Beijing DICE CON

Chinese board game convention "DICE CON" was held from August 24th to 26th.  I visited there, and I'll report the event.

DICE CON is a convention held by Chinese board game media "DICE".   It is the fourth time this year.

There was one trouble with this DICE CON.  DICE CON suddenly stopped selling tickets one week before the event.  People rumored that the government put pressure on it, but I do not know the truth.

I had already booked an airplane to Beijing, so I was troubled.  However, with the cooperation of Mr. Kariya of Arkwright, Mr. Akiguchi of COSAIC, and translator T. Mizutani, I got an admission ticket on 26th.

Due to sudden admission restrictions, visitors were limited to about 3000 people.  I heard that the number of visitors was larger on 25th when Reiner Knizia came.
And according to T.Mizutani, the number of booths was fewer than last year.

At the entrance there was an X-ray baggage check, I realized that this is the capital of the People's Republic of China.

As soon as I entered the hall, I came to Asmodee 's huge booth.
Asmodee website:  http://www.asmodee.com/

The next biggest booth after Asmodee was Taiwanese Swan Panasia.  And Moaideas Game Design was attracting attention.  Taiwanese board game companies seem to have a significant presence in China, as well as Hong Kong.
Swanpanasia website: http://www.swanpanasia.com/
Moaideas Game Design website: https://www.wix.moaideas.net/top

I played Moideas' new game "Symphony No.9（第九號交響曲）".

Symphony No.9 | BoardGameGeek
This is a game in which you become a patron of musicians such as Mozart and Beethoven and acquires their works.  Calculating the score of the work is somewhat complicated and requires experience, but you can enjoy the mood of the patron.

"Monkey Island（猴岛）" is an abstract game.

Players put banana tiles on the island and place monkey pawns on tiles to score.

Monkey pawns are cute!

"拼分夺秒(pin fen duo miao)" is a real-time game. (Sorry, I couldn't think up a good English title.)

Player's object is to save victims by arranging tiles around them.  The designer 水水(Shui Shui) is also known as a comic artist.

Boxed Lightning（盒中闪电） publishes many strategic games such as "The Deception of Antiques: 12 Chinese Zodiac Bronze Heads（古董局中局:十二兽首）", "Dunhuang（敦煌）", and more.  I think highly of this publisher.

As I mentioned in my article in March, "Murder Mystery Case（谋杀之谜）" is popular in China.  There were many new scenarios with beautiful artworks.  But it's difficult to find friends to play this game with me in Japan.

Chinese big company Hanfor published a board game "Hanfor Times（汉富时代）".

It is interesting that a big company like Hanfor have entered the board game world.

Although there was some trouble, this convention was exciting for me.  But indie games were relatively few.  Maybe Shanghai would be a better venue for this kind of event than Beijing.  I'm looking forward to going BoardGameMarket in Shanghai in December.