What Happened at UK Games Expo 2021?
Fuelled with pizza and diet cola, our team headed to the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre this weekend, to demonstrate The Detective Society to hordes of fun-loving board game fans.
It was the first time we publicly exhibited our games, as the pandemic put a stop to any similar events over the last year. It was such a joy to meet our detectives in person, as well as recruit many new ones to the society.
The UK Games Expo is a fantastic annual event – the largest of its type in the UK – specifically for board games, tabletop games, RPG’s and similar products. I have been many years before as an attendee, but this was our first trip as an exhibitor.
Exclusively for the expo, we created a 15 minute demo game for players to try. Of course, we couldn’t give a grand, dramatic story in that time limit, but we were able to give a flavour of the puzzle solving, logic, and the feeling of using real tools and evidence that a true detective would have access to. It was so nice for us to see people playing our games in person, something which we’re not used to, being predominantly an online company.
Away from The Detective Society and our games, we managed to squeeze some play time in for other games. I bought a copy of “Caverna”; a fantastic Euro-game where you have to manage a band of Dwarven warriors, collecting resources, building your settlement and going on expeditions. We played a couple of games, after the hard-work of managing our stall was completed.
Tristan, our Head of Narrative, said “It was nice to meet several of our customers who had played all of our games since the beginning, and find out the bits they enjoy most.”
Joe, Head of Game Design, said “Yes, it was really rewarding and we’ll definitely be returning next year.”
If you haven’t been before, I’d highly recommend a trip.
Written by Dan Wiseman
Co-Founder, The Detective Society
