the entire territory of the Japanese country, it is necessary to predict weather changes, guide rice planting, divination and sacrifice. Sometimes it is necessary to take risks to cross to China for transactions. Who is the shrine maiden who can engrave her name into history as [Himeihu]?

Designer introduction: Tetsuya Ogawa, born in Tokyo in 1966. A producer who grew up in the field of music and video production. Served as the director of various TV programs, and later learned Chinese, and served as the publicity and marketing of Sony PlayStation in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Now who is engaged in CG animation and games with China and Japan. It has always been centered on digital content ranging from music to video and games. In 2020, he planned and produced the board game “OXtA cube” from a certain idea, personally designed and commercialized it.

Game introduction: OXtA cube uses four colors and four types with a total of 16 square chess pieces, and you can play three kinds of abstract chess and one party game. Shibuya: The maximum of four players, who is faster to move the piled pieces to the opposite game. Shinjuku: A chess game in which chess pieces are piled up for battle.

Designer introduction: Kawaguchi Yoichiro, father of four children. Representative of chagachagagames in Fukui Prefecture. Chagachaga is the Fukui dialect, which means mess. Yoichiro Kawaguchi’s first game [かたろーぐ] was awarded as a good toy in Good Toy 2018. The second game [じっくりミレー] won two prizes in Good Toy 2020 and Steam Toy Contest 2021. More than 250 facilities across Japan, such as schools, public interest organizations, and art galleries, are used. The third game [ZENtile] achieved a 1322% success in crowdfunding. It is highly praised for making games for family parent-child communication.

Game introduction: ZENtile: Come from Eihei Temple in Fukui Prefecture, the birthplace of Zen meditation. ZENtile can be used in just five minutes. Adjust the mood of the day according to the time axis to calm you down. By externalizing your own mood, you can objectively analyze your own mood and thinking. Compared with pure introspection, the game can make it easier to understand your own feelings.

じっくりミレー: Place the frame on the painting and imagine the mood of the characters appearing in the famous paintings.グッド·トイ will receive awards in 2020, and スチームトイコンテスト will receive awards for popular works in 2021. Many schools and facilities across Japan have been introduced.

Designer introduction: Hi-Rai (game design) freelance engineer concurrently planning. While accepting orders from the game industry and business systems, making board games at the same time, turning inspirations into entities!ずじ (illustrator), mainly based on background and RPG style drawing in the late nineties. This year, I drew illustrations for the “Sound and Adventure Airship TRPG Gear Tower: Sounding Basic Rule Book”.

Game introduction: King of Box Court: This is a card-driven worker placement game. The initial cards are obtained by draft. Players act in each season to obtain resources, and they can also consume resources to build buildings. The first player to obtain the specified number of resources or complete the building wins.

Greedy Hunter: This is a cooperative dungeon fighting game with an insider. Players are randomly divided into [Hunter] and [Greeder], and cooperate to attack the monsters and traps in the dungeon, collect treasures and escape the dungeon. If it is completely wiped out in the dungeon, it will be GAME OVER. The greedy people lurking in the team should hinder the hunter without being exposed, and the hunter should pay attention to the greedy people in the team, and the camp with the most treasures wins!

Designer introduction: Tatsuro Iwamoto, freelance illustrator. Draw the main illustration of this work. 狛野明希, game design. He likes traveling who wants to go to Shanghai to play secret room games recently. 平井真貴, game design. The main job is to produce images, secret room games and puzzle games.

Game introduction: Players are divided into [Talking Cat] and [Suggesting Cat]. [Talking Cat] will use 3 cards to tell other cats what kind of meows had their whole life and how they died, and then asked the question of “what kind of meows I thought about next time?” Cat] Seek advice. Other cats will act as [Suggestions Cats], they will cooperate with the cards in their hands, follow the above topics and the plots described by [Talking Cats], and make suggestions.

Designer introduction: Kuji Eimi久慈絵美, making games for the [Whale Jade] club. In the autumn of gamemarket 2018, [CMYK!] was made for the first time. After that, [NEBURA BEAT] was produced. Although everything is done, it gets hot and cools quickly. This club had also done line emoji packs and embroidered T-shirts.

Game introduction: CMYK! : It is a real-time action game in which all the triangle tiles of various colors are spliced at the same time. The player, as a mosaic tiler, splices tiles according to customer needs. The same color marks written on each side of the triangle tiles can be spliced together to make hexagons, and get points when reaching the increasing number of question cards in the middle. After the game is over, the spliced group is also finished very beautifully.

Tick orders: This game is an instant cooperative game where as many orders as possible can be reached within five minutes. Players combine the materials to make products and reach the delivery note stated on the card. The game parts can be placed freely, and you can refresh your score with the game environment that suits you to achieve more than the specified number of orders.

Sky City Ares天空之城阿雷斯: For all “board game players who just want to throw dice”, present this brave racing game that can easily throw a lot of dice! The trap card exposed the conditions for the activation of the trap are written, and the player decides how many dices to throw and declares at the same time. Start throwing the dice from the person with the least number of declarations, as long as the trap conditions are not met, pass, and the number thrown becomes the score.

Designer introduction: the owner of Madoriya. Responsible for designing the rules of the game, and also responsible for component design, etc. It is actually the house of everything. I usually write tcg notes for the [Card Player] column of hobby Japan magazine, which is also [Meng える! Events] series of writing.

Game introduction: A murder mystery-style reasoning game that does not require a host and does not limit the number of people. Both games are based on campus themes. All the players are playing the characters. They have dialogues with other characters, observe the testimony and evidence recorded on the cards, and infer who is the “prisoner”.

Designer introduction: a board game designer who likes Lesbian style, also like girls with red hair and silver hair. He works as a software engineer in Tokyo while making board games.

Game introduction: Become an [Airlike Existence] that guides girls and form the CP of destiny for supporting girls! In the beginning, each player secretly decides which combination he pushes, with the goal of letting the girls he pushes form a CP, controlling them while playing the game. Through their actions, the two parties will become lovers or break up…if they gain control, these actions can be decided.

Designer introduction: Ryo Nakamura, representative of Radiuthree and game designer. In 2021, he used the new work “POTLATCH KLONE” as the debut work of his own game designer. The fLEAP of the next work is to take charge of the game design together with Nakamura. Takayuki Kato has been active as a board game designer since 2017. The masterpiece “FILLIT” won the Excellence Award at the gamemarket2019 competition. At present, the game design is mainly centered on abstract chess. In addition, we will introduce the world’s abstract chess activities on YouTube.

Game introduction: FILLIT : Place chips of your own color on the path of your chess pieces, and the player who puts all the chips first wins, which is an abstract chess that tests the player’s first reading and overall strategy. POTLATCH KLONE: Stack your chips on the grid where your chess pieces enter, and you can win as long as you have three pillars of your own color on the field at the beginning of your turn. Simple game rules. FLEAP: It can be said to be a subspecies of FILLIT, but the components and play experience are all updated!

Designer introduction: Nomura Schoff, born in 1962. From 1984 to the present, he has been a game designer, mainly producing board games and card games for the Japanese toy market. [パーティジョイ] series (Bandai), [ドンジャラ] series (Bandai), [大富豪ゲーム] (花山), etc. The number of games produced so far exceeds 100. The works in this exhibition are created for people who like games, and they are also widely acclaimed among children.

Game introduction: Air Alliance: You are the holder of an airline that spans the world. Let your company’s plane fly from airport to another airport to transport passengers in the world. [Economy Class] can provide more landing rights to the airport, [First Class] Although it will make the action difficult, it can bring higher scores. Find the most suitable cruising route from the passenger card that changes baggage claim at any time, and show your more efficient operation methods.

Warbit: Dicejar VS Psycholon: A strategy game dedicated to two-player battles with the universe as the stage. The accessories are a three-dimensional printed game board and 16 plastic spaceships that can change the shield value and need to be assembled by themselves. On which planet should the spaceship in hand unfold? Increase the shield value to strengthen defense, or build facilities? Although it is a dice game, it will also make players feel the flavor of abstract chess similar to shogi.

Designer introduction: Since its establishment in 2015, it has released new works every year and participates in Japanese gamemarket every year. His masterpiece “Banbakan” was reproduced by GrailGames. The latest work “You may be a prisoner” was reported by BGG News and received a lot of attention.

Game introduction: “Because I don’t know what’s going on, so arrest the most suspicious guy!” The detective in front of you yelled this sentence. You are the suspects in a certain murder case, but it does not matter whether the real culprit is among you, because the criminal police only judge who is the criminal based on whether it is suspicious. Making confession, collecting intelligence, and sometimes fabricating evidence, in short, you must get rid of your own suspicion!

Designer introduction: 樋口秀光、キャラデザ：イワタナオミ、グラデザ：セラチェン春山

Game introduction: “Win or lose in sixty seconds! Brain irritability, high speed chaos!” [Candy] introduced by many popular YouTube anchors in Japan. More than 100,000 videos have been played! Games designed based on playing cards are suitable for all ages. The colors and text brought by the brightly colored and cute characters can also be effective in preventing Alzheimer’s through the Stroop effect.

Designer introduction: Bao Tian Lin, freelance game designer and illustrator. Graduated from the Graduate School of Education, Tokyo Gakugei University. With [Youxueyi] as the house name, the development of a learning game that combines “play” and “learning” into one is underway. Mainly engaged in the work of gamification education, but also the production of TRPG, research and publication, and writing related papers. Exhibited works:

“Summon skate”, “Nayaman Wolf”, “UREG”

The above are some of the works of Japanese designers participating in this exhibition. Later, there will be several unique games that we will present to you in the form of exclusive interviews.

The host country of board games is our first attempt at this year’s exhibition. It is also under the epidemic situation. We hope that games from different countries and flavors can be brought to China for board game players to experience.

Under the circumstances that it is difficult for us to go to the Game Market, the 21 Japanese clubs and designers put their works on DICE CON to display, which is also a meaningful exchange between us and the Japanese original board game design community. I hope that by taking this opportunity, the tabletop game market in China and Japan can be completely opened. More advanced design experience will inspire us, and more products will bring us joy and make China’s tabletop game market more prosperous.